Finding the Truth in The Beginner's Guide

what does it mean when a videogame causes us to feel self-doubt what's happening when a game forces us to look in a mirror and question what it is that motivates us I never thought a game less than two hours in length could cause me to face these difficult issues head-on and yet here I am this is the beginner's guide and if I had to describe the game in a few words I'd call it a narrative focused first-person adventure in reality the experience is almost entirely psychological and it communicates a very powerful message that will likely mean different things to different people my name is Nick MO and what you're about to see is a collection of gameplay public speeches and blog posts that when combined form a very interesting story one that you might have missed out on since the beginner's guide originally launched back in October of 2015 that's said if you've not played the beginner's guide and you have any intention to go ahead and add this video to your watch later playlist and go play the game first it's okay I'll be here with that out of the way let's get started if you've played the beginner's guide then you have a basic grasp of its story the loose premise is that you're playing a collection of unfinished indie games from a developer by the name of coda and we are experiencing these games with context thanks to a narrator a man by the name of Davy Whedon in this regard the game presents itself as a biographical piece the game's plot involves at least one real person implying that what you're playing is nonfiction and this is part of the reason why making this video has intimidated me I'm not just breaking down characters in a game I'm breaking down real people and speaking of real people I'd like you guys to meet a narrator Davy this is Davey Frieden he is the creator of the Stanley parable and of the beginner's guide his games are known for being experimental storytelling devices here he is giving a talk at Aalto University on how his personal experiences shaped his games during the talk Davey talks about his battles with depression and how hard it is to live up to the expectations of others the entire talk is over an hour long it's pretty interesting to hear his experiences but there's one key takeaway I want to make sure you gathered from this talk listen to what he has to say here I was literally weeks away from abandoning game development and just running a bar somewhere when the free version of Stanley parable hit the internet and suddenly overnight I had tens of thousands of eyes on me so wow what is that Google a person now you might look at these two details and say gosh that sounds great it sounds like everything is going to work out really awesome for you and in theory yes you're right but the problem is that validation is not a vaccine you don't just take it once and then the disease goes away you have to keep taking it like hunger it returns every single day you cannot see the desire to be praised at this point we can make an assumption unless Davey is on stage lying to a group of hopeful college students we can assume that what he's telling us is true that prior to the success of his first game the Stanley parable he felt hopeless but after the Stanley parable became a runaway success the spotlight and attention he received caused him to suffer from depression and anxiety this is a real person and these are his real life experiences now normally these sorts of things would be off limits in exploring a game but what we've been presented in the beginner's guide isn't a fictional story we were led to believe that these events actually occurred therefore Davey's speech is entirely fair game I want you to keep that in mind as we leave the real world and enter the one presented to us in the beginner's guide at the very beginning of the game we receive an introduction from Davey who uses his real name and gives us personal details to ensure that we are all under the impression that what we are hearing is a true story he quickly introduces us to an acquaintance of his by the name of coda coda like Davey is an indie game developer who's involved in until game design Devi informs us that what we're about to play are a series of Coda's unfinished games which Devi is compiled so that others could experience them right away it all seems incredibly real and we have no reason to assume that what we are hearing could be anything but the truth early on we are presented with some of Coda's first works a map for counter-strike some basic source engine puzzle games Devi even goes so far as to using the source engine as a major plot point indicating that the limitations of the source engine are partly what influenced the direction of Coda's games anyone with any sort of experience with game development or who follows the games industry closely will likely resonate with what Devi is telling us these details in the source engine are all 100% true and many real-world developers got their start by experimenting with source mods what we are hearing seems incredibly plausible not long after the game's introduction to be realized that Devi has taken it upon himself to modify some of kotas games in ways that make them easier to understand Devi explains to us that he did this so that others could experience the brilliance of Coda's work and that he did it to help Koda now things are beginning to become more convoluted if these are kotas games would kota approve of any of these changes and by adding changes has Devi change what these games were supposed to be at this point the story we have our doubts about Davies motives despite him telling us that he was looking out for kotas best interest we can't help but feel that Devi is motivated by more personal reasons after we've explored at least a half-dozen small experimental games the tone of these titles begin to shift the games become less optimistic and more fearful more doubtful as the intensity increases so does confusion the games are looking less like video games and more like direct cries for help the games are all about being trapped or facing destruction head on the gameplay becomes violent or at least metaphorically violent as you are forced to lie to yourself about your happiness at this point our own human logic begins to interfere with the story unfolding before us Devi claims to be kotas friend and he states that he cares about Kota very much yet he claims to have played these games that are so clearly direct cries for help he never intervenes in the real world and if Davey wouldn't intervene wouldn't someone else or his Davey truly the only person playing these games if this was any other video game we wouldn't need to ask ourselves these questions suspension of disbelief would normally carry us through parts of a fictional story that don't quite add up but this game is supposed to be nonfiction right the events of this game involve real people or so I was told I mean right now I could tweet at Davy Reid and I could look up who Koda is right okay now imagine that you show up at the party and you're tired or it's