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CUPHEAD: 1930s video game

SpacePirate Ridley said:
Maybe you are confussing it with our game, Fleish & Cherry in Crazy Hotel, that is similar thematically (1930's cartoons), although completly in black & white, and an adventure game instead of a brawler.
screenhdnuevacuswj.png


Although this last month I havent been in the making indie games thread, so maybe they appeared on there and they are also gaffers.

Their game looks awesome, hope to see more soon.
Click to expand...

Adventure game you say? Im much more interested in your game!

But yes, this does look really cool. I love that era of cartoons.
 
Oh wow, reminds me heavily of Popeye too. Hope the gameplay and audio is at the same level as the art.
 
Making a game with this art style has long been a dream of mine, and this absolutely nails the style and animation. Game portion seems promising enough as a proof of concept. Hopefully that music isn't final :p
 
Metal-Geo said:
Very interesting and beautiful. Though I wonder if the VHS / scanline effect was the right decision, instead of film grain and hairs.

Would love to see some more gameplay footage!
Click to expand...

Hey hey, Chad of StudioMDHR here. We have our reasons for the effects. Let me explain:

1) We do have film grain/dust/scratches and hair f/x. Video compression has destroyed a lot of it (in-game is looks a lot better). We are still playing with the contrast and opacity of these effects, so everyone should be happy with the final result.

2 a)The chromatic aberration is put there to emulate bad film transfer effects (and not just VHS). It's a choice that, we think, really makes the visuals stand out and nicely matches part of the 1930s cartoon atmosphere we grew up watching.
b) This aberration also gives a nod to the color bleeding that CRT's give off (phosphor glow?), and since we are merging 30s cartoons & video games, we feel this effect also gives a nod to playing video games(arcades too) in the golden era.

3) Lastly the scanlines - this is again tied to playing video games on CRT's. The scanlines added such fine details to pixel art and we find it does some of the same things and more to Cuphead. Again, it's hard to perfectly see all the effects on the video and we hope that our end result will make everybody shake hands.
 
Readingaid said:
I love the concept, have to say though the music has left me unenthused. I completely get the angle as it is what I do for a living, but I just hope before release it has a little more focus but major props for going with that style.
Click to expand...

We are not 100% on the music yet. It will definitley have an old-timey feel (we want to have all of it recorded live), but the style of composition and theme is going through iterations until it is perfect. :)
 
Looks excellent and scratches my itch for an old school Mickey Mouse game. The gameplay still looks mad early and I'm not sold on it yet, but damn does it have my attention.
 
SpacePirate Ridley said:
Maybe you are confussing it with our game, Fleish & Cherry in Crazy Hotel, that is similar thematically (1930's cartoons), although completly in black & white, and an adventure game instead of a brawler.
screenhdnuevacuswj.png


Although this last month I havent been in the making indie games thread, so maybe they appeared on there and they are also gaffers.

Their game looks awesome, hope to see more soon.
Click to expand...

Wow!!! Fleish & Cherry in Crazy Hotel looks amazing, had to give it the Greenlight on Steam.

Glad theres a linux version as I will definitely want to play this on my Steam Machine.

Best of Luck to you!!!
 
Holy shit! I love modern video games! This kind of thing was never possible before. It's like there are no more restrictions on developers' imaginations. My mind is blown.
 
This looks beautiful! Love the shitty VHS look as well, reminds me of those "6 classic cartoons" bargain bin videotapes that I used to watch.
 
Holy hell! Ever since we moved away from pixel graphics I've been wondering why no one has made a game with this type of graphics!
 
I'm a bit confused by its genre and scope, but it looks amazing. The recently released Teslagrad gave me a slight early Disney cartoon vibe, but this clearly goes full Disney. The Ikaruga and shmup inspirations have me curious too.

Thanks for the post.
 
Mr.Monitor said:
Same thoughts. I wonder why they took that route. Also, I hope the gameplay is a little more complex than the first video lets on. Could get boring quickly. I wonder how many bosses they're shooting for, too. With animations like that, it makes me worry that they'll have to skimp a little on content, which might not be good for a boss rush game.
Click to expand...

Trust me when I say that our focus on gameplay is more important than the visuals/audio. We don't want to make a game without putting gameplay on the highest pedestal. We are trying to add as much variance and content as we can all while keeping it under a run n gun themed roof. We won't cut corners! I promise! Things will also make more sense as we release additonal details about the game.
 
The reason this looks so appealing is because this style was what a lot of 8-bit video game art tried to approximate. Just look at early Mario and Donkey Kong character designs. It's like that, but brought to life.
 
Also, many thanks to everyone for all the feedback - it definitely makes us want to work even more than we are now! (I wish there was 48 hours in a day)
 
I love the way this looks, and the references to Gunstar Heroes, Contra Hard Corps, Mega Man X, the glorious Hard Corps Uprising and the Genesis Adventures of Batman and Robin of all the damn things...its like some game I never knew I wanted til I saw it.

