While game developers often use organic, `fleshy` designs to create unsettling environments, Looking Glass, the original creators of System Shock 2, pushed this concept to an extreme in the 1990s. System Shock 2 artist Nate Wells recently revealed that the unsettling biological structures of the game`s alien faction, The Many, were surprisingly based on photographs from a fellow developer`s colonoscopy.
Nate Wells shared this unique anecdote during a `Deep Dive` podcast, recounting the creative process for `The Many.` He explained that he was designing the game`s iconic `sphincter doors` and was seeking inspiration from `gross biological images` like endoscopy photos. It was then that Looking Glass producer Josh Randall offered him footage from his own colonoscopy.
“When we were working on The Many, if you remember, it has this very biological vibe to it… this fleshy mass that has taken over the Rickenbacker. We did these things called `sphincter doors,` this sphincter that opens up. I was making the doors and doing the concept. I think I was searching through some gross biological [images], like endoscopy sort of stuff. [Looking Glass producer] Josh Randall approached me and said he had a video of his colonoscopy.”
Randall provided Wells with stills from his colonoscopy video. Wells then utilized a specific frozen frame, “from somewhere in his large intestine,” as the foundational texture for the iconic sphincter doors. Wells humorously noted, “If you look at those doors, you`re seeing Josh Randall`s colon — audio genius Josh Randall`s colon.”
Upon its release in 1999, System Shock 2 garnered widespread critical acclaim. Most players remained entirely unaware that they were navigating environments textured with human anatomy while battling alien entities—a peculiar fact predating even Futurama`s similar `inner body` adventures by years.
The 25th-anniversary remaster of System Shock 2 recently debuted on PC, followed by a July release on consoles after a brief delay. This remaster was a challenging `labor of love` for Nightdive Studios, who began the project in 2019 without the original game`s complete source code, requiring extensive reverse-engineering to reconstruct it.
This article rephrases and translates content originally published by GameSpot.