loud or got something else on your mind and there are 200 people who all want to have that conversation with you and yes you could turn around and just leave the party go back home where it's quiet except for one very big problem this is what you've always wanted you know it you know in your heart of hearts that you have always wanted this for everyone at the party to come to you you've been dreaming of this for years you don't have the energy so what this is what you've always wanted this is why you started making games in the first place isn't it isn't this why you've been making stuff so that you could be at the party and 200 people would all want to talk to you that sounds great you have to talk to all of them you have to talking to them is the only important thing it's the only thing that matters you've been telling yourself this for years talking to them is the only thing that mattered perhaps it was wrong to approach this game with any sort of assumptions at all you probably understand where we are at this point it never was a developer named coda that the story we've experienced in the beginner's guide was largely influenced by readings own experiences and the evidence is a bit hard to ignore take Coda's games for example so many of them share a common theme a sense of fear of being judged a hatred for performing in front of others a fear of the press for a person whose games were never advertised publicly and who's never been wildly successful they display an odd amount of attention towards the press in the gaming public on the other hand Davy himself has received an insane amount of media attention when his game the Stanley parable became a smash hit to most the story ends right here coda never existed and the story of the beginner's guide is just the story of readin's life after the Stanley parable and how he failed to succeed under the enormous pressure of having a successful game however I think there's more if the ending of the beginner's guide is anything to go by I believe the message of the beginner's guide is a positive one I believe that Davy created the concept of code to help tell a story a lot of people believe that Coda's name is no accident that Davy chose this name because of its meaning in music we're a coda is an end to a musical passage and there may be some truth in that to me coda represents readin's purely creative ambitions the side of him that wants to create games that are psychological experiments not triple-a a million unit selling blockbusters coda represents Davies unafraid passionate creativity in the story Davie casts coda as a real person a tragic figure so that we feel a sense of loss when he loses contact with coda we feel sorry for Davey yet at the same time we don't realize that the loss was all internal the only thing that was lost was Davey's sense of purpose the public facing Davey is his other half this is the side of him that's craving the praise and attention of others this is the person who wants to become an internet sensation for his games who wants to give talks and be looked up to by other developers and as I hinted at before it is this side of Davy that makes coda disappear it is the need to alter the games for a mass audience the need for more sales on Steam the need to do more interviews and more public events that causes the conflict on display in the beginners guide and this is the main point I hope you take away from all of this that at its core the beginner's guide is not about a narrator walking you through someone else's games that the beginner's guide is about a single person facing an internal struggle on what it is that drives their creativity and this conflict is the reason why Davy loses touch with coda thankfully the game does not end with Coda's disappearance the game's final chapter is a silent epilogue during which you have the time to reflect on everything you've heard the game comes to a dramatic finish when you walk into a light similar to one we've seen earlier in the game and the player rises into the stars revealing a dazzling infinite maze below this powerful imagery reminds players of the meaning behind one of Coda's first games that the world is bigger than we realize and that what we know to be true main fact only be a small piece of the actual truth in this powerful moment we realized that our journey everything Devi told us and everything we saw shouldn't be accepted as the entire truth for that everyone path here there is an infinite amount of other paths we could have taken or conclusions we could have reached after this uplifting sequence ends the game is over but before we end this one there's a final question that we need to ask ourselves why is the game that we just played titled The Beginner's Guide the title is wide open to interpretation but here's mine I believe the title is to be taken two ways the first is a literal interpretation of the experience you've just played you are stepping through the first gameplay experiences made by a novice game designer and you were being guided through them step-by-step showing how one game improves over another at the same time the title refers to the internal struggle of a young creative mind you're learning how an incredibly creative person can be crushed under the immense pressure of having an audience you've learned that you must respect your creative process and never allow external forces to shape your creations or you might lose what it is that drives you I'm relaying this for you to try to illustrate for you what is at risk if you're not being mindful about why you're making the things that you're making what do you stand to lose how bad could it really be this is what the beginner's guide means to me the game forced me to take a look at my own creative processes and ask myself what motivates me what pushes me forward is it my own creativity or is it a thirst for external validation ultimately we can't be sure that this self reflective message was the original intent when read and released this game and that's probably for the best the beginner's guide took me on a journey and I feel stronger as a creator because of it a big thank you to all of you for watching I really hope you enjoyed this video I will just say that this was one of the strangest videos I've ever produced but the game was just that good I really wanted to take it there if you're interested in how games work but you're looking for something a little lighter you should check out my video on why challenging games like cm feel so good and if you want to see my next video as soon as it launches be sure to subscribe new videos drop every other Thursday that's it for me I'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: NIKMOE

Views: 42,094

Rating: 4.9324818 out of 5

Keywords: The Beginner's Guide, Story, Explained, True, Meaning, Coda, Davey Wreden, The Truth, Humble Bundle, The Beginners Guide, Stanley Parable, Game Design, Game Theory, Creativity, Experimental Games, Narrative Games, Story Games

Id: ViZlI-hiRZw

Length: 14min 4sec (844 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 25 2016