State of Decay released on Xbox 360 and PC to mostly positive reviews in 2013, so a lot of fans were happy when developer Undead Labs announced the game would receive an upgrade for the Xbox One with the release of State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition in 2015. The game, which comes out next month, features all of the game's graphics bumped up to 1080p resolution, as well as both of the title's DLC expansion packs.

As Undead Labs set out to upgrade the resolution, they found additional ways to improve the game's visuals, like increasing the draw distance. But unfortunately for the developers, they also found something quite unexpected. They found tiny drawings of male genitalia, not unlike what you would find in a teenage boys' locker room.

Confused? So was Undead Labs Senior Designer Geoffrey Card, as he told website XBLA Fans at PAX East last weekend. Card said the upgrade required Undead Labs to rework all of the lower resolution backgrounds, and when they did, they found that someone had drawn more than a few phallus shapes throughout the game's environments.

Card said that because Undead was a small indie studio with a vision for a big, open-world game, they had to turn to outside contractors to help them finish development. It is these contractors who secretly drew the genitalia. Because the original textures for the backgrounds were low-res, they were not able to be seen in the original game and managed to slip through quality assurance testing.

And so began the task of not just upgrading the old textures, but meticulously scrubbing them of the unwanted artwork. XBLA Fans said they had an opportunity to play the game at PAX East, and noted that this funny story is a testament to just how much the graphics have been upgraded. If Undead Labs had just bumped the resolution and not bothered reworking the individual files, no one likely would have ever found what was hidden in the original game.

The Year One Edition of the game will also feature never before released content, including new weapons like an assault rifle with an underside grenade launcher and new vehicles including SUVs. The playthrough available at PAX allowed the player to ride in a vehicle called the "Jurassic Junction" that is clearly inspired by Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, there is still no multiplayer.

While this story is amusing, it could also be looked at as commentary on how difficult it is to make a major, big budget video game today. Most indie studios don't have the budget to hire contractors, but even if they do, bringing in outsiders also brings the risk of new complications. A lot of contract jobs in the video game industry can end up feeling like grunt work, so it's not surprising (but no less disheartening) to hear that a group decided to have a little fun at Undead Labs' expense.

State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition will release on April 28, 2015 for Xbox One.

Source: XBLA Fans