In Hovertank One, the player controls Brick Sledge, a mercenary hired by an unknown organization (referred to by the game as the "UFA") to rescue people from cities under the threat of nuclear attack (largely political activists or scientists), both by the government and by large corporations, but the cities are also full of mutated humans, strange creatures and enemy hovertanks.

The player receives their fee, based on the number of people safely rescued, and how fast the operation was completed.

Following the engine's completion, the id staff decided on the nuclear war theme and developed the game.

The source code to the game, owned by Flat Rock Software, was released in June 2014 under GNU GPL-2.0-or-later in a manner similar those done by id and partners.

Other 3D titles at the time, such as flight simulators and other games (such as Alpha Waves) that had more detailed environments, were noticeably slower.