Cuphead Developers Talk Gameplay Challenges, And What’s Next

In case you missed it when it (finally) released last year, Cuphead is a tour-de-force in hardcore action, as you take on a barrage of boss battles all set to the theme of 1930's animation and music. It's a terrific game, and the developers behind it, co-producer Chad Moldenhauer and artist/producer Maja Moldenhauer, decided to talk about it during this weekend's EGLX event.

According to an interview conducted by Destructoid, the team faced plenty of challenges, but the first thing to figure out was whether the art or the gameplay came first. "I'd say the gameplay was [set] from the get-go, but the art style came secondary," said Maja. "Lots of different sketch books and different aesthetics. But we sat down and said if we were going to be working on this as a passion project, let's do something we love. We love cartoons from that era, and after we saw it we couldn't unsee it."

"Before we landed on that, we were scared to replicate the '30s style just due to the sheer amount of work," Chad noted. "So we tried to replicate the early concept art from Final Fantasy VII, and Jared [Moldenhauer] had this idea where the game started in elementary school, and the game would progress as you went on. We had crayons and a hand turkey that eventually evolved into the Slime Bus if you can believe that. Once we landed on the '30s look, the rest was history."

They also discussed why it took so long for the game to come out. "We've been talking about making a game since 2010, but we didn't actually start prototyping a run-and-gun game until 2013, [on] weekends," Chad stated. At this point, it was "part time, three to four hours a week." Things didn't really kick off until the end of 2014. "Our team grew to about six," Chad explained. "After E3 2015, we decided to make the leap and go all in. We hired a bunch more people, and scaled the team up to 16. Mid-2015 is when development started."

And last but not least, the team also talked about what could be coming next. And while it didn't confirm specifics just yet, it was looking to expand upon its team. "It'll be a six-year development process if we keep it the same," Chad said. "We'll have to scale up but we like everyone having their hand in everything. Even for Jared and I to oversee the game it starts getting out of hand."

Maja jokingly added, "They're control freaks."

The full interview can be found here, and also talks about a few classic game influences for Cuphead, including the instant classic Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse.

Cuphead is available now for Xbox One and PC/Steam.

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