Cuphead GDD

By Agustín Baudot.

Table of contents
Glossary:................................................................................................................................2
Overview:...............................................................................................................................2
Plot and settings:...................................................................................................................3
Gameplay:.............................................................................................................................3
Levels:...................................................................................................................................4
Coins:....................................................................................................................................5
Store:.....................................................................................................................................5
Weapons:...........................................................................................................................5
Weapons’ EXs:..................................................................................................................6
Charms:.............................................................................................................................7
Mechanics:............................................................................................................................8
References used:....................................................................................................................9
Glossary:
 Parry: Once the player jumps, if they press the jump mid-air, the character will
perform a “parry.” Parrys will function as double jumps. To achieve this, the player
must time the parry to be at the same time as their character collides with anything
pink. In case it is a bullet (or any damaging object) it will fill 1 (one) entire card of
your super meter instantly and destroy it completely, whereas if it is an object (or
some special boss attacks) it will act as a double jump, but it will not destroy it nor fill
your super meter.
 Super meter: Whenever the player damages enemies (or if he has a special charm
equipped), the super meter will continuously fill. This meter will appear at the
bottom-left in the screen as cards, and it will have a maximum of 5 (five). While a
card is being filled up, it will show its back, but when it is ready to be used, it will
turn around and show, and then the next card will show up. The player can use the EX
of their weapon as many times as he wants, and each EX will use 1 (one) card. If the
player has the 5 (five) cards ready to use and the player uses the EX, it will use the
Super art equipped. The super meter charge will drop down to 0 (zero).
 Soul contract: Obtainable by defeating a boss in Regular difficulty. Each boss has
their unique soul contract. To be able to fight King Dice the player must have
collected all soul contracts of the bosses in Inkwell Isles 1; 2 & 3 (one, two and three).
 Charm: Charms are items that can be bought from Porkrind's Emporium (store) and
equipped. They change elements of gameplay that usually help you in numerous
ways. Some examples are more lives per run but less damage, making your super
meter fill-up slowly even though you are not parrying nor damaging enemies, among
others.
 Super arts: Super Arts are extremely powerful attacks unlocked one by one upon
rescuing the Legendary Chalice from each Mausoleum. There will be one super attack
per Isle, and they require and consume all 5 (five) cards from the super meter.

Overview:
Cuphead is a platformer game where the player embodies in one of the two characters, whose
objective is to free the people in The Inkwell Isles from The Devil. All the action takes place
in a 2D lateral-view perspective. The game operates through levels, letting the player decide
which one to play next. But each level unlocks a path, allowing the player to reach new levels
inside the Isle. There will be 3 (three) Inkwell Isles plus Inkwell Hell, where the final bosses
will await. To unlock the next Inkwell Isle, the player must have defeated all the bosses in the
previous one.
Once the player reaches The Devil, in Inkwell Hell, he will face his right-hand, King Dice. To
be able to fight him, the player must have all the soul contracts of all the bosses beforehand.
Once he defeats King Dice, the path to the fight with The Devil will appear.
Once the player defeats all the bosses in the game (including both The devil & King Dice) a
new difficulty (expert) will appear in each boss fight. This difficulty enables the possibility of
achieving an “S” rank and gives the game some replayability.
Cuphead will allow co-op system, allowing players to play as teammates locally up to 2 (two)
at the same time. Online will not be an option for players.

Plot and settings:

Cuphead is set in a fantastic, 1930s world, where two brothers (Cuphead & Mugman) live
with their grandfather, Elder Kettle. These two embark on a journey once Elder Kettle says to
them that all the citizens in the Inkwell Isles are under control of The Devil who has their soul
contracts. This world will be based on the 1930s, from the sound to the art style.
Creatures will be fantastic and different from each other. While the NPCs have some
similarities with the human body, the different bosses and enemies can be objects like
flowers, plants or mushrooms, or made-up things like a slime, or a dragon, among others.
Music will be focused on the 1930s, featuring jazz, early big bands and ragtime music.
Visual effects will be applied to the gameplay, to simulate a film of the 1930s, this game
could be in black and white too.
Once the player defeats The Devil, the story will end, making all the characters (former
bosses) throw up and improvised celebration in the name of the 2 (two) heroes.

