Cuphead- a 30's-styled, Contra-inspired Run-and-gun indie game

This may sound like a weird question, but due to the art style of Cuphead being a homage to the 1930s cartoons, is it possible that it will be the turning point in getting hand drawn animation back to the market? I mean, yeah this is just a video game and it is in no way has anything to do with what is going on with the movie market, but because you actually have a hand drawn video game out in the market, going platinum in sales, could this be the turning point for hand drawn animation in this day and age?

Videogames have been using hand-drawn animation for years. See The Banner Saga and Skullgirls as examples.

They just haven't done it to this kind of animation with this level of FPS. Hell, I'd include Dragon Ball Fighter Z in the same league in terms of level.

edited 15th Mar '18 9:54:08 AM by AnotherGuy

> it possible that it will be the turning point in getting hand drawn animation back to the market?

It might make it more popular but it won't make the cost of hand drawn animation decrease,it's insanely expensive.

Expensive only in terms of man-hours.

That's exactly the problem. A 2D animated film that has a certain amount of time and effort put into will result in far less work getting done than that same amount of time and effort put into a 3D animated film will get you.

edited 15th Mar '18 10:29:26 AM by LordVatek

I think that's going to be an obstacle for 2D animated films heading forward. If they could figure out a way to do hand drawn animation without having to worry about the expensive costs, we might be able to see more hand drawn animation in the near future. Though, it's a good thing that the creators took a gamble on doing hand drawn animation for Cuphead, as the game went platinum when it was released.

You'll see hand-drawn animation in small studios and indie studios because they're willing to take the time and spend overtime because they're passion projects.

Hollow Knight which came out before Cuphead and had an even smaller team (only two people from what I have read) was also hand-drawn

edited 16th Mar '18 2:44:24 AM by Wispy

It's a bit of a shame. HK had all the markings of the best indie game of the year. Cuphead, for all of its pluses, focuses chiefly on its glamour, and that already caused "problems" with a bunch of game journalists that were "fooled" by its graphics that the game won't be challenging.

But it was also the most anticipated indie game, so I suppose its own hype helped elevate it to the first place.

^ Most game "journalists" these days aren't worth a wooden nickel, so "fooling" them is neither a bad thing nor a problem.

I. Beg. Your. Pardon?

No disagreement there.

"Cuphead" is one of many games - if not the most prominent one of 2017- to receive the "just like Dark Souls"-label by "renowned" game journalists. It also prompted a bunch of inane articles that seemed to believe that a button to skip the bosses in a boss-only game would do wonders to it.

edited 16th Mar '18 3:02:43 PM by FergardStratoavis

Winner of the Award for Excellence in Animation at SXSW.

edited 18th Mar '18 2:17:46 PM by AnotherGuy

And Excellence in Art, don't forget that. http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/03/18/sxsw-gaming-awards-2018-winners-revealed

Well, I was just responding to a single tweet.

Congrats to Cuphead!!! It really deserved to have an award in its animation! It was quite unique for most of the games in 2017!

News flash: Although Cuphead didn't win either award for Excellence in Visual Art or Excellence in Audio at the Independent Games Festival Awards, the game did, however, win the awards for "Best Debut (StudioMDHR)" and "Best Visual Art" at the Game Developers Choice Awards. As someone said, two out of three ain't bad.

https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/21/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-is-gdc-2018s-game-of-the-year/

edited 22nd Mar '18 11:49:27 AM by Angeldeb82

Get this: Out of four nominations the game got for the 14th British Academy Games Awards, Cuphead got only one winner, and that is for the "Music" category!

https://www.destructoid.com/bafta-names-what-remains-of-edith-finch-its-best-game-of-2017-498392.phtml

Almost forgot: Here's Zero Punctuation's review of Cuphead from a few months ago:

So it's official now, we've had one of those rare Critic-Proof games that even the Caustic Critic Yahtzee can't shit on.

On Rebel FM, Arthur noted that one of Microsoft's problems was having enforced release dates (See: Halo 5: Guardians). Cuphead was announced in 2014, IIRC, and MS decided to have the developer make it more of a game (the original design was a far shorter, limited game). So, there was no enforced release date for Cuphead.

THE GATES HAVE BEEN OPENED. WE HAVE CUPHEAD DLC!

New character too. How much effort did that take? This whole thing must have taken forever with all the hand drawings.

Nice to see a new update.

Shut up and take my money!