Maquette makes it possible by twisting the world into itself recursively in an MC Escher-esque fashion.

Maquette is filled with stunning environments, eye-opening moments and a narrative that takes players through an adventure of love, loss, and acceptance. In the game, players navigate memories by exploring worlds-within-worlds filled with awe-inspiring architecture. Each chapter features unique interactive puzzles as the player journeys through an imaginative love story.

Head to the center of the world and you'll feel like a giant, towering over buildings and walls. But venture further out, and start to feel small as things get larger and larger - to the point where cracks in the ground become chasms.

Maquette was inspired by Hanford Lemoore’s surroundings, as much of the game’s inspiration was taken from San Francisco. From the architecture and environmental details, to the songs inspired by the Bay Area, to the specific city-sounds captured to create the game’s dream-like metropolitan atmosphere, the vibrant city of San Francisco has always been a key physical and visual aspect of Maquette.

The cast features Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards nominee Bryce Dallas Howard (“Jurassic World,” “The Help,” “As You Like It,” “The Village”) and Saturn Awards nominee Seth Gabel (“Fringe,” “Salem,” “Genius”, “Nip/Tuck”) as Kenzie and Michael, a fictional couple looking back on their relationship.

“While the fantastical puzzles and recursive reality of Maquette deliver the ‘a-ha’ moments, Bryce and Seth convey the emotional heartbeat of the story,” said creative director and Graceful Decay founder Hanford Lemoore. “The message behind Maquette is truly one of understanding - understanding in the physical world, in the mind, and in the heart. Bryce and Seth’s incredible performances will bring that message to life.”

“I’ve been wanting to get more involved in video games for years because games do something in storytelling that movies and literature don’t: they encourage people to play an active role in the story,” said Bryce Dallas Howard. “So when I was offered the chance to work with Annapurna on Maquette, I was very excited to dive into this immersive emotional experience. What I love about this game is that, even though our voices are guiding you through the narrative, you’re still the one that needs to figure out how to solve the puzzles in order to finish the story. And because the game is recursive, there are infinite possibilities as to how the pieces come together.”

“Maquette is interactive storytelling at its finest. The characters and situations are simple at the start, but the game evolves as the romantic relationship between its two main characters becomes more complex. The world of Maquette is a playable, interactive metaphor; a physical manifestation of the emotional underpinnings between two lovers, played out through a series of puzzles, representing the many challenges and triumphs a relationship can go through. It’s a cathartic experience!"

Imagine that for this experiment the entirety of Maquette’s game world is just a house and every player action happens inside that house. Now imagine there’s a small model of that house sitting on a coffee table in the living room. If you look inside the house you’ll see exactly what’s on the real house as a smaller version. But these are not two different houses — they are both instances of the same world living simultaneously, so the world is nested inside of itself.

Now, because of this, if you run to open the front door of the house and then return to the model, you’ll see the model’s front door will also be open. Conversely, if you use your finger to close the model’s door, you’ll hear the real house’s front door slam shut at the same time. 

It gets stranger. Objects too heavy for you to lift in the real house can be easily picked up and moved inside the small house model on the coffee table — and as you do, that object will move in the normal size house as well. 

That’s not all, if you were to open the front door of the normal sized house and walk outside, you’d find yourself standing on an impossibly huge coffee table, in an impossibly huge living room, of an impossibly huge house (and that impossibly huge front door would be open too). Maquette takes that idea beyond just a single house and into a series of fantastical locations.

Maquette’s puzzles come from the magical rules of the world that are different from our own, and how to use those special rules in not-so-obvious-at-first ways. So when the obvious solution to a puzzle won’t work, think about the recursive world and what makes it different from our own, and how those differences could enable you to reach your goal in a way that wouldn’t be possible in real life.

As the player unlocks the secrets of the world,  we come up with new situations building off of what the player learned, but adding twists and folds. 

Maquette has a lot to offer emotionally, from both the puzzles and the story.  First and foremost, the sense of wonder and awe from exploring an otherwise physically-impossible world.  The puzzles and recursive reality deliver plenty of “ah-ha” and “mind-blown” moments, while the narrative asks you to take a journey of love, loss, and acceptance. Together, it’s a message of understanding — in the physical world, in the mind, and in the heart.

In Maquette you will explore the scales of everyday problems in a modern-day love story. Where sometimes the smallest of issues can become insurmountable obstacles.

Maquette is coming to PS4, PS5 and PC (Steam) on March 2, 2021 for $19.99.