Gameplay:
After starting up the game, the opening cinematic scene will ask the player to press any key,
and then fade into the main menu screen. The three options provided are: start, options, and
exit. Start allows the player to either start a new game or load a pre-existing one, and then
taking them to the start (or pick-up where they left) and play. The options selection gives
access to the audio, the control, the language and to go back to the main menu. Finally, the
option to exit will take the player to the opening cinematic.
When the player creates a new game (or selects to load an old one) the option to choose to
play as Cuphead or Mugman will appear each time. Then, if the player is loading an old
game, the map will appear as they left it. On the other hand, if the player chooses to start a
new game, they will appear in the house with Elder Kettle, the opening dialogues presenting
the main objective and the option to go outside and start playing or to play the tutorial.
The tutorial will teach the mechanics to the player and let them collect their very first coin.
After that, the player will go out to the first Inkwell Isle, where the levels are.
Levels:
There are 2 (two) types of levels. The bosses and the run ‘n gun.
The bosses are citizens of the Inkwell Isles under control of the devil, and the fights will be
separated into different phases. However, if the player loses in any phase, they will have to
start over that boss from the start. There are two types of bosses: the grounded ones, where
the player can play normally, and the aerial ones, where the player sees their character in a
plane, which they control. Initially, each boss has 2 (two) different difficulties: Simple and
Regular. After completing the story, a new difficulty will appear: Expert. These difficulties
affect the phases of the boss, either removing them completely (Simple), adding new ones
(Regular) or making the existing ones more challenging (Expert).
After completing a level, a screen with the “Results” of your fight will appear. It will
calculate a “note” based on these parameters: Time, HP bonus, Parrys, and Super meters. To
achieve the best rank in each difficulty, you must: complete the level in under 2:10 (two
minutes and ten seconds), have at least 3 (three) lives left, do a minimum of 3 (three) parrys
and use 6 (six) super cards or more. The maximum grade obtainable with Simple difficulty is
a B, an A+ for Regular and the best one: S, in Expert. Defeating a boss in Regular difficulty
for the first time will grant you the soul contract of that boss.
Run ‘n gun are the levels where players can get coins, 5 (five) per level, maximum. These
levels are different from bosses: they have 3-5 (three to five) different enemies per level, the
objective of these levels is to reach the end line, and killing enemies is not necessary. The
evaluation system at the end of these levels is the same, apart from difficulties. There is not
an option to select a difficulty, and the max rank achievable is A+, unless the player
completes the level without shooting at all, which will give a P (pacifist) rank, like the S rank
in boss levels. There will be 2 (two) run ‘n gun levels per Isle, excluding Inkwell Hell. This
gives a total of 6 (six) levels and 30 (thirty) coins.

Coins:
There are 40 (forty) total coins in the game. 30 (thirty) of them can be obtained through levels
(run ‘n gun ones), but the rest will be hidden. 1 (one) of them will be in the tutorial. Another
3 (three) will be given to the player after talking to the first NPC. After that, the other 6 (six)
coins will be across the map, hidden or behind quests:

 An NPC on Inkwell Isle 2 will give the player 1 (one) coin after doing 4 (four) parrys
in a row without touching the ground.
 Another NCP on the same Isle will give the player 1 (one) coin after he discovers
their first shortcut (secret route to access harder bosses in the same Isle earlier).
 The first hidden coin will be behind an NPC and will be accessible after defeating all
bosses in Inkwell Isle 1.
  The second hidden coin will be behind one of the cabins (a non-interactable object)
near a run ‘n gun level in Inkwell Isle 2.
 The third hidden coin will be behind the ticket booth behind the boss “Cala Maria” in
Inkwell Isle 3.
 The fourth and last coin will be behind the left wall of the entrance to King Dice’s
fight in Inkwell Hell.

Store:
In each Inkwell Isle, there will be a shop that will offer the player 4 (four) purchasable items
that can be equipped, 2 (two) weapons and 2 (two) charms, and when any of these items is
purchased, another will replace it, until there are no more items left. These items can be of 2
(two) types: weapons or charms. The player can change their charm and/or weapon they have
equipped only when they are not playing any type of level. They can change it in the map, or
when they lose a level before retrying it.

Weapons:
Weapons have the regular fire and an EX attack, which can be used in exchange for 1 (one)
from the super meter. 2 (two) weapons can be equipped at the same time, letting the player
switch between them mid-level. There are 6 (six) different weapons:

