[06.26.26] Development Update: Our Direction After the Latest Update (Updated)

Hello everyone,:psycat_blush: :psycat_blush:

Since this update has just been released, we don’t have a new development video to share this week. Instead, we’d like to talk about how our team reviewed the feedback you’ve been sending us and share the direction we’ve decided to take moving forward.

If you feel we’ve overlooked something or made the wrong call, please don’t hesitate to let us know. We genuinely value your feedback, and if necessary, we’ll revise our plans accordingly.

One important change we’ve made internally is reorganizing our development process. Rather than keeping a dedicated team focused solely on bug fixing and stabilization, every member of the development team is now contributing to improving the areas listed below while continuing to resolve bugs and increase overall stability.

Our primary development goal after July is clear:

To eliminate bugs, stabilize existing features, and ensure every system works together naturally and reliably, creating a game that feels as close to real life as possible.

Family & Characters

  • Add family photo capture and saving.
  • Support editing entire families together.
  • Expand family relationship and family bond settings.
  • Introduce family presets.
  • Allow players to add new family members during gameplay.

:lemon: Conversations, Personality & Emotions

  • Improve conversations so they better reflect the current situation and context.
  • Expand and refine dialogue choices.
  • Allow new acquired traits to develop based on characters’ values.
  • Improve the Aspiration system.
  • Further develop the Expectations system.
  • Add more personality traits.
  • Increase the maximum number of traits a character can have.
  • Prepare the new Donut Trait specialization system.
  • Add ambitions designed specifically for children.
  • Improve emotional expressions and animations.

:man_lifting_weights: Life, Careers & Daily Activities

  • Improve meal-related behaviors.
  • Add a wider variety of dishes.
  • Introduce an ingredient-based cooking system.
  • Prevent objects from being cleaned up unnecessarily.
  • Further improve the career system.
  • Improve Smart Zoi behavior.
  • Give top-performing graduates advantages during job interviews.

:skis: Skills, Furniture & Content

  • Improve the skill system.
  • Expand furniture functionality.
  • Make food left unattended on ranges or stoves capable of starting fires.
  • Expand career-related gameplay content.
  • Improve toddler interactions.
  • Ensure the Expectations system activates only in appropriate situations.

:oncoming_automobile: Autonomy & Relationships

  • Deepen autonomy-related personality traits.
  • Add the ability to stay overnight at another character’s home.
  • Expand the romance system.
  • Strengthen family relationship storytelling.
  • Allow NPCs to approach and initiate interactions with the player more naturally.

I’ve never developed a game like this before.
Creating a game together with the community is a completely new experience for me, and one that I truly treasure. I even find myself telling my son about this journey quite often.
Sometimes I see messages from people who are worried about me. Thank you, sincerely, for your kindness.
Right now, I’m making the game I’ve always wanted to create.
Of course, this game could fail. Life doesn’t always unfold according to our plans. But I’m not sure “failure” is really the right word.
I once read a sentence in a book that has stayed with me:

“We suffer because of the standards we create for ourselves.”

I believe life isn’t something that has to prove itself by meeting a certain standard. It’s something we’re here to experience. The moment I truly accepted that, many of the worries and expectations that once weighed on me began to fade.
Please continue sharing your thoughts and feedback with us.
We’ll continue listening with sincerity.

:heart_eyes: Thank you.:heart_eyes:

kjun :growing_heart:


Kjun’s Reply to Your Comments

:smiling_face: Hello everyone,

First of all, I want to sincerely thank everyone who took the time to write such detailed and thoughtful feedback. Our development team is reading every comment and suggestion one by one, and we’re not only looking at what was requested, but also trying to understand why those opinions were raised.

I’d also like to clarify something that seems to have caused some confusion. The list I shared last Friday was only intended to cover the work planned through the August update. It was not a complete list of everything currently in development.

Feature Feedback (FF) is still actively being worked on, and we’re tracking it internally while steadily checking items off the list. That said, because unexpected priorities and urgent updates inevitably come up during development, I can’t promise that every FF item will be completed within this year. However, these features remain an important part of our long-term plans and are always being considered. I think my post last Friday unintentionally created the impression that they had been abandoned, and that’s my mistake. :man_bowing: :man_bowing: :man_bowing:

The development direction I shared on Friday came from discussions with the inZOI Creative Director after reviewing the feedback we’ve seen most frequently over the past few weeks. The strongest common message from the community was:

“New features are important, but right now it’s even more important to deepen and improve the systems that already exist.”

The list I posted reflects our effort to begin addressing that feedback while continuing regular updates.

At the same time, the foundational system improvements currently in progress, as well as the features many of you have been looking forward to from our Feature Feedback and existing roadmap, remain major development priorities.

Going forward, our focus won’t simply be on adding more content. Instead, we want to build stronger connections between existing systems so that they work together naturally and create an experience that feels more like real life.

For example, if your Zoi makes a new friend, we want them to naturally meet again at the park the following week. A gift received from a parent shouldn’t just be another inventory item—it should remain a meaningful memory that can continue to provide comfort even years later.

