[1][2][3][4][5] Taking place in an Ancient Egypt setting, players assume the role of a pharaoh warrior who embarks on a journey to save his wife while fighting against mythical beings and Egyptian gods.

[6] Big Karnak is a platform game reminiscent of Trojan and Ghouls 'n Ghosts, where players assume the role of a pharaoh warrior who embarks on a journey through four increasingly difficult levels taking place in an Ancient Egypt setting to save his wife by defeating the Egyptian gods Horus, Nut, Isis and Osiris.

[13] Big Karnak was created under the working title El Faraón by a small team at Gaelco, a Spanish game development company co-founded in 1985 by former Tecfri members Luis Jonama, Josep Quinglés and Javier Valero, serving as one of their first arcade projects alongside Master Boy.

[14][15][16] Gaelco decided to work on a horizontal-scrolling arcade game similar to Double Dragon, Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja and Ghouls 'n Ghosts, recruiting writer Toni López Yeste to create the artwork, scripts and animation.

[14][15][16] Arrebola was first introduced to video games Asteroids during his college days and joined Gaelco in 1989 when Big Karnak was in a more advanced development state due to his interest with computer graphics, being in charge of both character animations and level design.

[16] Arrebola also stated that team members gave their ideas during development, as equipment and resources were limited, with Yeste claiming that enemies which broke the Egyptian aesthetic was due to the collaborative effort.