'Dacote' is an acronym for 'Dies at conclusion of this episode', and Buddy was supposed to be killed by a boss at the end of the planned third episode. The sole non-playable character, Buddy Dacote, bore the most similarities to the original game's eventual protagonist. Tom Hall's original design draft, 'The Doom Bible', described several planned characters, all of whom went unused in the final version. In 2021, According to Doom Eternal's director, Hugo Martin that the female Doomguy was nearly added, but scrapped due to how much of an endeavor it would have been. In 2020, id Software co-founder, John Romero revealed that the real name of the character is Doomguy. In 2017, Romero stated that he was the original model of the character for the cover box art. The character sprites were created by Adrian Carmack, based on an initial sketch and clay model he made.

Romero described this choice as increasing player immersion: 'There was never a name for the marine because it's supposed to be YOU '. The Marine is not referred to by name in the original game. He received mainly positive reviews, with some critics praising him as the Doom series' badass and violent protagonist. He has featured in several other game franchises, including his likeness as a customizable skin for the Mii Gunner character in Super Smash Bros. He has appeared in several other games developed by id Software, including Quake Champions and Quake III Arena. In Doom Eternal, he is voiced by American voice actor Matthew Waterson, while Jason Kelley voices the character in that game's downloadable content The Ancient Gods: Part Two. Within the Doom series, Doomguy is a space marine dressed in green combat armor who rarely speaks onscreen, and his personality and backstory was intentionally vague to reinforce his role as a player avatar. He was introduced as the player character in the original 1993 video game Doom. He was created by American video game designer John Romero. Doomguy, also referred to as the Doom Marine, the Doom Slayer or just the Slayer, is a fictional character from the Doom video game franchise of first-person shooters created by id Software.

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