Cartoonish Cuphead fills up on new trailer, has hopes for Master System port

Cuphead, the first game from StudioMDHR, received a stylish new trailer and screens last week that puts its 1930's-inspired design on display. The "run and gun action game" was pushed back to 2015 thanks in part to the developer's decision to switch from the XNA framework to Unity. It also "totally scrapped the original world map in its rough state" and began re-envisioning a more minimal GUI to focus on Cuphead's classic cartoon feel.

When the game was announced in January, it was originally planned for PC. That's since changed, as the developer now expects to launch Cuphead on Xbox One as well as Steam. StudioMDHR also mentioned a "dream idea" in its latest press update: The developer hopes "we can at least be successful enough to port it to Sega Master System with cartridge, instructions and box" one day.

[Image: StudioMDHR]

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MAIN THING THAT YOU WANT TO READ
Cuphead will be launching on XboxOne and Steam (PC).
Microsoft has been very excited about Cuphead from early on and is the perfect fit for us for a console release – very excited to be working with them (and super-duper excited for a console version). Of course, Steam was a no-brainer from the very beginning – this was actually one of our original goals - and we are ecstatic about it. We are also open to other PC digital distribution but we haven't nailed everything down just yet due to a cup of work on our hands. We are working even more than before to finish this beast!

· E3 Trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jDZfREYppk

· A bunch of new images are here for your grabbing pleasure: http://www.studiomdhr.com/press/



CUPHEAD DESCRIPTION
Cuphead is a classic run and gun action game heavily focused on boss battles. Inspired by cartoons of the 1930s, the visuals and audio are painstakingly created with the same techniques of the era, i.e. traditional cel animation (hand drawn & hand inked!), watercolor backgrounds, and original jazz recordings. Play as Cuphead or Mugman (in single player or co-op) as you traverse strange worlds, acquire new weapons, learn powerful super moves, and discover hidden secrets. Cuphead is all action, all the time.

Key Features:
Fast and challenging action, retro stylings with modern depth
Huge, screen filling bosses
A wide variety of wacky weapons, supers, and secrets
Schmup levels sprinkled throughout to test your skill
Amazing hand drawn art in '30s style
Original jazz compositions, recorded live
Irreverent and wacky sense of humor inspired by 30s cartoons
Play as a guy with a cup for a head (or a mug)
Simple enough to pick up and play, tuned for speed running
Unique parry defense system


ABOUT US
Both founding members of Studio MDHR, Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, have spent a large portion of their life as gamers (basically raised by Sega and Nintendo and trying to live at the arcade). Thanks to the flourishing indie scene our chance has finally come to use this all this experience and create our very own classic – a dream we have talked about since we were about 8 years old.



ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, ONLY IF YOU FEEL LIKE READING!

WHERE WE ARE, VISUALLY
· Since Smo (a wicked animator from NYC) joined us earlier this year, we are proud to say that we now can have more frames of animation than we ever dreamed! It has really helped us to push the boundaries of what a normal 2D game looks like and lets us shoot for the stars with our boss designs. High-five to Smo.
· We are re-envisioning the GUI: the more we see a minimal GUI, the more the "cartoon theme" really shines AND it gives us the ability to not obscure edges of the screen to facilitate giant bosses that fill the screen.
· We are actively polishing the game in waves, certain things are still not up to par with what the final will be, for example: Cuphead/Mugman needs better turnaround animation (for all transitions), they need to have blinks, unique standing idle animations, and more effects (background/weapon/dust), etc.
· The weapon and supers visuals are under constant polish.
· All the backgrounds that we had (aside from the pirate) were redone from scratch to:
o increase the quality of the paintings
o incorporate parallax
o animation, other subtle details
o satisfy our perfectionist problems (We were going to originally emulate an early 1930s style of watercolor backgrounds, which usually consisted of very low to mid-grade detail, but we decided that we might as well shoot for mid-to late 30s backgrounds because we fell that it adds a lot to the overall visual)
· We totally scrapped the original world map in its rough state (visual/functionality/etc.). As (a.) the quality of art was not up to snuff, (b.) the map itself did not capture the world feel we wanted (c.) because we are crazy.
· Another thing we haven't shown too much of yet is Mugman - the second character. He will make his official debut in the coming months.


WHERE WE ARE IN GOOD OL' DEVELOPMENT
Switching the project from XNA framework to Unity delayed the project a bit more than we would have wanted. Unity is perfect and makes our life much easier now, but the fact is we needed to port Cuphead and take that time away from development. We are now back to 100% on pure game development, so we will have more updates on a regular basis (instead of disappearing from the internets). Can't wait to show off the more "platformer" style stages that we have!

A lot of refinement to our core systems is always happening. The gameplay is the holy grail and we treat it as the most important aspect about our game - things like balancing: the parry, weapons, supers, boss health. Etc..

Speaking of the parry system, we will show it off very soon, but we will say a few things about it in a bullet form below:
· The parry can only interact with a specific color of attacks (we're looking at you Radiant Silvergun)
· And it can only be performed during a jump or dash
· Successful parries build your super meter faster (and also get you out of tight spots)
· There is more depth that we won't get into just yet (successive parry timing, parry whiff, etc.)


RANDOM
· One thing that we wish we knew as the game progresses is:

o How many of our fans want to see 75% of the game before it's released (through trailers/screens, etc.)

o AND how many people would rather see 50% or less of the game. There is a lot of surprise lost when you show off too much before the game comes out. It's a tough choice because it's our first game, so holding back too much could actually be a bad thing...

· We want to mention one of our dream ideas: We are hoping that we can at least be successful enough to Port it to Sega Master System with cartridge, instructions, and box. If we can get the official Sega license, it would be that much better. We were Sega Master System kids growing up, and proud of it! J