As players progress through the mind-bending puzzles of Maquette, they'll slowly learn more about the two primary protagonists of the game, Michael and Kenzie. Starting with their chance meeting at a coffee shop, their relationship continues to grow throughout the course of the story. While there are plenty of emotional moments in the scenes with Michael and Kenzie, the most touching part of the game actually has nothing to do with them. In order to activate this scene, players actually have to go out of their way as it is an optional scene that's not required to complete the game.
Aside from the story of Maquette, the main premise of the game revolves around solving puzzles in a recursive world. Players must navigate three different versions of the world, one small, one regular, and one large, while using its recursive nature to overcome many challenges. Players can pick up an object in the regular world and place it in the smaller world. When they turn around, it will be larger than it was before, perhaps creating a bridge to reach new areas. There are also several trophies to be earned within Maquette, some of which require players to go off the beaten path.
RELATED: Maquette Trophy Guide
One of the trophies in Maquette is called Crew Creatures, and players can earn it once they reach the second chapter in the game called The Gateways. During this chapter, players have to use crystals in order to open barriers blocking their path into various colored houses. In one of these colored houses' front yard, there's a tiny dog house. At the time, players can't do anything with this because they are too big, but later on, they are able to escape out into the larger version of the world and see things from a different perspective.
While in the larger version of the world, players can revisit this area with the dog house. Now that everything in the world except them has been scaled up, the player is actually small enough to fit inside the dog house. When the player enters the dog house, they are treated to an adorable surprise and the Crew Creatures trophy. Inside are a bunch of portraits of dogs, cats, and other animals, and reading the Crew Creatures trophy description provides a little more insight on what's going on here in this hidden portion of the game. The trophy descirption reads "Discovered Max, Sandy, Sputnik, Balto, Kitsume, Eggbert, Ms. Mayor, Momo, Rara, Dotsie, Pixel, Daisy, Hudini, Muzik, Luna, Prince, Quincy, Trouble, Jazz, Indie, Bill, Cleo, Khaini, & Pablo."
It isn't explicitly stated anywhere, but it's heavily implied that these are the names of the developer's pets. Unfortunately, the photos aren't labeled, so it's impossible to tell which animals have each name, but the whole thing is absolutely adorable. Alongside a bunch of cats and dogs, there's even a butterfly, a caterpillar, and other unusual animals. The moment is made complete by Maquette's excellent use of music.
Once players enter the dog house and get the Crew Creatures trophy, "Dolores Park" by Cannons and Clouds starts playing. Cannons and Clouds is a San Francisco based group like most of the artists on the soundtrack. The soaring melodies of this song about a place where San Franciscans often like to take their dogs, and there's even a dedicated dog play area in the park. Regardless of what players think of the love story within Maquette, most can agree that this scene paying homage to the developer's pets is about as touching as it gets.
Maquette is available now on PS5.