Cuphead was a game that received quite some attention at E3 2014. The game received an overall positive response mostly for the unique style previewed, so I talked to some of the developers over at Studio MDHR for an exclusive inside scoop!
-Amario Andre
I know you’re pretty busy with development on the game so thanks for having this interview with me!:
- Don’t you worry! We enjoy giving a piece of ourselves away with every interview.
What inspired you to start development on Cuphead?:
- We’ve been dying to make a game our whole lives and thanks to the ever growing indie scene our chance has finally arrived. As a teenager Chad had made a simple one town RPG with QBasic, as well as a avant garde game called “Grandma Pickings” (where you help grandma pick strawberries and on occasion she comments on your abilities). In 2002-2003 we developed a prototype of a run and gun, but at the time the climate wasn’t very receptive to the notion of indie games. The industry didn’t believe in the small guy, so even if you did get a meeting to pitch the project the likelihood of any interest was low. (We will eventually dig up some footage of our true first foray into game development)
- It definitely helped to see Jonathan Blow and Team meat achieve the unimaginable: actual proof that indie games were viable and not just smaller scale casual games and apps. That moment definitely lit a fire under our asses and got us back on board to start a new project. This modern indie scene inspired us to get back on the horse and complete our long running goal to create a videogame.
- As well, both of us were/are nerds, so a lot of our formative years were spent gaming our lives away. (Thank god!) Now we can utilize this accumulated wealth of knowledge to ensure we make a quality title. It’s a great asset to be able to understand the nuances needed to create amazing games vs. half-assed clones. It’s kind of like understanding the differences between Sonic and Bubsy. On paper they both seem similarly structured, but in minutes you can tell which team grasped level design and which team kept thinking “what could possibly go wrong”?
The style of Cuphead looks amazing and it seems to be an obvious nod to early animations could you tell us about the style of the game?:
- It’s out of admiration and awe for all the studios and animators of the past. With our love for the 30s and 40s aesthetic , we want Cuphead to pay tribute to that era. We try to keep the visuals as close as possible, meaning we want characters to feel as though they were made back then. Some traits have to remain nearly identical – like the common use of white gloves, the way eyes/pupils are drawn, the constant smiling (especially when it’s creepy), the anthropomorphism, etc. Obviously we want to keep our designs as original as we can but some overlap is inevitable. Both being fond of the surreal and wacky happenings in the older cartoons there will be a great amount of this incorporated in the animation of our bosses. We want gameplay to challenge the players’ hands and be a treat to their eyes at the same time.
While the animations look great, what is the gameplay mechanics like in CupHead?:
- It’s a delicate balance to perfect the transitions and not interfere with the gameplay. We approach everything like this: the game must feel perfect, and then we go back and fit in any extra animation transitions that work. But if the transition harms the gameplay, we remove it. If we were making a game like ‘Out of This World’, it would be much easier to have perfect animation on everything.
- We want the control to be kept simple and intuitive. Often the implication of too many actions mapped to every button overcomplicates what can be achieved with less. Take the parry move for example: instead of being a separate button it is triggered by pressing jump twice. This eliminates the need for more buttons and attaches main features on one button. In the parry’s case, it also feels unique to force the player first jump before a parry can be performed. Win/Win.
- Gameplay is:
o We’ve taken the standard run and gun control scheme and added our own twists (run, jump and shoot):
- Don’t lose weapons on death (Only carry two weapons into a fight)
- Unique super for each weapon designed to be more than just damaging. ex/ holds you in air, bullet eating, invincibility frames and so on.
- Infinite lives
- Dash (ground and air)
- Parry that is usable on all pink attacks. Every successful parry adds to the super meter.
- Lock for static aiming.
- And Power ups that are usable before each fight.
What was the overall reaction like when the game was revealed at E3 2014? During the Microsoft Conference there was the Indie montage segment and your game seemed to stand out from the rest at least for me any favorite responses?:
- Overall reaction was amazing and much more than we ever expected – it’s extremely overwhelming. Our contacts at Microsoft told us that every second person was asking “Where is Cuphead?” “We need to see more, please!”. That and the fact that we went from relatively unknown to half-known overnight it surreal and we don’t even know what to say!
- Some of our favorite responses were tweets from people we never would have expected to give a hoot about Cuphead: Olly Moss, Felicia Day, David Jaffe and Elijah Wood.
During the short teaser (During the 14: second mark) there seems to be a glimpse of the “Blue Mugman”. Is that possibly a hint towards a co-op feature?:
- Co-op is a for sure feature. Guaranteed local, but we are hoping we have time to make online co-op at launch too (pray for us!) Every true great game from this genre included two players and we loved playing co-op! Some patterns become easier and a bunch will be even harder – this give and take dynamic was always bliss to us when we were kids. Side note: Chad was always first player, the woes of being younger.
What is the development process like for you and your team?:
- Hell. We scream at each other all the time. No, that’s a lie. Being brothers makes communication and problem solving very easy. We like very similar games so we think like twins, one of us rattles out an idea and the other improves upon it. It goes back and forth a bit and soon after we’re both pleased with the results.
- Chad and I live in different places, so we pretty much have a phone meeting every day to hash things out, and then go to town on our game. For the development side of things we’ve become a well-oiled machine: we use Basecamp, GitHub and JIRA Agile.
- On top of that we grew up with the composer Kristofer Maddigan; he literally lived a few blocks down from us. We knew each other since we were 6. Kristofer has been studying and making music for his entire life and also spent too many hours gaming with us (Virtua Fighter 2 tournaments every lunch hour), so he is the perfect person for understanding what a soundtrack should be. Only problem is we can drift off topic easily and realize that we wasted an hour debating a movie we’ve just watched.
- Smo is a bonus we didn’t see coming. Because of his immense talents he always has a little more to add to any animation he is working on. We send him the basic idea and restrictions (general timing, min. and max and size, etc.) and talk out a few options. Then he sends us back a sample which causes us to produce a single tear. Upon finalizing it, it’s sent back to Chad for inking and finally sent to me to color. Smo has the perfect mix of talent, speed and creativity to make Cuphead even grander.
- Cosmin Chivulescu has been around since the beginning and is programming nonstop. Hopefully soon we can alleviate some of the mountain of tasks by hiring another programmer. Cosmin keeps us in line: we chat to fine tune certain ideas and make sure less time is wasted. Since he is the coding wizard he grounds us on occasion by explaining if we want idea “A”, within a certain timeline, “B” or “C” need to be cut. This is great because if left unchecked both of us could end up in over achievement limbo from scope creep!
How many levels are you guys shooting for?:
We were initially thinking 10-15…but if everything goes well, we should be at the 15+ mark for sure!
When can we expect Cuphead to come out and for what system(s)?:
Xbox One + Steam (PC). 2015…shooting for the first half, but don’t hold us to that as we want to make sure everything is perfect.
Alright thanks guys one last question and it’s a serious one, if you were stuck inside the universe of Cuphead what would you be?:
By childhood rules Chad would be Cuphead and I would be Mugman, but this time around I would move the screen faster so it forces him into a pit!
