Whisper

Whisper (name derived from the game's full name: Escape from Whisper) is the first chapter of The Beginner's Guide.

Level
The map in Whisper is a spaceship in state of alert (with an alarm ringing) due to the activation of a "whisper machine", which demands immediate evacuation. The player has a gun that shoots white sparkles, but there are no enemies to attack, and once the gun is out of ammo, it cannot be reloaded. The player must make their way to a certain point of the ship where the engine is located, passing through a small labyrinth near the end. After the player reaches the engine room, where a blue energy beam can be seen through a glass window, a female voice explains that the beam which is powering the whisper needs to consume a great amount of heat in order to disrupt. The voice then calls the player to sacrifice their body (which contains enough heat) for the lives of all other crew members of the ship. After the player touches the beam, they start floating upwards and the entirety of the ship can be seen.

Narration
This game is called Escape from Whisper, and it's one of the more generic games you'll see from Coda. (If the player does not shoot for an amount of time) You can click to fire the gun.

''It kind of looks like this game was abandoned mid development. For instance you have this gun which you'd think would indicate that there are supposed to be monsters or enemies somewhere, but then clearly there are no enemies anywhere. You can't even reload the gun when you run out of bullets. But ultimately we don't really know, maybe Coda thought that actually it was complete the way that it is, and I think we should talk about his games for what they are rather than for what they're not.''

(When reaching the hallway where a glass window can be gazed through) I love how you can see the bottom of the universe from this room.

''Apparently this space station has a labyrinth on it! I – heh, sure, I dunno. There's really no reason for it that I've ever been able to discern so in the interest of time I'm just going to skip you on past it. (If the player goes back into the labyrinth) Or if you'd really like to solve the labyrinth you're welcome to do that too.''

''Okay, this is the part that's interesting. The game has this narrative about the whisper machine and how it has to be turned off, and then you get to the engine room.''

(Female Voice-over) ''Hey, you there, in the engine room. You could save us all! That beam is powering the whisper machine. We could disrupt it by introducing a great enough heat signature. If you...your body could stop the beam. It's so much to ask, but for all of our lives, would you do it? Could you give yourself? (If the player refuses to enter the beam) This is not a branching point unfortunately, the only option is to step into the beam.''

''Lemme pause here for a second. What you just experienced, stepping into the beam and then dying, is probably what Coda had initially intended when he was developing this level. But when he first compiles and plays it, something goes wrong, there's a bug somewhere, and this is what happens instead.''

''The beam causes you to start floating. And this is an important moment for him. Because yes, this is technically a glitch, but Coda identifies something human about it, like how small it makes you feel in the face of this larger chaotic system, or this floating could be the afterlife, a peaceful place juxtaposed against all the hysteria you've just had to traverse. I don't even know, I have no idea what he was thinking, but what's clear is that after making this something lodges itself in his brain, he wants to do more of these really weird and experimental designs. So he stops work on this and moves onto a stream of tiny little games that go in all sorts of directions. Let's go ahead and take a look at the first game he made after leaving this one behind.''