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Hey,
I'm curious about art styles, and I'm wondering if people can make cartoon-like characters and environments using a 3D software, like Blender? IIRC, Cuphead was drawn by hand, and much of its success was due to how it looks.
Is it possible to replicate such “graphics” in Blender, if the goal is a 2D platformer game?
Yes, it can be done. Blender is a capable 3D modeling and animating program. It takes skill and effort from the artists, animators, and other developers, but the tools are capable.
As for a 2D platformer, that opens all kinds of definitions. One style which works well with 3D objects is to have a 3D world where player interactions are constrained on one axis. This is how engines like Unity implement their 2D settings. You can have a camera that exists in 3D space while the players are operating on only two of those dimensions. You can also have worlds that are entirely flat like the old NES-era side scrollers, that's less good of a fit for 3D models. You can have games that render out 3D viewpoints to create images used in the 2D game, which can work well for 1:2:1 and isometric games, or other viewpoints where you want to create the images from a more complex model. That option is far more work, so unlikely from a hobbyist unless that's a critical focus for the game.
Blender is not going to be the limiting factor. The people working on your project, their abilities, their time, their schedule, those are going to be what limits you.
Blender is most certainly capable of making pre-rendered sprites, yes including for platformers. I'm not sure how easily you could duplicate that hand-drawn style of cuphead(not sure you would want to either), but there are plenty of unique styles you can pull off. There are advantages to this method over 2d methods too.
