by Greg on Mar 23, 2016
Ark: Survival Evolved has been making a big splash all year, but in an interview with Kotaku at GDC they took the time to elaborate on how some of the game's smaller features, like pooping, came to be. The answer, surprisingly enough, is that pooping is their version of the suicide button you'll see in many open world games these days. Studio co-founder Susan Stieglitz explained.
If you’re trapped in a room, it’s the only conceivable biological function you could kill yourself with. Originally, we were debating putting in a suicide key to escape situations like that.
The pooping feature has evolved since the game's initial release, and now even has a very useful function in that it can be used to fertilize crops and craft other materials. With the pooping systems success it will be interesting to see if games currently in development add bodily functions to their own characters. Master Chief may have to jump out of his suit for a bathroom break soon enough.