In an interview, the head of indie studio Graceful Decay reveals how he went from designing for Disney theme parks to creating the stunning puzzler Maquette.

Similar to other recursive first-person puzzle games like Superliminal, Maquette features a somber story of a struggling couple (voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard and Seth Gabel), but perhaps the biggest draw of the game is Maquette's gorgeous world. Each section and corner of this mysterious plane is a model of the world around the player used to solve puzzles and progress through the sad tale.

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But perhaps the reason why this fantastical world of Maquette is reminiscent of emotional Pixar movies is because it was created by someone who used to work on Disney theme parks. In a recent interview with SFGATE, Hanford Lemoore detailed how he channeled the work of artists like M.C. Escher while keeping with his Bay Area roots for inspiration.

While doing contract work for Disney's theme parks including the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure at Epcot and a digital Pirates of the Caribbean scavenger hunt in the Magic Kingdom, Lemoore presented an early prototype of Maquette at the Game Developers Conference in 2011, receiving widely positive reviews from other developers and creators for his concept.

But all through his contract work with Disney, Lemoore was thinking about Maquette, taking inspiration from his everyday work and iconic architecture of San Francisco. For example, the web-like cables in one chapter that represent the cracks in Michael and Kenzie's relationship are a direct reference to the cables sprawled out around SF.

While Lemoore no longer lives in the Bay Area of California, he considers Maquette an ode to the city.

Maquette is out now for PC, PS4, and PS5.

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Source: SFGATE