Cuphead Studio cares more about its employees than delays

Maja Moldenhauer, the head of the studio behind it Cuphead and its DLC, recently spoke about how the company’s top priority is making sure its employees are healthy and treated well. In fact, Moldenhauer explained that she doesn’t even care about delays.

In conversation with IGN posted yesterday, Moldenhauer spoke openly about how little she cares about delays or how long it takes to finish a game or a piece of DLC. For example Cuphead’s upcoming DLC, The delicious last coursewas first announced in 2018 with a 2019 release date. But that would be delayed a few times to avoid crunch and later because of covid.

However, Moldenhauer explained this IGN that she doesn’t mind the long delay as “mental health needs to be at the forefront” of the studio’s priorities.

“The most important thing, especially with COVID, was to keep everyone happy,” Moldenhauer told IGN. “These are video games. Take your time. Mental health had to come first and take the space and time it needed, especially in the last two years.”

“We say, ‘If it takes longer for the game to come out, it takes longer. Who cares?'”

You might think that a company that treats people with respect and cares about their mental health should be expected, not celebrated, but in the world we live in today, those stories are embarrassingly rare.

If you read kotaku or other gambling sites, You probably know the stories and Reports of horrible work practices, months of bangingand tons of burnout in the video game industry. It’s so common that when a studio executive speaks openly about looking after the mental health and well-being of employees, even if it means delaying a game or DLC to treat people better, it comes across as a bizarre ( but nice) anomaly may appear. One that deserves attention I think.

According to Moldenhauer, this attitude is Cuphead studio is the result of the small team’s history and previous jobs, experiences and the desire to do better.

“If we risk everything, it will be a company that we are proud of,” said Moldenhauer.

“It’s going to be a company that’s all of the things, an amalgamation of all of the things we’ve always had […] searched. Respect for each other, love and support. Things we didn’t get in our previous jobs. Well we did, but at the end of the day there was a bottom line.”

In addition to an employee-first mentality and the desire to create better working conditions, cupheads The director isn’t worried about how well the new, upcoming, and long-awaited DLC will sell or if it’ll make money. Instead, all they need to do is create that cool work of art and share it with the world in a way that doesn’t lead to burnout or crunch.

cupheads long-awaited and delayed DLC, The delicious last course, will be released on June 30th.