Maquette

Maquette is a first-person puzzle-adventure game that focuses on presenting an ordinary love story in an extraordinary way. It was developed by the independent development team Graceful Decay and published by Annapurna Interactive, a company specializing in publishing extraordinary titles. This is the studio's debut project, which originated from the prototype of the first Game Developers Conference (GDC) in 2011, which was presented by Hanford Lemoore, the founder of Graceful Decay.

Plot

The theme of Maquette plot is the love of a young couple who met in a café. The game also tells a story about the hardships of everyday life divided into seven chapters and tries to illustrate that even the smallest problems can become huge ones. As the game progresses, the love of the couple evolves, and each chapter marks the next stage in their relationship.

The action of the game takes place in an unusual world, where every building, object or plant is both tiny and gigantic. The size of objects varies depending on the player's position - the closer to the centre of the location, the smaller they become, and the further away from that point, the more overwhelmed he or she becomes.

Mechanics

In Maquette we enter a magical world reminiscent of an architectural model, exploring locations with admirable buildings, discovering new pages of a love story and, above all, solving logical puzzles that stand in our way. The basis is the use of the environment, which changes under the influence of our position, and thus the appropriate handling of the size of objects that enable to overcome the obstacle. In each subsequent chapter we get access to unique puzzles that often require very creative thinking.

Technical aspects

Maquette graphic design is a bit like The Witness game, which we also admire from a first person perspective. What distinguishes the production are the charming and unique locations, maintained in a fairy-tale tone, with which the characteristic soundtrack also harmonizes. The creators were inspired by the illustrations of Maurits Cornelis Escher, a Dutch painter and graphic artist, in which he used geometric figures in an extremely creative way. The same style was attempted to be included in the creation of the world presented in Maquette, making it look very original in comparison with other productions.