Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course serves up sweet redemption for GamesBeat

Cuphead is gearing up to release its big DLC ​​add-on, The Delicious Last Course, on June 30th. This $8 expansion will add new bosses, weapons, and Miss Chalice, a new playable character equipped with unique abilities like a double jump.

It’s way too exciting for fans of Cuphead. For GamesBeat, the idea of ​​more Cuphead can feel a bit daunting. We have, um, sort of a story with the original game.

So when I had the chance to play The Delicious Last Course during Summer Game Fest Play Days in Los Angeles this past weekend, I was determined to do well and show some respect to the GamesBeat name.

And that’s exactly what I did, managing to beat the demo boss – a diabolical ice wizard who could transform into a fridge, a snow monster, and a giant snowflake – after trying for a little under 15 minutes. Well, I know that might not seem like the greatest achievement in the world, but it still felt great.

My own narcissistic pursuit of honor aside, it’s easy to see that The Delicious Last Course will serve Cuphead fans well. Rather, it’s the boss-based animation mayhem that made the original such a huge hit. It’s just more, and that’s what a good DLC should offer.

While basking in the glow of my victory, I also had a chance to chat with Maja Moldenhauer, Studio Director and Executive Producer at Studio MDHR. I had to ask her about the development of Cuphead’s big DLC, but first I had to clumsily ask for credit.

GamesBeat: I wouldn’t normally ask that, but because we have a certain reputation with Cuphead… did you see me playing the demo. I want you to go on record and tell people how I’ve been.

Moldenhauer: [laughs] Mike you were phenomenal and I enjoyed watching that knockout.

GamesBeat: Was DLC always in the cards for Cuphead?

Moldenhauer: The emergence of this came after the launch of the game. As with many developers, there are certain things that you cannot get due to time, budget and such limitations. We couldn’t bring them into the core game, but we couldn’t let those things go, remove them from our memories and minds. One thing was that we wanted Chalice to be part of the trio of heroes. We couldn’t achieve that in the original game either. And then there were tributes to the cartoons that we wanted to pay tribute to. It was just stuff we couldn’t let go of.

GamesBeat: Goblet is interesting. I didn’t know she was dead I guess until a while ago.

Moldenhauer: Yes, the plot is that she is trapped in the astral plane, which is some kind of spooky universe. She eats this magical cookie that brings her back to life. Sorry she doesn’t. Mugman or Cuphead eats the cookie and they switch places. This character goes to the astral plane and Chalice becomes real. The whole story behind the DLC is that they are looking for magical ingredients so that it can come alive permanently.

GamesBeat: Is that also a gameplay thing? If you’ve completed the DLC, can you play as her without equipping the spell?

Moldenhauer: No, you always need the cookie charm.

GamesBeat: How does it feel now to have Cuphead as a multimedia franchise? You have the Netflix show, the merchandise. Is it more than you previously imagined?

Moldenhauer: Absolutely. Some time has passed since the release of the original game. The Netflix show has already canceled the first season. But it still doesn’t quite add up for us. It was never in our thoughts that this would ever happen. it’s wild You can’t put it into words.

GamesBeat: There’s a lot in this DLC, a lot of new bosses, the new character. Given the time involved, was there ever a time when you thought you could spin it out in Cuphead 2?

Moldenhauer: In terms of content, it could have been a standalone game. Story-wise, as a DLC, it fits the original game better. And given the animation style, we thought we’d wrap it all up in one chapter. We squashed the idea of ​​a standalone pretty quickly.

GamesBeat: Chalice and all these new spells are playable in the base game, right?

Moldenhauer: Yes, exactly. You don’t even have to beat the base game to access DLC. You only have to defeat a mausoleum. After defeating the mausoleum in world one, a mysterious character will appear at a nearby shore or dock and take you over to the DLC island.

GamesBeat: What is the difficulty we are looking at here? Think you could make this harder than the base game because of the DLC?

Moldenhauer: No, I would say it’s a natural progression as it’s an extension of Inkwell Isle Three. As you play Isle One, the bosses and patterns and health are a bit easier. Then it goes ahead. This is probably a natural progression after the last Inkwell Isle in terms of challenge level.

