The Beginner's Guide (Take 2) [ONLY] Finding the Lampost
0I doubt I'll have a significantly different take on TBG than I did last time, but I might as well right it up. It's been just under six years since I last played this, and in that time gap I've picked up doing game development more frequently as a hobby.
Because of that, and because I knew what was coming up, perhaps, Davey's narration more immediately felt frustrating to me. He was assigning motives and thoughts where it wasn't clear there were any. Like he said at the end, maybe he just liked making prison games. I had even forgotten that part was in the game, but it stuck with me.
I can explore themes that relate to how I've felt in the past without feeling that while I'm making games. I can explore how I might have felt, and sometimes I'm just doing something because I just want to. No real motives behind it.
(Game) Davey's actions made me angrier this time. Modifying someone's game so that it tells the story you want it to tell feels like more of a violation. Maybe I'm having fun with variations on a theme but have no investment in the actual theme.
Gaps in game motivation are fine; they're natural. People have lives and relationships and, oops, in talking about the game I've only talked about myself. Ironic.
It's incredibly brave to cast yourself as the villain of your game. While I'm still not convinced, the "Coda is also Davey" theory makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways. Modifying your own work so it'll be seen as fulfilling and meaningful to others is something it's tempting to do. Similarly, having arguments over whether your game should have less friction... well, it's not exactly an uncommon thought to have.
It seems impossible now to discuss The Beginner's Guide without turning it into an essay about myself, so I'll cut myself short.
The Beginner's Guide is a masterpiece.
Looking back at what I previously wrote about it, I was able to analyze it more impersonally. Maybe playing it twice within a year made the difference, maybe it was getting more into game development that made me have strong opinions.
The Beginner's Guide did inspire me to make a game. It was transparently inspired by the "idea" section of the game, and I never finished it. Instead, it evolved into something completely different. So thanks, Davey, for making The Beginner's Guide. It helped me create.
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