The family system is being designed with this same philosophy. Rather than simply allowing players to add family members, we want family relationships to influence memories and emotions, those emotions to affect autonomous behavior, conversations, and daily life, and those experiences to create new memories over time.

We’re approaching the personality system in a similar way. In the future, personality shouldn’t just be information shown in a menu. It should influence how a Zoi behaves, speaks, expresses emotions, builds relationships, makes decisions, and acts autonomously. Ideally, players shouldn’t have to open the personality window to understand a character—they should naturally think, "This is exactly the kind of person this Zoi is.":heart_eyes:

Dialogue is another area we’re continuing to improve. Conversations should reflect context and relationships much more naturally. A Zoi shouldn’t speak to a stranger the same way they speak to a longtime friend, family member, or romantic partner. Instead, conversations should evolve based on the relationship, recent events, and each character’s emotional state.:smiling_face:

Many of you have also emphasized family gameplay and generational gameplay, and we completely agree that these are core parts of a life simulation game. Family creation and editing, genetics, life stages, parenting, family photos, and family presets are all areas we plan to continue expanding and improving over time.

Likewise, systems such as school, careers, the economy, cooking, vehicles, and daily routines shouldn’t exist as isolated features. They should naturally interact with one another. Cooking should connect to ingredients, shopping, farming, and the economy. School should influence friendships, personal growth, and personality development. Careers should affect finances and family life. Our goal is to build systems that support and enrich one another instead of existing independently.

We’ve also seen a great deal of feedback regarding bugs and overall polish, and we consider this just as important as adding new content. Even the best features lose their value if they aren’t stable or enjoyable to use. For that reason, we’re investing a significant amount of development effort into improving quality alongside new features. In particular, recurring bugs and issues that disrupt gameplay are receiving high priority.:grin:

Another common request has been for inZOI to strengthen its own unique identity. We completely agree. Our goal isn’t simply to increase the number of features, but to continue building a world with its own culture, atmosphere, and personality—something that feels distinctly like inZOI rather than simply resembling other life simulation games.

While it’s impossible to implement every suggestion in a single update, your feedback genuinely influences how we prioritize development. We’ll continue doing our best to communicate our plans openly and transparently as we work together with all of you to shape the future of inZOI.

Thank you, as always, for your support, your patience, and the thoughtful feedback you’ve shared with us.

kjun :growing_heart:

34 Likes

Thank you so much for your hardwork @Kjun plus the team. I am really looking forward to the update. Especially towards the improved autonomy, personalities and the addition of new dishes and cooking system! Don’t forget to rest! You and your team should be proud of what you have accomplished so far and I am happy to hear that you can finally create the game you always wanted​:heart::heart_hands:

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Hi! Thanks for the story! It’s really great to see that now bugs will be fixed by the whole team - I think that way it’ll be much faster, more productive, and easier for you all! :+1:

From what’s listed, I’d suggest adding to the “Autonomy and Relationships” section the points “Ability to play as a homeless family” and “Ability to rent a house in another city without buying it”. We’ve received quite a lot of requests from players for these over time :folded_hands:

And yes, I really hope everything goes wonderfully for you and there are no reasons for upset! What you’re creating is already amazing, regardless of anyone’s expectations! :heart:

:nerd_face: P.S. yes, a small note: there are issues with the forum. In the English version, all the text is visible in full, including the picture at the end. But if you read it in Russian, the text cuts off at the phrase “But I’m not sure if the word ‘failure’” - and that’s where it ends.

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Playing custom videos in-game…

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This is wonderful :light_blue_heart::light_blue_heart::light_blue_heart:

  • Allow players to add new family members during gameplay.
  • Improve emotional expressions and animations.
  • Add a wider variety of dishes.
  • Introduce an ingredient-based cooking system.
  • Introduce family presets.

… actually the whole list is great..!! Thank you so much Kjun and team​:heart_hands::two_hearts: we appreciate you.

7 Likes

This is so exciting! Thank you @kjun and team for your hard work!

I wanted to see if there could be an announcement or update regarding the ragdoll physics and frying pan not working in game right now. I know a lot of players have not been able to use those interactions since the HS update and the new hotfix didn’t seem to help anything in that area.

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Dear @Kjun My suggestions ;

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I’m so happy that the team is now focusing on improving the game’s current systems!

I’m especially excited about:

  • Animation improvements (I hope you’ll increase the duration of various animations / interactions, I wrote more about this here: Более длительные взаимодействия (ПОЖАЛУЙСТА :D))
  • The ability to save family presets (if this means we’ll be able to save entire families in the library and on Canvas, that’s so cool, so many players have been asking for this for a long time!)
  • Improved food-related behaviors (though I’d like to see the food animation made shorter, it would be great to see improvement in this aspect)
  • Increased number of dishes (I’m very much looking forward to new dishes! Please add the ability to cook all dishes for the family so that it’s available for every dish)
  • Pause cleaning items (that’s great too, especially I’d like to cancel autonomous floor cleaning after feeding or changing a baby’s diaper, even characters with autonomy disabled interrupt their actions to pick up a bottle or diaper from the floor, it’s annoying)
  • Context-based dialogues (that sounds cool!)
  • Expanded furniture functionality (I’m incredibly intrigued, I’m very much looking forward to it!)

