HALP

The tools available to the creator shape what kinds of creative work they're going to end up making. You might consider paying attention to the architecture in Coda's games to notice now they seem to stem from an engine that is very good at producing linear, boxy corridors.

Darling, let me tell you something. Whatever work you do, you have absolutely got to own it. Otherwise, it owns you.

A game of only posters and concept art showing what the game is intended to be.

Dear Davey, thank you for your interest in my games. I need to ask you not to speak to me anymore.

You close your eyes and wish for it really bad.

Shit. How do you solve it.

Do you understand that you won't be happy until you love me? This is for you.

They asked me how I felt about being imprisoned.

About halfway through the game, the perspective shifts... And you play as the teacher. And suddenly you discover that your teacher is just as bigotted and afraid as you are. Oh and also you can move around the classroom now.

PAINTING. WHAT DOES IT MEAN!!

When I am around you I feel physically ill.

So okay, he throws it out and starts over, this time he comes at the prison idea from a different direction.

A game of only motivational quotes, played one after the other while the player cannot move.

There's still no clear indication of what makes this puzzle so special that Coda is going to return to it over and over. But I promise I'll share with you my interpretation very shortly.

I love how you can see the bottom of the universe from this room.

And that's why I've taken this opportunity to gather all of his work together, is because I find his games powerful and interesting, and I'd like this collection to reach him to maybe encourage him to start creating again.

You start in a small room, until you realize you can just walk through the walls.

door how open

Don't listen to the other notes

There has to be something wrong with me! Can I apologize? What if I tell you I was wrong, will that work, will that fix it? I-I don't know! I don't think it will, but there's nothing else that I can do! Just tell me what you want!

At the end of this level we're going to see the puzzle again, and I'll tell you what I think this means. Each of these games represents an idea that was on Coda's mind at the time that he was making it. And this is a way of closing the door on a previous chapter of his life.

If I could have reached him during this time then maybe I could have asked him, but I couldn't, I still don't understand why this is here. I'll put the code on the ground here for you so that we can move on.

What does that mean?

A room that's warm, and nice, and filled with little ideas for games.

I just felt so strongly that if I could have connected with him, that if I could have somehow made his work my own, that I would finally be happy. I needed to see myself in someone else. I needed to be someone other than me. But he stopped, and left, and it felt like I failed.

We're running out of space. SOon, we will suffocate.

Well done, all of you

More. More more more. More love, more praise, more people telling me that I'm good, always more more more... It's like a disease. Solution, solution, solution.

I have seen every thing. I have traveled the world. I have never told anyone

The only way to past this challenge is to randomly guess the 6-digit code. Like the invisible maze, it's frustrating because it's the opposite of everything else that Coda has made, it doesn't encourage thought or engagement, it doesn't ask anything of me but a lot of my time.

Devil Tower Star

Heh, it's strange, but the thought of not being driven by external validation is unthinkable, like I actually cannot conceive of what that would be like!

I just saw a flying penguin, let me tell you it was the most majestic thing I have ever seen! I don't feel like living because nothing will ever be as majestic as that.

...what? That will free me? How does that work?

Does this puzzle have a solution??

he was, himself, the most horrible creature he could imagine

This is the very last version of the prison game that he created and the reason I think it works is that the prison is not actually in it.

Now these games mean a lot to me. I met Coda in early 2009 at a time when I was really struggling with some personal stuff, and his work pointed me in a very powerful direction, I found it to be a good reference point for the kinds of creative works that I wanted to make.

Okay...I feel afraid that nothing will ever change… Go on.

Okay...I feel afraid that nothing will ever change… Go on.

you can go in here, i think

I do that too I guess... But is that just how I'm going to be forever? I'd really like to change that.

Dear Davey, thank you for your interest in my games. I need to ask you not to speak to me anymore.

So thanks for joining me on this, if you have a particular interpretation that I haven't mentioned here or if you just need to get in touch, you can email me at daveywreden @ gmail .com.

i need someone to talk to

Hello!

Reasonable.

From up here it just looks like dots

And so we make one last descent, down to the final floor of the level.