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Cuphead E3 Trailer (XB1, PC)

Cuphead was a real "Wait, what the hell was THAT?" moment during the indie showcase during the conference,

Will be picking up as soon as it's available.
 
studioMDHR said:
This is actually my first attempt at traditional 2D animation (tons of studying the Animator's Survival Kit!). I (Chad) have experience animating with 3D and Flash, but I think the biggest help is that I do a lot of life drawing - with a love of short 1-3 minute gestures. I also continually research old cartoons to ensure our animation matches the technique/style of the wizards from the 1930s.

Smo (who recently joined us) has animated for Superjail, Metalocalypse and Conan O'Brien - and he has a massive love for old 30s cartoons. It's awesome that he has a lot of pencil/paper animating experience...it's a very hard thing to find nowadays!
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Congrats on the awesome reveal :) You guys already know how much I love this from the Indie Dev thread!

I know this wouldn't be the easiest thing to add, but have you considered emulating cel flare? Basically the physical rippling of cel sheets around the paint as it dried? I'm not sure how many people would notice, but it would certainly add to the tactile element that cel animation had over digital. In fact, adding a drop shadow under the actual cel would be a nice touch.

Anyway, looking great as usual! I hope you're enjoying working with MS, I personally loved it.
 
Great to have you on GAF studioMDHR.

LOVED the trailer, and can't wait to see more info.

Would you be able to let us know how it has been so far working with ID@Xbox? Did you approach them, or did they approach you to be on the platform?

Curious minds and all...

Keep up the amazing work!
 
sn00zer said:
Looks like they fixed the 'weight' issue I had with earlier trailers

2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v80_FwbAv_s
2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jDZfREYppk

Great improvements guys
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Thanks! All the micro-tweaks to the timing/movement seem to help tremendously. I'll probably do 2 or 3 more passes on the main characters' movement before I am happy - even though most people won't notice.

JaseC said:
"PC" just refers to the PC in general. I'd expect Windows/Mac/Linux, though perhaps not immediately at launch.
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Yes, yes and yes. This is correct!

Gruso said:
Do any of your characters smoke a pipe? I need to know for avatar reasons.
(I skimmed the website. Close, but that would be weird.)
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The lead characters (Cuphead & Mugman) won't smoke as they are the good guys :) - but there are bosses that smoke. No pipe just yet though!
 
If you guys are possibly doing a black and white filter, you might want to look into the process they went to make 'The Mist' in black and white....lot more to it than simply flicking a switch (although I assume you guys know this)
 
Noogy said:
Congrats on the awesome reveal :) You guys already know how much I love this from the Indie Dev thread!

I know this wouldn't be the easiest thing to add, but have you considered emulating cel flare? Basically the physical rippling of cel sheets around the paint as it dried? I'm not sure how many people would notice, but it would certainly add to the tactile element that cel animation had over digital. In fact, adding a drop shadow under the actual cel would be a nice touch.

Anyway, looking great as usual! I hope you're enjoying working with MS, I personally loved it.
Click to expand...

Noogy! Thanks, my man!
Didn't even know it was called cel flare! The ripple and random small shine effect may be be better used on the cut scenes - I'll look into it for sure, great idea. As for drop shadows, I've already started to add some (need to go back and add it on some older sprites too) - it's so subtle, but it will add the tiny variance our eyes crave! And yes, we definitely enjoy working with MS!

Persona7 said:
This looks incredible.

Any chance of it hitting GOG.com?
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I think this would be a guarantee. We just announced it as 'XboxOne and Steam(PC)' as to not have a long message [instead of: Steam! DRM-Free on our site! GOG!, etc.] :)

Banjo-Kazooie said:
Great to have you on GAF studioMDHR.

LOVED the trailer, and can't wait to see more info.

Would you be able to let us know how it has been so far working with ID@Xbox? Did you approach them, or did they approach you to be on the platform?

Curious minds and all...

Keep up the amazing work!
Click to expand...

Thanks and thanks again. We also can't wait to share more info (THE PARRY!)

ID@Xbox is a perfect program - we have nothing but praise for the guys we are working with. They initially approached us when the first teaser trailer went out and it's blossomed into what it is today. Even though we're independent they've been treating us just just like we presume they'd treat any 3rd party - which is how it should be!
 
Apologies if this has been asked before, but: Why oldies cartoons?

I mean this in the most positive tone possible! It's certainly a style we don't see too often like this and it's exciting that something like this is coming as soon as next year. I didn't even know about this game last year, but I loved the trailer you guys showed this year!

Something about the enemies' expressions (mostly the flower) is most disturbing and yet has a charm that comes from knowing it's an ode to an older style in entertainment. What made you guys want to roll with it to begin with?
 
This game looks awesome! Definitely having game overload with all these cool games coming out soon, especially on the indie side of things.
 
The group I watched the E3 conference with found this game to look intriguing at first glance. More games should strive to try new art styles.
 
studioMDHR said:
I think this would be a guarantee. We just announced it as 'XboxOne and Steam(PC)' as to not have a long message [instead of: Steam! DRM-Free on our site! GOG!, etc.] :)
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Now we are talking!

Glad that you guys took the chance of creating new (albeit vaguely similar) characters, rather than reusing what has already been done. More freedom in the future for sure.


And wow at the comparison with Epic Mickey. The graphic style and general ambience on this game is really on a different scale. Kudos for that.
 
studioMDHR said:
Thanks! All the micro-tweaks to the timing/movement seem to help tremendously. I'll probably do 2 or 3 more passes on the main characters' movement before I am happy - even though most people won't notice.
Click to expand...

