Doomguy

The Doomguy (also spelled Doom Guy, as well as referred to as the Doom Marine, Doom Slayer or just the Slayer in 2016's Doom and Doom Eternal) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Doom video game franchise of first-person shooters created by id Software. He was created by American video game designer John Romero. He was introduced as the player character in the original 1993 video game Doom. Within the Doom series, Doomguy is a demon hunter space marine dressed in green combat armor who rarely speaks onscreen, and his personality and backstory were intentionally vague to reinforce his role as a player avatar. 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. He has appeared in several other games developed by id Software, including Quake Champions and Quake III Arena. He has been featured in several other game franchises, including his likeness as a customizable skin for the Mii Gunner character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, being added as an outfit in Fall Guys, and an outfit in Fortnite. He received mainly positive reviews, with some critics praising him for being a competent protagonist. Concept and creation The Marine is not referred to by name in the original game. Romero described this choice as increasing player immersion: "There was never a name for the [Doom] marine because it's supposed to be YOU [the player]". The character sprites were created by Adrian Carmack, based on an initial sketch and clay model he made. In 2017, John Romero stated that he was the original model of the character for the cover box art. In 2020, Romero revealed that the real name of the character is Doomguy. In 2021, Doom Eternal director Hugo Martin revealed that the female Doomguy was nearly added, but scrapped due to how much of an endeavor it would have been. Tom Hall's original design draft, "The Doom Bible", described several planned characters, all of whom went unused in the final version. The sole non-playable character, Buddy Dacote, bore the most similarities to the original game's eventual protagonist. "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. In the finished product, this nearly happens to the Marine in the final level of the first episode, but the player survives.