Overall, I loved all of your ideas! I’m looking forward to every update, every message! You wrote that the game might not work out, but that’s not true, because the game HAS already worked out and gets better with each month :heart: And special thanks for your transparency, honesty, and communication with the community! Take care of yourselves, you’re making a wonderful game :heart::folded_hands:t2:

7 Likes

There should be support for scripts and car mods now. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

When is the update to have the ability to maintain relationships even after your Zoi has moved to another city?

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holds up her plate i’ll take two buns thank you

Thank you, Kjun and inZOI Team, for continuing to improve this beautiful game. You are doing an amazing job and I absolutely love seeing all the new systems getting connected and forming a coherent world full of stories and possibilities. And don’t beat yourself up too much about bugs or systems that are not perfect yet – you are doing everything right.

This is still early access, which means you are very much allowed to make mistakes, and right now, inZOI is already looking more polished and running more stable than many fully released AAA games by other developers, so you can be proud of yourself. Life simulation is probably the single most difficult genre to develop, which is why almost nobody else ever dared do it. But you had the courage to go for it, and you have the skill and talent to pull it off, and you have the fans to cheer for you and support you while you do it.

Keep on going, never give up, and always believe in yourself and your vision. You are amazing, and inZOI is amazing. Thank you.

PS: And while you’re at it, maybe take a tiny little look at my tiny little issue:

2 Likes

I am one of those who really appreciate the game you create. I played Sims4 for a long time, but since Zoi came out, I haven’t played The Sims at all
I also have a request: Variable jealousy level. And in real life there are shady relationships with extreme jealousy, and relationships completely devoid of jealousy, especially when it comes to just friendships. I would like there to be a slider for each Zoi where the jealousy level can be adjusted. There was a mod that completely canceled jealousy, but after the update it didn’t work anymore
Bug: After the update Zoi enters the bathroom wearing a party outfit

4 Likes

I’m so excited by the way that Inzoi takes !!! It’s my favorite game and it inspired me to create stories. I’m so happy that in the game we could finally have family pictures or add directly a new member in the family. About the interactions between the family i hope that Inzoi team will developp the education part a little more between the children/Teen and the parents for example helping the kids with the homeworks (and it could be fun that the game take in count the skills of the parents for example if they helped the kids in an area where they are not good at it , the result could still be bad and when they are good then the result of the helping would be good too), push them to do the homework (even force them when they don’t want), be able to scold them when they disobey for example, having some curfew. Anyway i wish to have more education family interactions in the game (it misses of lot for me). I’m also happy to get more dishes and if you can also turn the dish we can only cook for one person in the game to a family option like tteobbokki for example it would be great !!! Having more character traits is also good to make different zoi in the game (i would like something like “hates kids” to create some parents who don’t care about kids and being more selfish) Anyway i love the fact that you will create more, it’s awesome. I’m also grateful that you always try to fix the bugs and make the game stable for everyone. The update for high school we get last week, at the beginning i was scared to be disappointed but when you released the first things i started to be excited and i haven’t been disappointed at all !!! I love the way you make the high school system (having different classes per day, changing room etc… It’s awesome and i also like the homeworks system, great job thank you so much !!!

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One request i would make is the donuts to have some of them add the bonuses permanently not just for a few days and make them cheaper to get , Some take days to get and only last a day or even less

I’m grateful for anything that expands family gameplay. Every new feature that gives families more depth and creates more opportunities for storytelling is something I’ll happily welcome.

I also hope you and the team don’t get discouraged by all the different opinions. It’s impossible to make a life simulation that fits everyone perfectly. It reminds me of buying clothes: they usually fit almost everyone somehow, but they’re rarely a perfect fit for anyone.

Maybe the best solution is to give players more customizable gameplay options. The more we can adjust the game to our own preferences, the easier it becomes for each of us to build our own world and tell the stories we want to tell. I think that’s one of the greatest strengths a life simulation can have.

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Thank you Kjun! You and the team have truly created a wonderful game. Don’t think it as a failure at all. If anything, it just need some good investment in marketing when 1.0 releases.

As for feedback, please do not forget about core issues like:

  • Traveling to other cities without buying plot.
  • NPC progress not being lost in the origin world when traveling to another city.
  • Adding more CAZ-ready relationships (like siblings without the need of a parent, or girlfriend/boyfriend, best friends, etc).

I think 1.0 should at least have those three issues resolved :folded_hands:

Have a good day :pink_heart:

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Mr.Kjun,

Thank you so much for considering it, can we also pleas add that the team work on better emote? better posemaker posibilities rigth now the emote is not working very well and imitates poorly the movement of the zoi when giving a picture. It would help us storytellers so much if we could make our own poses and animations that works, idk if it is possible to make them in a program and impliment it into the game? Pleas cosider it.

Kind regards

Hibozoi

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Dear @Kjun

The inzoi should game integrate zodiac signs. This significantly diversifies the personality and behavioral system.

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