
The Beginner's Guide is a narrative video game from Davey Wreden, the creator of The Stanley Parable. It lasts about an hour and a half and has no traditional mechanics, no goals or objectives. Instead, it tells the story of a person struggling to deal with something they do not understand.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
Prices
Each in the currency that store quoted — not converted: the gap between two rows is the publisher's pricing, not an exchange rate.
Every market we collect.
Discounts
Every price cut of more than 20% we have observed, in each market that quoted one, with this game's chart position on either side of it. These are episodes, not a model: a sale is one event, and one event cannot tell you what the next one will do.
Reviews, worldwide (the counter carries no country): 2.57/day in the week to Aug 10 → 15/day in the week after.
For scale, across Steam · Top Sellers · Brazil over the last 30 days: the 24 chart moves that followed a price cut of more than 20% went a median of 9 places towards #1, and the 2,404 moves with no price cut behind them went 2 away. One store, one chart, one country — it is the only place we have enough observations to say even that.
Prices outside the United States have been collected since 6 August 2026 and chart positions since 19 July 2026, so a cut older than that has no market to compare and a market that joined later has no history yet. Nothing here is converted between currencies.
About
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Updates
Build ids and update times come straight from Steam's PICS — the same source SteamDB reads. Patch history grows as we record new builds.
Engagement
Reviews
Themes across 1069 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
don't play it, for coda's sake.
You should experience this game. Do not listen to anyone who calls it metatextual drivel, or a meaningless walking simulator, their interpretation is entirely detached from the point of this work. I sincerely urge you to spend ~90 minutes, a small amount of your time, and experience it for yourself. If you are someone who struggles with their art, or needs to validate what validates them, you should experience this game. If you are someone who does not understand how to go on with what you make, you should experience this game. If you simply wish to understand a new perspective, you should experience this game. In terms of the contents, all I will say is: the 'Davey' presented in this game is detached from the real person, and is not fully indicative of his current thoughts/beliefs. It does, however, likely represent a large part of him, at least in the past. I will say, one last time, you should experience this game.
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Price dynamics, follower growth, revenue and sales trajectories with interactive tooltips
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Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English*, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian*languages with full audio support
Hours played at review time, across 1.1K reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Best short narrative story, you have to play this blind, trust me.
$10 wasted and an hour of my life gone
Como estudiante de psicología, mi parte favorita de este juego fue analizar la interpretación del narrador acerca de los juegos de Coda. Lastimosamente, no pude jugar este juego completamente a ciegas —lo que me hubiera encantado experimentar—. Sin embargo, esto no fue obstáculo para permitirme disfrutar de la riqueza de la historia. [b][ALERTA DE SPOILERS][/b] [hr][/hr] [spoiler] Para mí, estaba claro desde el principio —sin spoilers o no— que Coda probablemente estaba experimentando un bloqueo creativo normal y que sus juegos no tenían un propósito de entretenimiento, sino que servían más bien como un espacio íntimo para materializar sus ideas, similar a un diario personal. Conforme avanzaba la historia, pude notar los tintes de un síndrome del salvador manifestándose en Davey. Es decir, no creo que haya actuado con malicia en un inicio, pero definitivamente no dimensionaba lo invasiva que resultaba su actitud en la vida de su amigo: un tipo que solo disfrutaba hacer juegos "sin propósito". Si bien puedo comprender que, de alguna manera, se podía interpretar que Coda mostraba rasgos depresivos, no era suficiente como para asumir los hechos. Davey creó su propia versión de Coda basándose puramente en su impresión de sus juegos, modificándolos incluso —como con los faroles y los atajos—, para que así encajaran con sus ideales, y eso sí que terminó por perjudicar la salud mental de Coda. Mientras el narrador hablaba de cómo su amigo había cortado lazos con el mundo, yo solo podía pensar: "No, amigo, cortó lazos contigo". Y con justa razón. Felicito a Coda por haberle puesto un límite. Adicionalmente, quisiera agregar lo mucho que me gustó la parte del cuarto oscuro entre las puertas del puzzle de Coda en el que Davey finalmente se desborda emocionalmente. Como fanática del mundo de la actuación de voz, esa parte me pareció FENOMENAL. Davey evoca tanta emoción, reconociendo al fin que había estado proyectando su necesidad de ser reconocido y adulado en Coda, utilizando a su propio amigo con tal de sentirse satisfecho con su vida de alguna manera. Simplemente mi parte favorita. [/spoiler] [hr][/hr] A pesar de ser relativamente corto, este juego merece horas de análisis de comportamiento. Creo que realmente me llevé un buen aprendizaje, tanto para mi futura carrera profesional como para mi propio crecimiento. [b]10/10.[/b]
MASTERPIECE. Really enjoyed the plot and the meaning of the game. Really felt so understood while playing this omgggg
This game is so good that not only did it make me nearly cry, I immediately gifted it to my friends. The experience is completely irreplaceable. Do NOT spoil yourself, go in completely blind. It is worth it. Trust me. 12/10 game, instantly entered my top five games of all time.
中评。作品在概念上很值得被认真对待,可惜在体验上没有打动我,只觉得心累。一次次被送到新的场景,需要重新适应,需要阅读那些莫名其妙的对话,还要做出回应。这都在持续消耗精力,但这些投入几乎没有意义。无论怎么选,都不影响后续,只能/只需按着既定流程走完。 它高明的地方在于,它建立的不只是作品与玩家之间的关系,而是把创作者本人、作品、评判者和玩家一起拉进来,形成一种多方关系。这确实是一个很聪明的切口。只是对我来说,它始终有些形式大于内容。主题与形式有关联,不代表形式本身就是高明的。我理解它意图通过这种方式,去模拟那种对他人或作品的过度解读、自说自话和误读感。它显然不只是想“讲”这个主题,而是想让玩家亲身经历那种滞涩和徒劳。但我依然不认为这需要让玩家花两个小时的重复劳动来传达。
I do recommend it Just keep in mind that it has a little problem The Stanley Parable (at least the first one, I haven't played the second yet) also had. [spoiler] After you get the idea, it has nothing else to say, so it repeats the idea again and again using different words. Which in this game is not so bad because the way the same idea is retold is usually fun [/spoiler] Not a bad game. Just get it on sale.
Big fan of the stanley parable, glad I played this.
Players by region
Where this game's players are, estimated from review languages.
Players also reviewed
The games this title's players most often review too — audience affinity.
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