🥊 Episode 1 · Beginner · Setup

Enter the Arena
Episode 1: Get Set Up

MUGEN is a free engine for making 2D fighting games. Before you build a fighter you need the engine in the right place and you need to know your way around the folder that holds everything.

👶 Ages 10+ ⏱️ ~40 mins 🥊 MUGEN ✓ Free workshop
📥 Install MUGEN 📁 chars & stages 🗂️ select.def 🧩 What a character is
🥊 Start Step 1 ← All Episodes
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Build it in our MUGEN Studio too: set up a fighter, add sprites and poses, place hitboxes and export a real fighter folder in the browser, with no install. Open the MUGEN Mod Studio →
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Get a grown-up: downloading and unzipping the engine, and keeping your folders tidy, is a home-computer job. Do the first setup together.
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Ember says: MUGEN is old and simple on purpose. Everything is a folder and a text file. Learn the folder layout once and the whole engine opens up.
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Get the Engine
Download and unzip MUGEN
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Goal for this step

Have MUGEN unzipped and launching a match.

  • 1Download MUGEN from its official home and unzip it into a folder you can find. There is no installer.
  • 2Open the MUGEN folder and look inside. You will see folders like chars, stages, data and sound.
  • 3Run the game and start a match with the default characters to prove it works.
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Knowledge Check
+15 XP
How is MUGEN installed?
ARun a big installer
BUnzip a folder and run it
CInstall it from an app store
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Learn the Folders
Everything has a home
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Goal for this step

Know where characters and stages live.

  • 1Characters go in chars, each in its own folder.
  • 2Stages go in stages, each in its own folder.
  • 3The game reads a list called select.def to know what to show on the select screen.
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Fill in the Blanks
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Characters live in the folder and stages live in the folder.
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Knowledge Check
+15 XP
Where does a character folder go?
Achars
Bstages
Csound
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Meet select.def
The game menu list
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Goal for this step

Find select.def and understand its two lists.

  • 1select.def lives in data/ (or data/mugen/ in newer versions).
  • 2The [Characters] section lists every fighter to show.
  • 3The [ExtraStages] section lists the stages.
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Fill in the Blanks
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The list of fighters is in the section of select.def.
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Knowledge Check
+15 XP
What does select.def control?
AThe sound volume
BWhich fighters and stages appear in the game
CThe screen size
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What a Character Is
A folder of files
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Goal for this step

Understand that a fighter is just files that point at each other.

  • 1A character is a folder with a .def file, plus sprites, animations, commands, states and sounds.
  • 2The def file is the boss: it tells the engine where every other file is.
  • 3Every fighter, from the built-in ones to the wildest fan-made ones, has this same shape.
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Fill in the Blanks
+15 XP
The main file the engine reads first is the file.
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Knowledge Check
+15 XP
What is the main file of a character?
AThe .def file
BThe .sff file
CThe .snd file
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Welcome to MUGEN!
You have the engine running and you know the folder layout. Now you meet the files that make a fighter.
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Next: Episode 2: What Makes a Fighter →