Over two decades after its release, a System Shock 2 dev has revealed that part of the game’s design came from inside someone’s colon.
In an August 4 episode of Nightdive Studios’ Deep Dive podcast, former Irrational Games artist Nate Wells shared how the infamous “sphincter doors” were made. To craft the grotesque, organic aesthetic of System Shock 2’s alien environments, Wells turned to real medical imagery, specifically, stills from a colonoscopy.
That footage came from none other than producer Josh Randall. It turns out Wells took a still frame from Randall’s colonoscopy, flattened it in Photoshop, and used it as the base texture for the fleshy doors seen throughout the section of the game known as The Many.
Real colonoscopy used in System Shock 2
“I think I was searching through a bunch of gross biological endoscopy sort of stuff, and Josh Randall approached me, and said he had a video of his colonoscopy,” said Wells. So, he gave me his colonoscopy video or some stills…There’s a lot of alteration to it, but if you look at those doors… you’re seeing audio genius Josh Randall’s colon.”
The “sphincter doors” appear during the game’s late stages, when players enter the twisted biological realm of The Many, a grotesque hive-mind entity that has infected the Von Braun space vessel. The clean corridors of earlier levels are replaced with fleshy walls that feel deeply uncomfortable to walk down, and the real medical footage helped push this creepiness even further.
Wells is no stranger to designing deeply atmospheric and disturbing environments. After System Shock 2, he went on to work on BioShock and The Last of Us, both of which feature some incredibly creepy enemies and environments.
Originally released in 1999, System Shock 2 is widely regarded as a genre-defining sci-fi horror game. But this behind-the-scenes detail adds a new layer of grotesque realism to the experience. It wasn’t just designed to look organic. It was.
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