The Rookie's likeness was originally modeled after level designer Eric Schatz, but his likeness was reportedly removed because the animators felt his in-game model looked too similar to Gordon Freeman from the Half-Life series.

The original model was only intended to be temporary, as the developers originally planned for the game to include a character creator to let the player determine the appearance of the Rookie. This feature was dropped when they determined that they had to pre-render the game's cinematics.