 Peashooter: The weapon given to the player by default. Every new character will have
this weapon to start off. It will be an average-damage weapon with unlimited range. It
has a light blue colour and looks like a laser beam. The standard issue weapon that is
given to the player. It travels straightforward at a high velocity, for a boss that can
give you a lot of horizontal distance to dodge, it is a good choice.
 Spread: A high damage spread gun that works best if you can get close to your target.
Shots disappear after a short distance. It has a red colour and looks like some small
pyramids. Best used to deal high burst damage when the opportunity presents itself,
especially when that boss is stationary.
 Chaser: Fires small, slow-moving projectiles that home in on the nearest target. Deals
about half the damage compared to Peashooter. It has a lime colour and looks like a
star with a small tail. Best used when the concentration is better allocated to dodging
or running.
 Lobber: Fires a lobbed projectile that arcs upwards and falls back down and bounces
on the floor until it bounces three times and pops, deals great damage, but has limited
range, each shot deals about three times more than Peashooter. It has a violet colour
and looks like a sphere. It is good against bosses that doesn't move a lot. It doesn't
require a lot of aiming as it seems. It also has the property to set up some damage as it
bounces on the ground.
  Charge: A high-damage, high-velocity shot that requires the player to hold down the
firing button for maximum effectiveness. It has an orange colour and looks like a
wave for the uncharged projectile and two waves twirling each other for the charged
projectile. Releasing the shoot button before the charge is complete will fire a small,
light damage projectile. It needs a lot of precision to use.
 Roundabout: Fires a boomerang-like projectile that moves in the direction it is fired
for a moment but proceeds backwards for a long distance at a much higher velocity. It
has a turquoise colour and looks like a slotted ring. Best used when firing backwards
or fleeing obstacles and to set up damage, this is another option to Chaser for bosses
players want to focus on dodging as you still have to line with the boss most of the
time, but it deals way more damage.

Weapons’ EXs:
Each weapon mentioned above has their own and unique EX ability:

 Peashooter (EX): Mega Blast - Fires a large, slow-moving blue fireball that deals
considerable damage. It will hit a target three times before disappearing, it is a good
burst of damage that can be aimed in the usual eight directions.
 Spread (EX): Eight Way - Fires eight large spikes that deal high damage but move
very slowly. It is best when using against background bosses like “Chauncey
Chantenay,” “Goopy's Tombstone” and “Beppi's Balloons and Carousel.”
 Chaser (EX): Chaos Orbit - Spawns a four slightly bigger projectiles that circle the
player and protect them from incoming enemies. when there is one orbit already,
using another EX will replace the original orbit and those will automatically home in
on the closest hitbox. It is good when some bosses have minions like “Baroness'” jelly
bean or “Rumor's” worker bees.
 Lobber (EX): Like a Lobber shot, but bigger and have an Area-of-Effect damage
which deals the same damage in the area. It can easily take out groups of minions at a
range, but it is still affected by gravity and shooting it upward or the top corners may
miss the target far away, it does not bounce like the normal version attack as well and
goes through some platforms like clouds in Grim “Matchstick” fight and platforms in
“Rumor Honeybottoms” fight.
 Charge (EX): Radial Barrage - Releases a short-range, but a big Area-of-Effect burst
of damage from the player.
 Roundabout (EX): Jumbo Rebound - Launches a larger, thicker and closed version of
the standard shot that will try to go back to the player. You can dodge it and it will
chase you until all seven hits are used up or it touches the player again.
Charms:
The charms can help the player in different ways, depending on their playstyle and level they
are playing. Only 1 (one) charm can be equipped at a time. There are 6 (six) total charms
available to purchase:

 Heart: Adds an additional hit point but lightly weakens your attack power.
 Smoke bomb: You will not take damage during a dash. A great defensive technique.
 P. sugar: The first parry move is automatic; all you need to do is jump.
 Coffee: Super meter continuously fills (in addition to what you earn).
 Twin heart: Adds two additional hit points but weakens even further your attack
power.
 Whetstone: Your first parry move doubles as a damaging axe attack.

Mechanics:
Cuphead is a skill based game, where the difficulty relies on how well and efficiently the
player uses the techniques provided to him in the tutorial. These mechanics are:

 4 (four) way movement: The player moves up, down, left or right.
 8 (eight) way aiming: The player can aim in the original moving directions and the
diagonal combination of those (up + left/right and down + left/right).
 Drop: The player can drop of a platform if he presses down and jump at the same
time.
 Jumping: Allows the player to jump into the air once. Can only jump if character is
grounded.
 Parrying: Allows the player to perform a double jump if pressed when colliding with
any pink object. Fills 1 (one) meter card and destroys object if it can damage the
player (bullet or enemy minion) with few exceptions. Otherwise only performs double
jump.
 Shooting: Shoots the selected weapon in the direction the player is aiming.
 EX shooting: Shoots the selected EX’s weapon in the direction the player is aiming (if
aiming is required). Consumes 1 (one) card meter.
 Super arts: Consumes 5 (five) cards at once, activates equipped super art in the
direction the player is facing (if aiming is required).
 Lock: Stops the player from moving. Allows player to shoot diagonally or down
without having to move.
 Dash: Quick evasion in air or ground, can only be performed left or right.
 Switching weapons: Switches weapon to the other one equipped. The player can
switch as many times as they want, whenever they want.
References used:
Cuphead related: https://cuphead.fandom.com/wiki/Cuphead_Wiki:Main_page
GDD’s style related: https://www.graybeardgames.com/download/diablo_pitch.pdf