[07.03.26] inZOI Development Update: Preparing for the August Update (Updated)

Hello,

It is a wonderful Friday. I would like to share this week’s development progress from the inZOI team.

First, there seems to have been some misunderstanding regarding last week’s post. To clarify once again, the list we shared last week consists of items we are preparing with the goal of including them in the update at the end of August.:smiling_face:

Separately from that work, we are also continuing to develop the FF list in parallel. It is true that we have not been able to address as many FF items as we would have liked so far. However, around 40% of them have been handled, and there are many items we have not been able to disclose yet due to the update schedule and release order. In the second half of the year, we plan to focus more heavily on FF.

In recent builds, we have been finding more bugs and stability issues than expected. As the person responsible for development, I find this situation deeply unfortunate, and it weighs heavily on me. Even today, we identified three new major issues, and we are preparing a hotfix by working on them over the weekend. With thousands of features in the game, even a single broken part can create a chain reaction of problems, which makes things difficult for the team.:saluting_face:

We always want to show you a better game, but we know there are still many areas where we fall short. For that reason, rather than pushing too hard to add new features in this update, we plan to focus more on reducing bugs and improving stability.

I feel like I may be repeating the same message every time, almost like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,”:cry: but this time, we will do our very best to prove it through results. I believe in the inZOI team.

Thank you sincerely to everyone who continues to support us and generously share your feedback.

Have a wonderful weekend.

kjun :growing_heart:


Kjun’s Reply to Your Comments

:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: Hello everyone,:smiling_face:

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank everyone who took the time to share such detailed feedback.

This round of feedback included many specific thoughts on where inZOI needs more depth, which elements are interrupting the flow of gameplay, and how inZOI can further strengthen its own identity. I would like to share in more detail what direction the development team is currently considering.

The biggest direction we confirmed from this week’s feedback is that personality, emotions, relationships, skills, autonomous behavior, group activities, and school life should not exist as separate systems. Instead, they need to connect with each other naturally. Since many of you have continued to raise this point, the inZOI team sees it as a very important task and is preparing development around it. Recently, it would not be an exaggeration to say that a significant part of our overall development direction has been focused on improving this sense of connection.

In particular, we carefully reviewed the feedback that a Zoi’s personality and traits need to be reflected more clearly in their actual behavior. Even in the same situation, each Zoi should react differently. When their priorities for autonomous behavior, conversation style, emotional expression, and daily routines vary, the character can feel much more alive. We also believe that emotional expression should not simply be more intense, but should appear naturally according to the situation and the Zoi’s personality.:slightly_smiling_face:

While adding interactions based on time, place, and role, we also identified a bug where conversations were occurring abnormally often. We also found cases where a Zoi would suddenly bring up negative conversations when left alone. Because of this, we are reviewing the conversation selection logic, which had not been sufficiently refined until now. Some improvements will be applied through tomorrow’s patch. Our goal is to make conversations occur not as simple random events, but as natural results of accumulated context, mood, and situation. We want players to feel that they can understand why a certain topic came up at that moment.

We also reviewed many opinions about the text message UI. Many players felt that the current structure, where a small notification appears first and the player can open the phone when they want to check it, feels more natural and realistic. On the other hand, there were also concerns that a full message popup could block the screen and interrupt the flow of gameplay. Therefore, we currently plan to maintain the existing text message UI structure.

However, apart from the UI structure, we do believe the content of text messages needs to better reflect each Zoi’s personality, intimacy, relationship status, emotions, and situational context. Recently, while reviewing issues related to emotions and conversations with the team, we also found that some emotion colors overlap and can be confusing. Because of this, we plan to reorganize the emotion colors as well. Once this is ready, we will share the results as soon as possible. We will also improve the names of interaction targets and the conversation mood UI so that emotions, situations, and context can be communicated more clearly.

We also took the feedback on the skill system very seriously. Many players said that for skills to feel like real growth, elements such as knowledge, practical experience, aptitude, failure, feedback, specialization, and rewards need to be better connected. It is difficult to change the entire structure all at once, but we will continue reviewing ways to make skills feel like a more meaningful long-term growth experience. We will also work on aligning the tone of skills with emotions, and in the long term, we hope to make abilities naturally influence not only balance, but also careers, economic activity, and conversation ability.

We are also paying close attention to feedback about group activities and the experience of doing things together. In situations involving family, friends, dates, school, restaurants, or clubs, if Zois scatter and act separately instead of behaving like people who came together, the sense of relationship and situational context becomes weaker. We believe the game needs a structure where the purpose of a group naturally leads to actual behavior, such as sitting at the same table, eating together, watching TV together, dancing together, or moving together.

Because of the bug that caused too many conversations to occur, we applied somewhat stronger restrictions to casual chat behavior. However, it seems that cooperative actions did not sufficiently reflect target weighting in the same way conversations did. We are also fixing the recent issue where Zois keep trying to leave the lot. We are preparing improvements in this area so that we can show better results in August. We also plan to adjust the data so that Zois behave more appropriately in parks and outdoor areas.

We also reviewed feedback on autonomous eating behavior. Situations where another Zoi eats a snack while a family meal is being prepared, cooks new food when leftovers are available, or repeatedly cooks even when they are not hungry can reduce the natural feeling of a life simulation. While adding interactions based on time, place, and role, we also experimented with behavior where a parent character prepares food when present. However, when we try to add intention to every action, the simulation can sometimes become unstable in unexpected ways, so this is not an easy task. Even so, we do not intend to give up. We will organize the meal rules that many players have requested and also work on increasing the variety of food. :smiling_face:

We also received a lot of feedback about school and teen content. Many players responded positively to the High School update, but there were also many suggestions regarding school hours, club activities, homework, movement flow, uniforms, lockers, Prom, and commuting methods. We believe school should not simply be a place for classes, but a space where friendships, clubs, teenage daily life, and growth events all occur together.

