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[Craig of War]

Cuphead Studio Director on Delays And Long Development: ‘Who Cares?’ - IGN

StudioMDHR had to take care of the handful of folks it found to work on Cuphead and its DLC: Delicious Last Course – around 18 developers total, and only about six animators at the height of DLC development. Even if that meant both took a very, very long time to make – over a decade, in fact.

www.ign.com

“It's hard to find people,” she says. “The number one thing, especially through COVID was keeping everybody happy. This is video games. Take your time. Mental health needed to be at the forefront, taking the space and time that you needed, especially over the last two years. We're like, ‘If it takes longer for the game to come out, it takes longer. Who cares?’

Moldenhauer goes further to explain that much of this attitude stemmed from other industries she and fellow leads Chad and Jared Moldenhauer had been a part of prior to Cuphead, where they weren’t necessarily given that time and space.

“If we're going to risk it all, it's going to be a company that we're proud of. It's going to be a company that is all the things, an amalgamation of all the things we've always ever wanted. Respect for each other, love and support. Things that we didn't receive in our past jobs. Well, we did, but at the end of the day there was a bottom line.”

 

[Danjin44]

takes longer for the game to come out, it takes longer. Who cares?’

My issue isn’t really how long it takes and more of devs announcing their game too soon, before even development have begun.

 

[Pejo]

It's so hard to tell where exactly COVID fits into the equation for the various game delays, but I don't think that's the only cause. We've seen a lot of folks hired for game dev that have no real passion for the medium. We've seen really ineffectual upper level management in a TON of game devs. We've seen a push of people prioritizing a whole slew of things from personal viewpoints to identity politics, instead of making a solid, polished, fun game. If it's truly COVID that causes all of these delays, then I agree with her sentiment - who cares? But, I think it's dishonest to strip out all of that other garbage and just give the easy excuse of "muh COVID".

 

[Leyasu]

The worst thing is how delays have now become weaponised in the console wars

 

[Danjin44]

The worst thing is how delays have now become weaponised in the console wars

 

[Jennings]

When it comes to the Cuphead series I can totally understand people having the mindset of "who cares if it's delayed," but a lot of other games have cool features and gameplay that interest people. In those cases delays are hard to come to terms with because of how fun the games look.

 

[Akt]

I know that Cuphead has its fans, but it never seemed to me like a game people can't wait for its next entry to come out.

 

[reksveks]

My issue isn’t really how long it takes and more of devs announcing their game too soon, before even development have begun.

But part of the announcements aren't for consumers, they are for the hiring process.

I don't think we or devs are going to be getting past that.

 

[laynelane]

Sounds like a good company to work for.

 

[Danjin44]

But part of the announcements aren't for consumers, they are for the hiring process

I maybe wrong here but isn’t studio usually do job listing that’s separate from game announcement? I mean Monolith Soft also did job listing but didn’t really announce their game until it was actually ready to be announced.

If you have nothing to show to us then in my opinion game is not ready to get announced.

 

[reksveks]

I maybe wrong here but isn’t studio usually do job listing that’s separate from game announcement? I mean Monolith Soft also did job listing but didn’t really announce their game until it was actually ready to be announced.

If you having to show to us then in my opinion game is not ready to get announced.

It's one and the same more generally now and not binary. The Wonder Woman game announcement or any of the weird single tweet/blog post announcements aren't the same as announcing a game on a stream but it's still an announcement. Think I would include fable, splinter cell, the bioware games as examples.

There might be a difference in hiring between JP and the US that you might be touching on.

Personally, I don't massively care about the time of announcements.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Is the director the same chick who was on Summer Gamefest? If so, I believe anything she says, and agree implicitly and with much vigor.

 

[Danjin44]

Personally, I don't massively care about the time of announcements.

For me it hard to get excited about a game when it’s too far off. I love it when a game get announced while being close for release.

I love to see more games get announced same way Xenoblade 3 did.

 

[Calverz]

Are they European?

 

[Methos#1975]

Let's be honest. The real reason why these delays are being causing anger and being weaponized is because we are nearing two years into a new console generation and we really still don't have much to show for it and there is only a trickle of worthwhile games being released. So every game delayed is another gap in a release window with nothing to take its place which makes some console owners feel as if they wasted their money on these new consoles. If there was a more steady flow of releases this wouldn't be such a issue.

