Indie developers seem to be lining up to talk about how amazing PlayStation’s indie team is, but we never hear anything about Microsoft’s indie team, Xbox@ID. While talking about Cuphead’s development with one half of Studio MDHR, Jared Moldenhauer, all he had were great things to say about working with the Microsoft team. The other half of Studio MDHR is Jared’s brother, Chad Moldenhauer, and they created Cuphead’s concept with a love for what they grew up with, classic cartoons.
In the early stages of character design, Jared said that they went through countless different characters looking for one that hadn’t already been done. While animals were out of the question because “they looked too much like other cartoons,” they focused on inanimate objects. Using a cup was something that just kept coming up in concept and Jared finally said, “There’s something about that f**king cup,” which he admits looked like a diaper head at first. But after a few re-designs, we have Cuphead.
After what seemed to be a never ending line to play Cuphead shortened, I joined in on someone’s game as a second player. There’s something you need to know right away: Cuphead is extremely difficult. You will die, A LOT. Carrots, bullets, lasers, anything you can think of are being thrown at you while you just want to get lost in the beautiful art work. Cuphead was made to look like a cartoon from the 1930’s and it accomplishes that immensely. Onlookers were watching the insane battles taking place on screen and didn’t get bored because the game provides the feeling that you are truly watching a classic cartoon and the feeling that it gives you can’t really be described.
We asked Jared if there is a chance that Cuphead would be coming to PlayStation. He replied, “Not a chance.” The team at Microsoft has been way too good to them and this game will stay an Xbox One exclusive. We then asked, “But Cuphead 2 is going everywhere, right?” Jared smiled and said, “Oh, Definitely.”
Cuphead is also coming to Steam, so all hope is not lost for people who don’t own an Xbox One but want to experience this challenging and lovely game.
