Notes

Notes is the eighth chapter of The Beginner's Guide. Davey says it is the first of Coda's games that he played.

Level
This game begins warning the player that it is connected to the internet and the player can "leave notes" as they walk. These notes are messages revealed when the player walks through ten-pointed stars with ellipses on them, which were supposedly written by other players (unchecked notes are blue, while checked notes are white). The environment is apparently a structure with modern art and architecture located inside a cave (the outside is entirely black).

After the player goes on a spiral downward path surrounding an orange lava pool, they must solve the door puzzle again. After that, they reach a final corridor (which appears orange due to the lava's luminosity) and a room with a lamppost and several typewriters asking the player to speak.

The notes around the dark space are interesting, especially given the meaning Davey puts on it as an allegory when it first appears in Puzzle. The notes on the outside are angry and asking for help in progressing through the end while the ones inside the dark space are calm and enjoying the environment - one even mentions going back to the start to start over, apparently not worried with "solving" anything. There is only one note after the Puzzle, at the end of the final corridor, which asks how to leave notes (which in itself is contradictory, or at least, puzzling).

Notes (in alphabetical order)

 * a FREEEEEEEE t-shirt!
 * A game where you leave notes and suddenly everyone's a poet
 * almost at the end!
 * almost there...
 * art
 * balls
 * Become one with the spiraling nonsense
 * BORRRRRRRING
 * brrrrfstno]]"[][]
 * buttassbutt
 * cabbage shapes our nation
 * Two different notes say this.
 * Can u guys hear me?
 * Cool cavern bro
 * define fun
 * Developer, answers please?
 * Devil Tower Star
 * Two different notes say this.


 * Do not be afraid. Do care.
 * Do you feel like a hero yet?
 * Likely a reference to the 2012 game Spec Ops: The Line
 * Do you hear the chimes? They keep you going, don't they?
 * Does this puzzle have a solution??
 * Don't listen to that guy!
 * Don't listen to the other notes
 * door how open
 * DOWNWARD. KEEP DIGGING.
 * ehhhhhhhhhhh don't bother
 * escape...escape...need an escape
 * This might be a reference to Escape.
 * Ethical
 * Everyone read this!!
 * From up here it just looks like dots
 * This might be a reference to the Three dots.
 * Guys, it's not so bad in here
 * HALP
 * Two different notes say this.
 * He cut it up, and spread it between worlds.
 * he was, himself, the most horrible creature he could imagine
 * Hello!
 * Help, I am trying to speak
 * hey don't talk about me that way
 * This might be a reference to Davey, claiming Coda to have depression.
 * Hey I can type here!
 * Hey guys hows it going just hangin
 * hey guys, just lookin for someone to talk with
 * heyyyyyyyyyyyy
 * His terrible secret, he kept it well
 * How do you beat this game?
 * How do you leave notes?
 * how is there wood and grass and concrete here wtf
 * I am compelled
 * I beat the game!!
 * I can assure you guaranteed that there is an acorn somewhere, in this place, and the sailors are looking for it.
 * There isn't any acorn in this level.
 * I failed to write anything here
 * I have seen every thing. I have traveled the world. I have never told anyone
 * I help people because of the interal good feeling I get
 * This might be a reference to Davey.
 * 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. I never want to see again if nothing will ever be that beautiful again. I am crying now and plan on ripping my eyes out. I must go now to do that.
 * I'M KING OF THE WORLD!!
 * I'm not safe
 * i need someone to talk to
 * i need to go to the frickin bathroom
 * I want to tell you a secret. Once UPON a time i did...
 * I'd rather be doing literally anything other than playing this
 * I'm heading back to the start, later guys
 * I refuse to believe
 * I SAW A PERSON WALKING DOWN THERE! now it won't come back :'(
 * I think I'm this is not going anywhere
 * I think it's about how things look messy from up close and perfect from far away
 * I wish there were notes in the real world
 * I would like very much to be desired
 * In a world full of notes. One man will read all of them. This Summer. You will believe blue speech bubbles can talk.
 * It does not matter if you ever get over there
 * It's about how this game is pretentious and you all suck
 * It's not very crowded here
 * Makes game. Includes door. Cannot open door. Thanks.
 * This might be a reference to the door in Tower.
 * Maybe i'll feel real some day
 * More room?
 * NEW ROOM!
 * next time I will do better
 * NNEED OTHER SIDE! DOOR WHY U SO
 * nice room. Not.
 * no point to this
 * No solution
 * omg i have been here for literally an hour wtf do I do
 * This might be a reference to the prison in Down.
 * OPEN SESAME
 * PAINTING. WHAT DOES IT MEAN!!
 * Reasonable.
 * recognize me please
 * Scared of writing something. Don't want to feel judged.
 * Two different notes say this.
 * Shit. How do you solve it.
 * Some day I will meet the person who made this
 * This might be a reference to Davey's dialogue from Notes, where he mentions wanting to meet Coda.
 * Spoilers: it doesn't mean anything
 * This might be a reference to Coda's message from Tower.
 * stop faking it
 * Stop pretending you are other people
 * Likely referring to the fact that all these notes were actually written by Coda.
 * STOP. TURN BACK. PROCEEDING FURTHER WILL ONLY RESULT IN MISERY.
 * Take my hand, let's jump together
 * The guy over there wrote much wrong
 * There are too many messages in this area.
 * There is no second switch
 * there must be a reason for it, though
 * There's nothing here. Go back.
 * this doesn't make sense, the second door won't open!
 * this is a note?
 * This is where I get off
 * This might be a reference to a line from Half-Life, said by the G-Man.
 * This game is no nice.I would likeit when i could
 * This place makes me sad.
 * today I learned yuou cannot fall off
 * uhhhh, no answer I think?
 * very good game!
 * WE WOLL ALL DIE SOME DAY
 * Welcome: CONGRATULATIONS. I don't really know where to go with this.
 * We're running out of space. SOon, we will suffocate.
 * Possibly a reference to the end of the Tower game.
 * Well done, all of you
 * Well, I'm here now
 * Yeah we're ALL here now
 * What is that painting?
 * what the shit is this cavern
 * Woah, holy shit
 * who ARE all of you?
 * Whoever made this has issues
 * This might be a reference to Davey's narration from Mobius and Island.
 * why
 * you can go in here, i think
 * You close your eyes and wish for it really bad.

