The idea of adding a prisoner team in the game is actually a leftover idea from The King of Fighters '94.

KOF XIV was originally going to have a more realistic look during the earlier stages of development in order to emulate the aesthetic of The King of Fighters '94. However, because certain characters have unrealistic features such as blue or pink/purple hair like Kula or Athena, the developers thought it would end up looking weird. Instead, they tweaked things and wound up with the current graphics.

The game engine was internally developed by SNK. Initially, the team considered using the Unreal Engine. It was decided to develop a new engine instead as SNK didn't feel confident after consideration of the potential risks and budget.

The development team only had a total of 3-4 designers. Despite this, Oda decided to have 50 characters in the game. To save production time and budget, he allowed for three characters to obscure their faces so they would not require facial animations.

Nelson has two character models within the game's data for both the left and right sides of the screen. The reason for this is because of Nelson's mechanical prosthetic left arm which may be enhancing his punching power on that side, resulting in a change of power if his initial stance is reversed.

In a developer interview by Famitsu, the development team stated that the reason they decided to add South American and China teams was because the popularity of KOF in those regions and (in the case of China) because Chinese players didn't know Team Psycho Soldier was technically Team China. They also confirmed that they wanted to add stereotypical Shaolin fighters into the China Team, but after taking a trip to the country, they realized everyone was super fashionable and so they added cool-looking characters instead.

This is also the reason why Nelson (from Team South America) is a cool looking character rather than a typical buff-looking boxer.

Sylvie Paula Paula's appearance, name, and mannerisms are an homage to the music video for the song "PONPONPON" by Japanese pop singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.