The New Cuphead DLC Contains A Massive Amount Of Animation
Cuphead DLC, also known as The Delicious Last Course, has taken a lot of time to animate, but we're betting it'll be worth it.
This article is more than 2 years old
Hand-drawn animation was the dominant technique throughout most of the 20th century, but it was an absolutely massive amount of work for creating even a single short clipping or a simple walking animation. For StudioMDHR, that meant a massive amount of work that went into the development of Cuphead, a run and gun shooter video game that has captivated audiences ever since its release in 2017, and its upcoming Cuphead DLC.
Now, according to IGN, the development studio took it upon themselves to do the same amount of animation work again for the game’s upcoming DLC titled The Delicious Last Course. This amount of animation work stemmed from the development team’s desire to breathe life into all the material left on the cutting room floor from the creation of the first game. The announced Cuphead DLC is scheduled to release in less than two weeks, on June 30, 2022, for all the supported platforms.
StudioMDHR’s Maja Moldenhauer disclosed that the team really wanted to experiment with this 30’s animation art form combined with a bullet-hell game. However, while the exact number of frames isn’t yet known, the amount of animation found in the upcoming Cuphead DLC is comparable to the entirety of the core game that was released between 2017 and 2020 on various platforms. Maja also noted that the team made a slight shift from the 30’s animation to something closer to Fantasia, a ‘40s American animated musical anthology film produced by Disney.
As per her statement, the upcoming Cuphead DLC is an animation monstrosity that initially originated as a limited content feature Miss Chalice and five massive, super-sized bosses for her and Cuphead to address. However, the animation team at StudioMDHR are, according to Moldenhauer, “kings and queens of scope creep,” and a massive number of ideas were soon added to the mix, resulting in such a massive DLC.
One of the novelties to be included in the Cuphead DLC is the change of location. The core game featured plenty of boss transformations throughout the gameplay, but the newly announced content also brings location transformations, which basically means two things: the terrain or its background might physically change and much more color animation for fans to enjoy. Every new phase during boss fights will bring players to a new location, which is not just interesting but quite beautiful if you appreciate the 30s and 40s animation art.
As previously stated, Cuphead is a challenging bullet game featuring continuous boss fights, inspired by the 1930s animation. The Cuphead DLC was initially announced in 2019, a whole year before the PlayStation 4 version of the game was released, but it suffered through several delays leading up to its release date this June. As for the reason why there’s so much time between releases and updates, Chad and Maja Moldenhauer stated that the studio isn’t willing to compromise its vision and quality for the DLC and the well-being of its employees to make the DLC happen sooner.
The upcoming Cuphead DLC, titled The Delicious Last Course, is set to release on June 30, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Windows PC.
