I love this game.
For some reason, I had always had it in my mind that Coda and Davey were the same person and that it was revealed in the game in a definitive way. But having replayed it, I realized that it was never as clear as I thought it was. So I decided to look into it.

I was actually surprised at how many people thought Coda was real. Many comments and reviews were angry, believing that the events told to us in the game were real and that Davey had actually taken someones games and published them in an attempt to get their attention.

Reading a lot of the discussions on here, people also seem to be confused as to what the game means or why it was made. In one comment, someone suggested a link to an old lecture/talk given by Davey in 2015, the same year this game game out.

This is the lecture in question:

Having watched it, I think it actually reveals who Coda is, or better, what Coda represents.

In the talk, Davey says a lot of things that are reminiscent of things said or talked about in the game. A specific line from the game, "you make me feel physically ill" is actually revealed to have been said by his friend and roommate, Robin, who is also speculated to be the "R" that the game is dedicated to. Some people took this dedication as saying that Robin is R so that means he is Coda. However, I think the lecture makes it clear who Coda actually is.

Coda is a personified "other half" to Davey's struggle with himself and his experiences. In the lecture, the way Davey talks about himself at times is very similar to the descriptions of Coda and his behaviour (ex: shutting himself out from the world). They're two halves of the same artist, and The Beginner's Guide is them being split and forced to have a conversation with one another.

One thinks they're helping by "improving" the games by making them playable and getting validation from others. While the other wants to shut themselves in and create because that's just what they're passionate about.

Davey in the game is the singular voice that tells Coda he needs validation from others, that Coda needs feedback and to respond to what people say because Davey says it's important. Coda is the artist, the one who wants to be able to create and experiment for the sake of it, not caring about what other people say. He pushes back against Davey because it complicates things. Coda can't truly create freely if Davey is a witness to his games.

Davey is the contract, and Coda is the creator. Just as he explains in the lecture.

Another comment I saw on here described Davey and Coda's relationship as "an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object" which feels almost spot on. Your inner artist is always fighting against the contract of social validation and pressure from others.

Now, whats up with the title?

It's a "Beginner's Guide" because as he mentions in the talk, he wants new game devs to understand why it is they make games and reflect on it so that they don't go though the same destructive cycle that he did. He want's players to understand for themselves that Coda's games never needed a player, they just needed to exist and that's enough. And hopefully it will be enough for themselves as well.

EDIT: Additonally, I think this article[medium.com] written by Davey can be linked to the reason why he made the Beginners Guide and some of the thoughts and themes expressed in it.

Additional Edit: It's been about a year since I made this 'guide' and I refined some of my thoughts and (hopefully) made it clearer to understand the connections!