 

[Robb]

Sure, they can take all the time they want/can for all I care. The problem, to me, is when they announce solid dates that seem to be taken out of thin air and then delay the game for 6 months to an entire year..

If the uncertainty is as wide as 12 months they should keep those deadlines internal and stop being so trigger happy.

 

[cireza]

If you have infinite money and can pay people, then nobody cares indeed.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

A lot of consumers don't realize from the business side that delays actually cost a lot of money, but from this consumer, I'd much rather a game be delayed and come out closer to the true vision of the game.

Look at Horizon Forbidden West. It came out in February but just received a major visual patch after a slew of other patches. Maybe had they just released the game in June, it would have ended up as big a hit as the original game and not released as a somewhat disappointing game crowded out by elden ring.

 

[StateofMajora]

I'm not surprised they say that. Feels like I've waited 2 decades for a physical Cuphead release on switch.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Cuphead Studio Director on Delays And Long Development: ‘Who Cares?’ - IGN

StudioMDHR had to take care of the handful of folks it found to work on Cuphead and its DLC: Delicious Last Course – around 18 developers total, and only about six animators at the height of DLC development. Even if that meant both took a very, very long time to make – over a decade, in fact.

www.ign.com

“It's hard to find people,” she says. “The number one thing, especially through COVID was keeping everybody happy. This is video games. Take your time. Mental health needed to be at the forefront, taking the space and time that you needed, especially over the last two years. We're like, ‘If it takes longer for the game to come out, it takes longer. Who cares?’

Moldenhauer goes further to explain that much of this attitude stemmed from other industries she and fellow leads Chad and Jared Moldenhauer had been a part of prior to Cuphead, where they weren’t necessarily given that time and space.

“If we're going to risk it all, it's going to be a company that we're proud of. It's going to be a company that is all the things, an amalgamation of all the things we've always ever wanted. Respect for each other, love and support. Things that we didn't receive in our past jobs. Well, we did, but at the end of the day there was a bottom line.”

Based Cuphead devs, the chads the industry needs but don't deserve.

 

[HoodWinked]

definitely depends on the situation.

game like cuphead is mostly evergreen. that game could have been released anytime to success.

the visuals are completely unique and won't age like other games.

Where as games with realistic visuals will look more dated against the competition and depending on the genre may need to release first before market saturation or need to hit a release window to have success.

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

When it comes to the Cuphead series I can totally understand people having the mindset of "who cares if it's delayed," but a lot of other games have cool features and gameplay that interest people. In those cases delays are hard to come to terms with because of how fun the games look.

 

[Graciaus]

Overall a who cares mentality isn't really a great one to have. Because if you take to long you might find out no one cares anymore. I doubt that will happen in this situation though.

 

[ParaSeoul]

Just don't announce games before they're at least mostly finished. Capcom starting to announce games half a year before release is working out well for them.

 

[Portugeezer]

I care.

 

[Grumpy Toe Nail]

Who cares about developers. Gimme what I want right now before I cry.

 

[mxbison]

Thats a great approach but most small devs can't afford to delay games that long and just pay their staff for another year or two without releasing the game.

Big devs could but the publishers don't want them to.

 

[Meicyn]

Just don't announce games before they're at least mostly finished. Capcom starting to announce games half a year before release is working out well for them.

Christ I hope this holds true for Dragon’s Dogma 2. I will wait however long Itsuno needs but… man.

 

[ParaSeoul]

Christ I hope this holds true for Dragon’s Dogma 2. I will wait however long Itsuno needs but… man.

Probably why it hasn't been announced. It just isn't ready.

 

[Ozriel]

My issue isn’t really how long it takes and more of devs announcing their game too soon, before even development have begun.

Shouldn’t be an issue for you as long as nobody’s taken your money.

Not sure why gaming’s always the outlier. Avatar 2 was announced ages ago but nobody’s out there fuming because it took 7 years to show up.

 

[Clear]

Its fine when you are making something with a relatively small scope, trouble is the whole "its done when its done" thing doesn't scale up feasibly.

