Randall Wayne was named after a character in J. G. Ballard's 1981 novel "Hello America"; the stowaway Wayne. In terms of Randall's persona, the developers were not interested in creating a typical video game hero, someone who could easily fight off attacking zombies, instead, they looked at "what would the average person do if the apocalypse suddenly hit tomorrow?" Co-writer Antonio Rojano Mora explains "We wanted a character that wasn't your typical cop, soldier, murderer or survivor. He's just a normal guy with his own problems, weaknesses and fears." Munárriz similarly states "he is not a soldier, he is not a scientist, he is not a hero."