The Curse of Imagination (English Version)

The Beginning

Have you ever had that strange feeling? That feeling of being forgotten and no ones remember you? It has happened to me so many times. And also to you, probably, when you are alone, in your bedroom, you feel that sensation that no ones care about you... while a tear runs out your cheek and the loneliness embrace your soul.

What I'm going to tell you, it's about this. About this sad and unpleasant sensation that everyone, in his life, has experienced once.

But first, allow me to present myself. My name is Jim and I live in a Boston's neighborhood.

Since childhood, I've always used my imagination.

I've drawned many characters which I gave different personalities, considering them alive and making them as my little playmates. I never had many friends, so those characters became true imaginary companions.

Besides, I've always been a cartoon lover, since I was a kid my dream was to become an animator.

After obtaining a certificate, I started a humble experience as an indie animator working principally in the field of commercials and multimedia material on recreational and informative use. Although doing wide use from all the necessary technologies to create the animation in 3D, I always preferred the traditional animation... like that one of the past.

Pencils, distempers, watercolours and cells.

The computer animation, although being more comfortable and less expensive, for me... was soulless.

In 2011, I came to know that two Canadian programmers had started a project: creating a video game entirely realized by hand and inspired to the animation from the thirties, which has always been my favorite and what inspired me to be an animator.

But after months the project was kinda forgotten. It was a real shame.

Anyway, in 2013 some images start to appear, and I was amazed.

The name was Cuphead and had two little guys as protagonists, with their heads shaped as small cups.

The game was not only a reference to Max Fleischer's Color classics... but also a tribute to Comicolor by the Metro Goldyn Mayer, To Merrie Melodies, To Silly Symphonies and to all the animated short films that dominated the pre-war times. Furthermore, it was rumored, inside the videogame community, that it would have been one of the most difficult game ever released.

I couldn't have waited one more day, I had to have it.

But days passed, and also years and no more news of the game, again.

Every day, I visited the MDHR Studio's website, but every time something was posted, it was about updates regarding the production of the game.

My impatience was skyrocketing.

In 2017, finally, the game was published. I bought it in no time.

I loved it from the first instant since it was what I loved more: traditional animation.

True animation, like the old times. Times when the artists were willing to do anything to make their own animated dreams come true.

Times when there was given to the animation certain care that today would turn out to be too expensive. Times when the characters were more than some drawings put on a background... but creatures more alive than ever.

The game was challenging as I expected. I did not surrender and finished it in less than three weeks.

After having ended it I started it again, trying to complete also the extreme difficulty and the pacifist mode, without striking enemies.

In the end, I managed to end all the missions.

I sacrificed a good amount of time and fatigue for it, but you can't imagine the satisfaction.

I had completed it entirely, unlocking each mode and collected every ability.

I became a fan of Cuphead... at the point that I sent my curriculum to the developers, the MDHR studio.

I was already an animator, and with my knowledge in the field and above all with my passion for the vintage animation, I could have supplied a contribution in the community of Cuphead.

After one week, an answer reached me from one of the members of the studio: they agreed to employ me but as a beta tester. I was enthusiastic. I would not have been part of the artistic division, but it was going quite also. From that day was a member of MDHR Studio.

My work consisted in the testing some levels which would have been used for additional components published in next months. But it was amazing.

One evening, during a chat with some members of the MDHR one of the responsible persons of the technical division, said that the founders had found a new boss for a possible Cuphead sequel. It was fantastic. . . but who could have been? Besides, who could be possibly worse than the devil?

I turned off the computer and went to bed. I was curious about what the art department of MDHR studio had planned.