If you consider the amount of time they've spent to realize what is essentially a design from the 16-bit era (albeit a lavishly and painstakingly illustrated version) it makes the ludicrous dev-time of a Star Citizen seem a lot more "reasonable".

 

[Handel]

Most people who go crazy over delays are console warriors, or those with a very narrow taste in games, so those are the ones who care...and good riddance to them if they stop being gamers.

Let's be honest. The real reason why these delays are being causing anger and being weaponized is because we are nearing two years into a new console generation and we really still don't have much to show for it and there is only a trickle of worthwhile games being released. So every game delayed is another gap in a release window with nothing to take its place which makes some console owners feel as if they wasted their money on these new consoles. If there was a more steady flow of releases this wouldn't be such a issue.

The pandemic was already in full swing by the time the new consoles released, and it should have been obvious that game development would take a hit due to it, so I don't feel much sympathy for those who lacked the foresight to see that games would be delayed.

 

[Doom85]

LOL, sounds like George’s boss Kruger from Seinfeld.

 

[SweetShark]

Your wallet will care, sadly.

 

[Meicyn]

Probably why it hasn't been announced. It just isn't ready.

Dragon’s Dogma II announced

Dragon’s Dogma II is currently in development using Capcom’s RE ENGINE, the company announced. Platforms and a release date were not announced.

www.gematsu.com

 

[Sybrix]

Cuphead Studio Director on Delays And Long Development: ‘Who Cares?’ - IGN

StudioMDHR had to take care of the handful of folks it found to work on Cuphead and its DLC: Delicious Last Course – around 18 developers total, and only about six animators at the height of DLC development. Even if that meant both took a very, very long time to make – over a decade, in fact.

www.ign.com

“It's hard to find people,” she says. “The number one thing, especially through COVID was keeping everybody happy. This is video games. Take your time. Mental health needed to be at the forefront, taking the space and time that you needed, especially over the last two years. We're like, ‘If it takes longer for the game to come out, it takes longer. Who cares?’

Moldenhauer goes further to explain that much of this attitude stemmed from other industries she and fellow leads Chad and Jared Moldenhauer had been a part of prior to Cuphead, where they weren’t necessarily given that time and space.

“If we're going to risk it all, it's going to be a company that we're proud of. It's going to be a company that is all the things, an amalgamation of all the things we've always ever wanted. Respect for each other, love and support. Things that we didn't receive in our past jobs. Well, we did, but at the end of the day there was a bottom line.”

You care when your 15/16/17 up to 20 something, after that you're not bothered.

I remember being really annoyed when games i wanted were delayed, now i'm not fussed, as long as when it does come out its playable.

Dev's shouldn't be announcing games years away from release, Bethesda are classic examples of that, announcing Starfield 5 years ago... WTF?!

Also Elder Scrolls 6..... fuck off Bethesda, just tell us a year out that its coming, not this fucking 5+ years bullshit, no one gives a fuck.

 

[Tams]

As others have said.

And they still have a bottom line.

 

[MikeM]

Good for them for valuing the health of their employees above all else. Its a video game- no one is dying because its not out on time.

 

[ZywyPL]

He's kind of right, a great game is a great game when it finally arrives, the huge risk tho is that you might miss on the marketing that is set for a fixed release date, so when the game is finally ready it just shadow drops and no one even knows it's launched, if anyone still remembers it to begin with. Example: Below.

 

[Bragr]

Who funds this? Are they using all of Cupheads profits?

 

[DGrayson]

You care when your 15/16/17 up to 20 something, after that you're not bothered.

I remember being really annoyed when games i wanted were delayed, now i'm not fussed, as long as when it does come out its playable.

Dev's shouldn't be announcing games years away from release, Bethesda are classic examples of that, announcing Starfield 5 years ago... WTF?!

Also Elder Scrolls 6..... fuck off Bethesda, just tell us a year out that its coming, not this fucking 5+ years bullshit, no one gives a fuck.

I agree here. Games take longer to develop. Its annoying but ok.

But devs cannot have it both ways. They cannot announce games crazily early AND rely on the "games take longer" excuse AND have delays AND release buggy games etc etc etc etc.

