Id Software had released Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 and was ready to move on. John Carmack wanted to build a new 3D engine and a game about using technology to fight demons, inspired by a tabletop campaign the team had played. Co-founder Tom Hall wrote a detailed design document with a science fiction horror plot about a lunar portal to an alien invasion, but Carmack dismissed the need for a story and pushed for fast, continuous action. Hall was eventually removed from the project in 1993, and the team rebuilt the levels around their engine. Multiplayer was added only a month before release, and the word deathmatch came from that testing. The result shaped the first-person shooter genre for decades.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.