Sry I was a dick in your previous threads about the animation stuff, your latest trailers fixed any issue I had with it
 
studioMDHR said:
I think this would be a guarantee. We just announced it as 'XboxOne and Steam(PC)' as to not have a long message [instead of: Steam! DRM-Free on our site! GOG!, etc.:)]
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Sold. I was already interested when I first saw the trailer, by far one of the most original and attractive games of E3 for me. I've always been in love with the creepy/glitchy atmosphere of those old cartoons, and between reading about the work you guys put into this game to make it more authentic and this confirmation of GOG support... Well, how can I resist?

So is the plot of this game about Mugman and Cuphead going to Hell and fighting Satan because that's what it looks like and that's fantastic.
 
studioMDHR said:
Thanks and thanks again. We also can't wait to share more info (THE PARRY!)

ID@Xbox is a perfect program - we have nothing but praise for the guys we are working with. They initially approached us when the first teaser trailer went out and it's blossomed into what it is today. Even though we're independent they've been treating us just just like we presume they'd treat any 3rd party - which is how it should be!
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Awesome stuff, and echos what we have been hearing from other developers. I'm glad they are treating you just like any other developer.

Thanks for the response :)
 
The game looks incredible, well done guys.

What specific time period have you been looking at for inspiration? Is it a case of creating something that could have feasibly existed in 1932, for instance, or are you taking influence from a broad stable of animation houses?
 
Ultimadrago said:
Apologies if this has been asked before, but: Why oldies cartoons?

I mean this in the most positive tone possible! It's certainly a style we don't see too often like this and it's exciting that something like this is coming as soon as next year. I didn't even know about this game last year, but I loved the trailer you guys showed this year!

Something about the enemies' expressions (mostly the flower) is most disturbing and yet has a charm that comes from knowing it's an ode to an older style in entertainment. What made you guys want to roll with it to begin with?
Click to expand...

It hasn't been asked much, so no worries :) I think there are three main influences that led to this decision.

1) First and foremost, both Jared and I love that specific era of cartoons. We grew up watching them and we continue to watch them (and find tons that we haven't seen). Everything about the era is awesome: almost all the animation was done on 1s (which makes it silky smooth), the animators and backgrounds artists were mind blowing, and each frame was always filled with as many ideas as they could fit without worrying about much of anything!

2) Playing and analyzing some Genesis games in our youth begged the question: Why haven't we seen any "true" tries at the 1930s style? Aladdin, Pocahontas and Pinocchio all have pretty slick animation, and even Mickey Mania made a nice attempt in the first level...but there wasn't a cool Bimbo or Betty Boop-style game. We always found that very odd.

3) Then, when SF3 first came out, our minds were blown as this game has a true pseudo-24fps gracefulness that I don't know if any other traditional 2D game has touched. And this put the idea in our head: 30s art and animation is possible! (even if it was low res, like SF3)

To make a long story short, we started Cuphead with a totally different style of art, as we had fears that I couldn't animate with the same quality and style...but once I made a few attempts and created some screen mock-ups, we knew it was the only way to go (and we'd been holding on to this idea for a visual style since at least 1997!)

sn00zer said:
Sry I was a dick in your previous threads about the animation stuff, your latest trailers fixed any issue I had with it
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You were far from a dick. You were just reporting what you were seeing - some of it was because we were missing polish, and some of it was because of the codec/compression used in the old video. And we love constructive criticism, it pushes us to become better. So I am high-fiving you!

Bucket Mouse said:
The game looks incredible, well done guys.

What specific time period have you been looking at for inspiration? Is it a case of creating something that could have feasibly existed in 1932, for instance, or are you taking influence from a broad stable of animation houses?
Click to expand...

The main core of visual influence is from 1930-1935, and we are taking it from all and any animation houses we find, with an emphasis on Fleischer studios (because they were always a bit crazier). We do dip into late 20s and 1936-39, but that is usually to find something small: explosion effects, title treatment, colour stylings, etc.

Capra said:
So is the plot of this game about Mugman and Cuphead going to Hell and fighting Satan because that's what it looks like and that's fantastic.
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Well, they will need to go to hell to fight the Devil as their last mission, but that's not going to be part of the first game :)
 
Any chance you could hook us up with some avatars of characters here, like your Cuphead one, for people to use? :)

Maybe even Cuphead and Mugman in various poses/actions would be rad
 
For some reason, I don't remember seeing this game in MS E3. And just now I saw the trailers, WOW!!! This is definitely day one for me.

Banjo-Kazooie said:
Any chance you could hook us up with some avatars of characters here, like your Cuphead one, for people to use? :)
Click to expand...

Oh yes, please! This game art is asking to be in avatars.
 
As someone who grew up loving animation and wanting to be an animator this game has me very excited. I love the look of it! Will be picking it up for sure.

My girlfriend said it looked creepy so job well done! LOL
 
Guys, you are really doing something special here, something that deserves as much visibility as possibile.
Clear highlight of the Microsoft show for me (and even beyond that!), do you think we can arrange an interview or something (apart from being a proud Gaffer i also work as editor at IGN Italy).
Thanks guys, keep up the astonishing work.
 
studioMDHR said:
No problem. Give me three or so days and I'll get some avatars made up for you guys and gals.
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Would I be right to assume the game will support Steam trading cards? I'd love to see what badges, card backgrounds and profile wallpapers you guys could cook up with the game's wonderful visual style.
 
Really looking forward to this game. Just hope the chromatic aberration effect doesn't distract me too much :p Seems to be a new trend in recent games, and elsewhere.
 
Coreda said:
Really looking forward to this game. Just hope the chromatic aberration effect doesn't distract me too much :p Seems to be a new trend in recent games, and elsewhere.
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Yeah, it is (this gen's bloom probably) and I dislike (really do) it, but judging by the trailer it really goes well with this game. Didn't find it eye burning this time around. We'll see.
 
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