GamesBeat: After working on the base game, were there any lessons you learned there that you applied to DLC?

Moldenhauer: A lot of it was procedural, making this more efficient. We’ve really pushed the number of animation frames in the DLC and tested ourselves to see how far we can take animation in gameplay. There are a lot of frames on this DLC island. We didn’t actually do a stand-by on the number of frames compared to the core game, but I’d say they’re very close on this one island.

GamesBeat: Is there a point where this stuff looks almost too good for old-style animation?

Moldenhauer: No, that’s a good point. I would liken the DLC to stepping a little away from and closer to the early Disney era fantasy Epoch. The layers and layers of effects, the sparkles and all that stuff, it’s definitely a bit later, the later years of 2D animation.

GamesBeat: That’s a sublime thing to compare!

Moldenhauer: Absolutely. I would say that’s a goal for us to get there. That’s the standard we’ve been working towards in this direction. We’re definitely not there. We took the time we needed to make sure the quality is there. We didn’t just take credit for the original game’s success. We really wanted to bring something new to the fans, something imaginative, creative, exciting. Nothing they had seen before.

GamesBeat: Another big part of Cuphead is that very aesthetic, the music and everything else. Is this another big part of the DLC?

Moldenhauer: Okay, to put it in perspective, the original game had about 60-65 musicians on that soundtrack. This time we have more than 110. Recording the soundtrack during COVID proved difficult due to capacity limitations in the rooms and such, but we managed. Kris Maddigan is again the composer on the soundtrack. He’s definitely outdone himself. You’ll hear influences from Rococo to early Western films, but all within the same underlying jazz that we had in the original game.

GamesBeat: I found it interesting that the run and gun levels don’t appear that often in the DLC. Is it about focusing on what worked best in the original?

Moldenhauer: I’d say it was more that we just wanted to experiment with something new, something that we hadn’t shown or discussed before. We wanted there to be an element of surprise for fans when they get their hands on it. The purpose of the platform levels is to collect coins so you have the money to go to the store. We wanted to experiment with something new to make money. It was more of an experimental thing.

GamesBeat: Chalice’s double jump is pretty nice. Is it difficult to go back to Cuphead or Mugman after being spoiled with them?

Moldenhauer: There’s probably a little curve in terms of the moveset’s rehabilitation after playing with Chalice for so long. But it clicks back. You get used to it. It’s complementary. For example, there are things that I don’t play particularly well with Chalice’s sprint save. I prefer the timing of my jump. I think it will just cater to different preferences.

GamesBeat: Dash parade is nice and interesting, but sometimes you run after pink objects when you see them and you can accidentally hit an enemy or projectile.

Moldenhauer: Exactly exactly.

GamesBeat: How does it feel to be so close to launch?

Moldenhauer: Euphoric. We are a very small and agile team. Many of us are in the weeds. For example, I recolored the game this time. Stepping out of it and seeing it as a whole is wild. Seeing all the pieces come together. we are so excited We’re really excited. We’re probably looking forward to the reactions of the fans the most.

GamesBeat: The inking process, how is it?

Moldenhauer: It’s still all on paper. It’s not on celluloid given the cost compared to what it looks like. Animators start by designing something, a design for a boss. Then they go to keyframes how it will react. Then it becomes in between. As soon as this animation set is ready, it will be passed on to me. I’ll put another layer of animation paper on top. We’ll do a cleanup and colorize it. It is then scanned. It is digitally colored. This is the first time in this process that we are working digitally.

GamesBeat: How many drawings would you colorize in a productive day?

Moldenhauer: It really depends on the boss. I talk a lot internally about mileage when we make projections of how long it will take a boss to get to work. It all depends on the detail. That’s really what mileage is. It can range from six minutes per frame to around 14 minutes per frame.

GamesBeat: How does it feel to bring people here and play this thing now?

Moldenhauer: It feels incredible. I can’t tell if it’s skewed by what everyone’s been through over the past two and a half years or the fact that we’re finally delivering and shipping this, but it’s beyond what we expected. We are very proud of this.