Dont announce games crazily early and if you do then you have to expect that fans could get frustrated with longer development time and delays.

 

[Joshmyersbv]

This is video games. Take your time. Mental health needed to be at the forefront, taking the space and time that you needed, especially over the last two years. We're like, ‘If it takes longer for the game to come out, it takes longer. Who cares?’

It's funny how she uses mental health to justify longer game development. I wonder how a developer's mental health is when they get laid off because the game they made took 6 years to finish and bombed in sales.

What I don't understand is how did we get to this point to where technology is so advanced, graphics and animations have vastly improved over the past 10 years but nobody's developed a system in place to improve an efficiency of development?

Hell there's a thread about Returnal's director talking about how they were learning as they went when it came to development. If that game bombed how do you think people would perceive that quote from the director? Imagine being a developer for a project, the game failed, you lose your job and the director in the interview says well you know we were kind of just figuring it out as we go. Sooner or later we need to blame long development on poor decision making and terrible management. "Improving mental health" is just a fucking excuse.

 

[Mister Wolf]

My issue isn’t really how long it takes and more of devs announcing their game too soon, before even development have begun.

If only they all could be like Monolith Soft.

 

[phil_t98]

The worst thing is how delays have now become weaponised in the console wars

100% this, with Starfield delay and a thread ab out potential avatar bet for a God of war delay its just to war.

its not like there won't be hundreds of other games to play. we never see this type of warring of a film's delayed

 

[Captain Toad]

The worst thing is how delays have now become weaponised in the console wars

This is a game on everything.

 

[legacy24]

deadlines exist for a reason, this is just lazy behavior

 

[adamsapple]

I agree here. Games take longer to develop. Its annoying but ok.

But devs cannot have it both ways. They cannot announce games crazily early AND rely on the "games take longer" excuse AND have delays AND release buggy games etc etc etc etc.

Dont announce games crazily early and if you do then you have to expect that fans could get frustrated with longer development time and delays.

This is a little unfair to developers, especially in light of the massive world shattering pandemic that we've been facing since 2020.

I can bet a lot of games that are getting delays over the last year would have safely come out a while ago had it not been for the need to shift development practices so drastically.

Yes, announcing games too early can come off bad, especially if games end up suffering delays from their original projected release dates, but ultimately there's a good reason for that in this current time period at least. I doubt developers are just sitting and twiddling their thumbs wasting time.

 

[DGrayson]

This is a little unfair to developers, especially in light of the massive world shattering pandemic that we've been facing since 2020.

I can bet a lot of games that are getting delays over the last year would have safely come out a while ago had it not been for the need to shift development practices so drastically.

Yes, announcing games too early can come off bad, especially if games end up suffering delays from their original projected release dates, but ultimately there's a good reason for that in this current time period at least. I doubt developers are just sitting and twiddling their thumbs wasting time.

Not sure. COVID might have made it worse but I think developers havent gotten used to the new development timelines, which was evident before covid. Before the time between a teaser logo/couple development art shots and a finished product was much shorter. Now that it has significantly lengthened (due to how long it takes games to be made, not due to COVID), I think developers should wait a bit before announcing games/releasing these first teaser shots.

 

[adamsapple]

Not sure. COVID might have made it worse but I think developers havent gotten used to the new development timelines, which was evident before covid. Before the time between a teaser logo/couple development art shots and a finished product was much shorter. Now that it has significantly lengthened (due to how long it takes games to be made, not due to COVID), I think developers should wait a bit before announcing games/releasing these first teaser shots.

True, true. Announcing something like TES VI that we all know is not coming in the next 5~7 years AT LEAST, is just too flippant on Bethesdas part.

But I also think in some cases developers just do it so they can use it to start hiring people for the project. If I'm not mistaken, PlayGround Games started hiring for the Fable project *after* announcing it. I-e at the time of announcement, it was just a CG trailer and maybe a few concept artists working on it.

 

[ThaGuy]

I like how Nintendo had that dojo for Smash Bros Brawl I believe it was. Basically they had a website that showed us something new everyday in Brawl. Like a new or old weapon, characters, stages, etc. It keep interest among it's fans.