Definitely will keep an eye on it, although the music probably isn't as period-specific as the creators believe.
 
studioMDHR said:
Also, many thanks to everyone for all the feedback - it definitely makes us want to work even more than we are now! (I wish there was 48 hours in a day)
Click to expand...

well, thanks back for remembering me what games can archive with the right balance of vision, skill and passion. good luck!

and as a lover of old school disney animation coupled with medieval themes
like "The Sword in the Stone" i demand some elements of that content wise!
(...ok, it`s more 60s animation...) ;)
 
I think I might be the only person who finds 1930s animation to be incredible creepy and unsettling. I'll have to pass on this :/
 
studioMDHR said:
We are not 100% on the music yet. It will definitley have an old-timey feel (we want to have all of it recorded live), but the style of composition and theme is going through iterations until it is perfect. :)
Click to expand...

It's not a 30s cartoon without accordion-heavy tango music. Hopefully you've got one or two tracks of those in the game.
 
SpacePirate Ridley said:
Maybe you are confussing it with our game, Fleish & Cherry in Crazy Hotel, that is similar thematically (1930's cartoons), although completly in black & white, and an adventure game instead of a brawler.
screenhdnuevacuswj.png


Although this last month I havent been in the making indie games thread, so maybe they appeared on there and they are also gaffers.

Their game looks awesome, hope to see more soon.
Click to expand...

I gave your game the thumbs up on Steam. Really interested in playing. I haven't kept up with its progress though. How's it coming along?
 
ViewtifulJC said:
I love the way this looks, and the references to Gunstar Heroes, Contra Hard Corps, Mega Man X, the glorious Hard Corps Uprising and the Genesis Adventures of Batman and Robin of all the damn things...its like some game I never knew I wanted til I saw it.
Click to expand...

Hey Chad, hire this guy, he's already sold me on the game
 
studioMDHR said:
Hey hey, Chad of StudioMDHR here. We have our reasons for the effects. Let me explain:

1) We do have film grain/dust/scratches and hair f/x. Video compression has destroyed a lot of it (in-game is looks a lot better). We are still playing with the contrast and opacity of these effects, so everyone should be happy with the final result.

2 a)The chromatic aberration is put there to emulate bad film transfer effects (and not just VHS). It's a choice that, we think, really makes the visuals stand out and nicely matches part of the 1930s cartoon atmosphere we grew up watching.
b) This aberration also gives a nod to the color bleeding that CRT's give off (phosphor glow?), and since we are merging 30s cartoons & video games, we feel this effect also gives a nod to playing video games(arcades too) in the golden era.

3) Lastly the scanlines - this is again tied to playing video games on CRT's. The scanlines added such fine details to pixel art and we find it does some of the same things and more to Cuphead. Again, it's hard to perfectly see all the effects on the video and we hope that our end result will make everybody shake hands.
Click to expand...

Game looks amazing and the filters nail the cartoon look. I wouldn't get distracted by the critique.

What an amazingly creative and well executed style.
 
studioMDHR said:
We are not 100% on the music yet. It will definitley have an old-timey feel (we want to have all of it recorded live), but the style of composition and theme is going through iterations until it is perfect. :)
Click to expand...

Is it still going to sound like it's coming from a 1930's projector (or where ever the sound came from). I really love that poorly recorded/played sound. Really love everything I've seen and heard so far.
 
RedSwirl said:
The reason this looks so appealing is because this style was what a lot of 8-bit video game art tried to approximate. Just look at early Mario and Donkey Kong character designs. It's like that, but brought to life.
Click to expand...
Well that's just the way Miyamoto drew back in the day, coming from industrial design and what-not. There's also the Tezuka factor at play there, since early manga tended to resemble Disney works.

This game looks like a good approximation of Fleischer-style rubber-band animation from the '30s, which is more refreshing than the relatively bland Disney stuff of the time. And yes, the music needs work, but I love hearing about all of these visual overlays that could give the game extra style. Might I recommend looking towards Alien Soldier for more influences for future bosses? That game has some incredible variety and might have some structural similarities to this.

I must say, though: the main character's pretty boring. Mickey as a coffee-cup, I detect, but the humor doesn't rub off on me.
 
ViewtifulJC said:
I love the way this looks, and the references to Gunstar Heroes, Contra Hard Corps, Mega Man X, the glorious Hard Corps Uprising and the Genesis Adventures of Batman and Robin of all the damn things...its like some game I never knew I wanted til I saw it.

Definitely will keep an eye on it, although the music probably isn't as period-specific as the creators believe.
Click to expand...

Genesis? Ugh. Why does everyone talk about the Genesis version of that game and completely ignore the SNES version, which I thought was better.
 
studioMDHR said:
Sort of like Gunstar Heroes married the good aspects of Contra III and HC and then focused on original boss fights...in the 30's. :)
Click to expand...
I was thinking Gunstar Heroes, then I thought that's probably like saying every FPS is influenced by Doom... such is my inexperience with run and guns. But maybe not.

This game could be incredible!
 
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