
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 26 chart moves that followed a price cut of more than 20% went a median of 7 places towards #1, and the 2,402 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
Genres
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 1068 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
Excellent experience. This game is a deeply personal story, and while you may not replay it after the 90 minutes it takes to finish it, you'll be thinking about it for a long while after.
After reading the reviews and how influential this game was on people, I thought I'd give it a fair chance when it was on a sale. Fast forward about 70 minutes, I really have to say this was the most overhyped game of 2015, and is still overly-positively reviewed. ***SPOILERS AHEAD IN THIS REVIEW*** The reveal that the narrator shared Coda's games and edited them without his approval shows what a horrible friend the narrator was to Coda. You're selling this game for 2 bucks a pop, sobbing about losing your friend while showing his work to thousands of people more and profiting off of it. You haven't understood a thing, yet you're presenting everything like it was a deep philosophic experience. You loser, you learned nothing! What a psychopath. I hope no one has the displeasure of being your friend again, you'll use it as an opportunity to sell used cars. Refunded. Cooked. Hope you get Norwood 7 as soon as possible.
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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
This game made me think about the stuff I'm going through right now. It didn't give me any straightforward answers, but helped me to understand what is actually wrong with me
Haven't played it in a while but it has left a lasting impression on me. It's a heavy game but it tells an incredibly impactful story that made me reflect upon myself. It's a fairly short game but it is very much worth the price.
не думал, что напишу обзор на такую игру. очень долго не хотел в неё играть, боялся, что это какой-то черезмерный артхаус или около того. единственная игра, которая заставила меня плакать. это шедевр. я ничего не знал об этой игре до прохождения, и вам лучше тоже не знать. просто поиграйте.
[h1]One of the most emotionally-touching narrative games I have ever experienced.[/h1] I do not want to talk about the specifics or the themes this game touches - no matter how many hours I'd put into this review, I would not do it justice. What I can say is that this walk-em-up (a term I use instead of the derogatory "Walking simulator") is something every creative should have experienced, especially for those making video games. Play it. While the price may seem steep for 90 minute experience, if you can afford it, do get it full price. Otherwise, there is no shame in waiting for a discount.
Делают игры. Ставят дверь. Дверь не открывается. Absolute PEAK, спасибо
Как будто со мной поделились чем-то очень личным
This was not deep, and not particularly entertaining. It was clearly made by a Californian narcissist.
This game is like the Mr. Beast burning building video: If it's a true story, then it's unethical. And if it's fiction, then it completely loses the central premise. If it had just ended with him saying "Coda is just a character I made up", that would have worked better. Or he could have given the narrator a different name. This game is basically a video essay, but for people who like "reality" tv shows (but at least both of those are generally free). Should've included emotion booths, then at least a logical but emotional person such as myself could've felt something. Fittingly dedicated to Raphael. Oh wait, is this game just to prank him? In that's case, it's hilarious and I love it.
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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