Picture Spongebob Squarepants defeating Homer Simpson by blowing bubbles at him, and you’ll get the idea. This incredible creative output from the community resulted in some surprising and even bizarre matchups. “It unleashed a global community of fans and creators (and copyright dissidents) that is still active to this day, illustrating the power of games and unsponsored modding communities as a force for expression.” It gave users a degree of artistic license that had never been seen in the fighting genre,” said Austin Yarger, CSE teaching faculty and video game development expert. “MUGEN was an early, stand-out example of user-generated content. It was also one of the first games to mobilize a massive online audience and community of modders. MUGEN, known by many as the infinite fighting game, was unmatched in the creative freedom it afforded its users. Now, recently resurfaced legal documents have revealed that the three creators of this game engine are, in fact, alums of the University of Michigan, two of them hailing from the EECS Department. The creators of MUGEN, however, have been unknown and have staunchly maintained their anonymity for decades.
