Graceful Decay

Graceful Decay is an independent video game developer creating narrative-focused puzzle adventures for PC and home consoles. Founded by artist, designer and programmer Hanford Lemoore in 2016, the studio combines environmental storytelling with spatial puzzles, changes in scale and surreal architecture. Its games explore how manipulating a world’s physical rules can shape both player discovery and an unfolding story.

The studio’s origins lie in an experimental prototype Lemoore demonstrated at the Game Developers Conference Experimental Gameplay Workshop in 2011. That project explored recursive, nested spaces and eventually became the foundation for the studio’s first commercial release. Following discussions with Annapurna Interactive in 2016, Lemoore established Graceful Decay to develop the concept into a complete game.

Recursive worlds and narrative puzzles

Released in March 2021, Maquette places players inside interconnected worlds at different scales. Moving an object in a small tabletop diorama changes its counterpart in the surrounding life-sized and giant environments, turning familiar objects into tools for navigating otherwise impossible spaces. Its recursive architecture accompanies a story about a modern relationship, with performances by Bryce Dallas Howard and Seth Gabel.

Annapurna Interactive published the original release on PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, with the PlayStation 5 version debuting on PlayStation Plus. Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch versions followed in 2023, with console porting undertaken by external development partner 24 Bit Games.

Continuing development

The studio announced its second game, Uncanyon, on September 3, 2026. Directed by Lemoore, the puzzle-forward adventure follows Sonia through a forgotten realm caught between colliding dimensions. Players manipulate fragments of reality in real time to change the geography and overcome environmental traps.

As of November 2026, Uncanyon is scheduled for release in 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2, again with Annapurna Interactive as publisher. Graceful Decay develops its own intellectual properties through a distributed team, with a focus on game design, narrative and technical art.