Narration
So first off I'm sure you can deduce this, but this game is not connected to the internet, all of the notes you're going to see have been written BY Coda. This was actually the first game of his that I ever played, this was shortly after I met him at a weekend game jam in Sacramento where I grew up. I saw him working on this very level, and it was just so different from anything that anyone else was doing so right away I was like, I have to be friends with this person. In retrospect I think I was probably a bit too pushy trying to get his attention. I was overenthusiastic. But he was very gracious about it and very patient with me. And I cooled off eventually.

Feel free to skip over any of these notes if they're not doing anything for you, nothing extra will happen if you read all of them. Either way, to me they convey a sense of loneliness, I see this person who's filled with thoughts and feelings and beliefs, and has no way to express them except as scattered and unheard voices in a game that wasn't meant to be played.

But it's ironic, isn't it, that in playing this game and seeing how alone Coda often felt, that we get to know him better, and actually kind of connect with him. And I have to be honest with you, this idea is really seductive to me! That I could just play someone's game and see the voices in their head and get to know them better and have to do less of the messy in-person socializing. I could just get to know you through your work. I think this is why I always liked Coda's games so much, is because it felt like they let me have that connection. I felt as though he was inviting me personally into his world. And then I feel less lonely too.

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

In each of his games, after exploring a theme that he might find difficult, Coda can place this puzzle that he knows has a reliable solution, he understands exactly how it works, and so it gives him a simple mechanism for moving on.

And because there's this dark area between the doors, a space between spaces, before you move on you get to pause just for a moment a few seconds to reflect on and let go of the events that lead you here. To step back and connect the pieces together, to grasp at that elusive bigger picture.

And then you face the next thing.

(See dialogue section)

Dialogue (From In-Game Files)
Are you there? Please, say something [sic] It can be anything, I just need you to say something!

Talk to me! Please! Why are you having so much difficulty talking?

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Speak!

Trivia

 * The unreachable notes actually contain no messages and this can be verified with no-clip. The note "It does not matter if you ever get over there" is likely a reference to this fact.
 * The note "Do you feel like a hero yet?" is likely a reference to the 2012 game Spec Ops: The Line. However, this only makes sense metatextually, since this note was supposedly written in 2009.
 * Another possible interpretation is that this note was written by Davey.
 * The text of some of the notes are the only instances in Coda's games (not Davey's narration) that use he/him pronouns and male honorifics.