Welcome to Combat Design 101. This Article is designed to go over the fundamentals of combat design. In specific, the basics of a melee combat system, as the principals covered in this article do not necessarily apply to projectile combat or shooters in general. Every combat system has its own unique features and nuances, but somewhere at the heart of every good combat game you’ll find the designs that are covered here, whether it’s a 2-D or 3-D fighter like Street Fighter or Soul Calibur or a 3-D beat-em up like God of War. Though this is an article geared toward designers I will go into some detail on a few technical details. The first is a construct known as a State Machine. The state machine is central to any combat system so the first section will be dedicated to describing what a state machine is. If you are already familiar with state machines and are comfortable using them please feel free to skip the first section.