Exact Answer: 5 years
Cuphead is an American Run ‘n’ Run video game. It was released on Windows Xbox One on the 29th of September, 2017, macOS on the 19th of October, 2018, Nintendo switch on the 18th of April, 2019, and PlayStation 4 on the 28th of July in 2020. The complete name of the game is, Cuphead: “Don’t Deal With The Devil”.
Studio MDHR is the developer and publisher of the game. It was composed by Kristofer Maddigan and designed by Jared Moldenhauer.
How Long Did It Take To Make Cuphead?
| Acts Of Significance In The Making Of Game | Timeline |
| Total time in the creation of Cuphead | 5 years |
| A total of 24 frames could be viewed in | 1 second |
| Length of first teaser of the game | 42 seconds |
| First Deadline of the release of game | 2014 |
| Second deadline of the release of game | 2015 |
| Third deadline of the release of game | 2016 |
| The actual release date on the game | 2017 |
The creation of Cuphead was a laborious and tough job. It called for a lot of effort from the team and was also seemingly tough for ardent fans who had to wait for the five-year-long development period for the game.
They had dreamed of the game in 2013 as a Run ‘n’ Run game. Their cartoon setting was versatile and based on the 1930s theme. Initially, the pratagonist of their game was a green placeholder, but as their new game idea gathered wind, they changed it to the cuphead.
In the same year of 2013, the first teaser of the game was launched which was 42 seconds long. The teaser looked more of an interactive cartoon and it ended with an indication of being released in the next year in 2014.
However, the game was not going to be released anytime sooner. The release date would keep on getting postponed and postponed. As 2014 passed, 2015 became the next deadline which further passed the baton to 2015 and 2016.
The release of the game could not be materialized before 2017. However, on the 29th of September in 2017, it was released on Windows Xbox One.
Why Did It Take So Long To Make Cuphead?
The story of the creation of Cuphead was that of the creation of a game of a different league. It was a game from the period of 1930s while being released in 2017. This certainly made it a class apart which made it consume a large amount of time.
A simple reason why the game took so long to be developed was that the makers were in no hurry. They were calm and wanted to enjoy every bit of what they were doing. Developing the game was a fantasy for them.
The Moldenhauer brothers initially worked as part-time artists working on game development. Moreover, it was only after 2014, that they decide to hire more staff to speed up the process of game development. This certainly cost a lot of time which would otherwise, have been done in a relatively less timeframe.
Further, the team also felt the need to raise extra funds for their project in the middle of its development process. The team raised some loans to finance their project. Upon hiring more people, the total number of staff had increased to 12 people which made a clear and compact team required in making the game.
It took the team nearly half an hour to make just one frame of the entire game. The total number of such handmade frames was nearly 50000 according to some reports. In addition to that, 24 frames would be actively playing in just one second.
Conclusion
Cuphead was a unique game in the history of computer animation where each of the frames was drawn by hand. The game took five years in its development process and was delayed several times repeatedly before it was finally released in 2017.
Since a lot of work concerning the game was manual, it led to a lot of time being involved in it. Moreover, initially, the team was small which also hosted a certain amount of time.
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