In its juxtaposition of abstract puzzles with domestic-scale storytelling, Maquette is more familiar, following the tradition of indie games that link high-concept puzzle-solving with romantic introspection. Even so, at times the puzzles are bewilderingly arcane, even discounting the fact that the player is learning the rules as they go. It is exhilaratingly novel game design, increasingly rare in a medium defined by iteration and genre.
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In the early chapters your time is mostly spent figuring out how to unlock doors and enter inaccessible places, by shunting pieces of furniture around and resizing keys between dioramas. The boy-meets-girl story plays out exclusively in audio snippets and pieces of text plastered on to the environment. This is a realm of fairytale castles, ornate bridges, gleaming keys and mystical orbs. Maquette’s visual world is expressionistic rather than realistic. It’s a simple interaction that leads to mystifying complexity – much in the same way a relationship develops from a first kiss. The game is, then, a series of nested dioramas: move an object in one dimension and it moves in the others, at scales both great and small. Step outside and you are able to physically clamber on to the staircase and hop into the neighbour’s garden. You might, for example, place a tiny model staircase beside a neighbour’s high fence on the model. Move an object on the model and, simultaneously, the full-size object moves, with great, clunking heft, outside your door. The simplest way to understand the highly experimental design that sits at Maquette’s core is to imagine, on your kitchen table, a scale replica of the street outside. It’s a straightforward premise for a game that is anything but. Romance soon follows and the game – the latest from the tasteful video game arm of the Hollywood studio Annapurna – charts the blossoming of a young relationship. Maquetteopens with a conversation between two strangers in a San Francisco coffee shop, a flirty interaction sparked over a sketchbook.
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