According to producer James Hampton, "Alien vs Predator" originally started as a corridor-based shooter for the Atari Lynx that was in development by Images Software, a UK-based developer who created a demo that only featured both the Colonial Marine and Predator as playable characters but lacked the Alien, while its design document featured characters and locations that referenced Dark Horse Comics' "Alien Versus Predator" series, in addition to being one of his first projects when he started working for Atari Corporation in 1992 after leaving LucasArts. However, the project was put on hold and later cancelled as Atari Corp. focused its resources on the then-upcoming Jaguar but work on it was later restarted, as the company was ramping up production of then-upcoming titles for the Jaguar but it was originally intended to be a port of the Super Nintendo beat 'em up game "Alien Vs. Predator", which was developed by the Japan-based developer Jorudan, but James felt it did not represent the franchise's universe and characters properly. He then submitted an updated design proposal of the project to both 20th Century Fox and Activision, which now labeled it as a first-person shooter with the ability of playing as either of the three characters and without elements from the comic book series. The decision of having three playable characters was an idea from Chris and Jason Kingsley, who both had the desire to play as either side. Atari also shared the original design documents from the cancelled Lynx game with Rebellion Developments, along with other concepts created by the former's internal team.