Annapurna Interactive's next game is a gorgeous first-person love story puzzle

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The recursive puzzle game Maquette was first revealed at GDC in 2011, where it made quite a splash: According to Gamasutra, the presentation of scale-based puzzles in a world-within-a-world "drew numerous outbursts of applause from the audience." After that, though, it kind of fell off the radar—until today's announcement that publisher Annapurna Interactive has picked it up and will release it "soon."

It's fair to say that Maquette has come a long way over the past decade. The basic gameplay design remains—solve puzzles by manipulating and changing the scale of objects "to find creative solutions in a world nested inside of itself recursively"—but the Gamasutra report described it as taking place in a "drab 3D dome world" and that's clearly no longer the case. (There's still a dome, but "drab" is about the last word I'd use to describe it.) The gorgeous puzzles are also now tied together with a narrative layer telling a seven-chapter tale of "love, loss, and acceptance."

It's not a whole lot to go on, but the fact that Maquette is coming from Annapurna Interactive is interesting in itself. Annapurna has a well-earned reputation for handling top-notch indie games, including What Remains of Edith Finch, Gorogoa, Donut County, Outer Wilds, Sayonara Wild Hearts, and more. That's a pretty remarkable run, especially for a publisher that was only founded three years ago, so if the Annapurna folks think Maquette is up to a similar standard, I'm interested.

More information about Maquette can be found at insidedecay.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.