Exclusive: See How Cuphead's Incredible Cartoon Graphics Are Made

Cuphead, due later this year for Xbox One and PC, looks like Betty Boop meets a shoot'em up meets a miracle. Studio MDHR's game a 2D side-scroller where you do battle with giant paranormal carrots, boxing frogs, angry birds, queen bees, gambling contraptions and not-so-little mermaids. And all of that's hand-sketched, inked and painted to resemble a 1930s Max Fleischer cartoon--an interactive mashup no one's ever attempted before. Cuphead lead artist Chad Moldenhauer gave TIME an exclusive look behind the scenes of how the studio animates the game. TIME: I think it's accurate to say that Cuphead looks like nothing we've seen in video games before. Moldenhauer: We were worried when we first set out with this style that there wouldn't be a huge fan base, just that this had never been tried in games in the past. And there was no real love for cartoons, at least that you could see around people's blogs, or around the Internet, or just talking to our friends.