We clearly recognized the concerns regarding graphical quality as well. Optimization remains an ongoing task, but many players also want to experience sufficiently high visual quality on high-end systems. The Ultra option needs to truly feel like Ultra, and issues such as vegetation, lighting, reflections after rain, distance rendering, and the perceived impact of DLSS have continued to be mentioned. Many players also requested that low-end optimization and high-end visual quality preservation be separated as much as possible. We are also reviewing graphical improvements for the next update, although the actual results are likely to arrive around October. We want inZOI to offer options that allow high-end users to enjoy better graphics.:saluting_face:

We also consider the feedback that the city needs to feel more alive very important. A city should not simply be a beautiful background. It should feel like a living space where NPCs move with purpose, and where activities and events appropriate to each location naturally take place. We will continue working to create more diverse spaces that support this feeling.

We also reviewed feedback related to CAZ, hair, clothing, Build Mode, and Canvas. More diverse hairstyles and clothing, customization that reflects different ages and cultures, search and filter functions, better management of downloaded buildings, and improvements to lot information and previews are all important for making creation and sharing more convenient. We will take these opinions into account as we continue shaping the development direction.

Once again, thank you to everyone who shared such detailed feedback. We cannot reflect every opinion exactly as it is or implement everything immediately, but the key issues that have been raised repeatedly will continue to be reviewed internally and considered in our priority discussions. Some errors and improvements related to autonomous behavior will be addressed in tomorrow’s hotfix.:sob:

We will continue improving inZOI so that characters, relationships, cities, and daily life can connect more naturally as a life simulation.

kjun :growing_heart:

26 Likes

Thank you for the update. I agree that it is more reasonable to improve and fix the features that are already in the game rather than pushing out more content on a potentially unstable foundation. Please let yourself and the team rest as well. We know that you are very hardworking, but don’t over exhaust yourself either​:four_leaf_clover:.

I appreciate that you stay close to the community and ask for our feedback. Thank you for that.

As for the phone message UI, I personally prefer it the way it is (a small message pop up and we can read the rest ourselves), but I don’t mind it, if other people prefer the suggested full message version.

That said, thank you for even working through the whole weekend, but please don’t forget to think about yourself too. We can wait. A lovely weekend to everyone​:four_leaf_clover:

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Wishing Kjun and the entire inZOI team good health and continued success on your journey with inZOI. Even though I’ve been unable to play the game for a long time because of the “Steam Verification Failed” issue, I truly appreciate all of your hard work and dedication. Please take care of yourselves and don’t forget to rest. I believe in your team, and I’m willing to keep waiting. Thank you for creating a game that I truly love. Love from Vietnam.

6 Likes

First of all, thank you for all the hard work you’re putting into inZOI. With every update, the game looks more and more incredible, and it’s great to see how much attention you’re giving to improving both the visuals and the overall experience. That said,

1. Phone notifications

I actually think the current notification system is much better, where phone messages appear as a small notification on the screen, instead of automatically opening the phone every time a message is received.

It would be even more realistic if the Zoi only took out their phone when the player clicks on the notification or the phone icon. A short animation of the character pulling out their phone before reading the message would add a lot to the immersion. Only then would the player be able to read and reply to the message.

2. Reactions to death

I really like that natural deaths and other types of deaths are becoming more realistic. However, one thing that really stands out to me is how other Zois react when it happens.

When a Zoi is dying, nearby Zois—including family members and close friends—often just continue with their daily activities as if nothing is happening. It would feel much more believable if they immediately stopped what they were doing to focus on the person in danger.

For example, they could gather around them, look worried or panicked, comfort each other, pretend to call an ambulance, or try to help in some way. Even if the outcome doesn’t change, these reactions would make these moments much more emotional, believable, and immersive.

Thank you again for all your work. I’m really excited to see how inZOI continues to evolve.

15 Likes

Hello Kjun,

I hope you are doing well.

I would like to encourage you and the entire team as you continue developing the game.

I am a huge fan of InZOI, and I play almost every day. After work, I always look forward to playing, and even during my vacations, I try to find some time to enjoy the game. Even when I am very busy, I still do my best to set aside a few hours whenever possible because I truly enjoy it.

I want to honestly tell you how much I admire the effort, dedication, and passion that you and your team put into creating a game that you love and that we, the players, love as well.

To me, there is a special bond between the passionate players and the development team. We are all connected by the same passion, and I believe that is what makes this community so special.

InZOI is a wonderful game. Please do not let negative comments discourage you. There will always be criticism, negativity, or jealousy, but there are also many players who truly appreciate and support everything you do.

No matter what difficulties or challenges you have faced, or may face in the future, whether in your personal or professional life, please know that we are cheering for you and supporting you wholeheartedly.

Thank you for all your hard work and dedication. We sincerely appreciate everything you have done for the game and for the community.

I wish you an excellent day and lots of strength and success for the future.

Take care, and keep following your passion.

Best regards,
A devoted InZOI player

9 Likes

Good evening @Kjun and development team. I join the rest of the forum participants with good wishes. The game is developing and it’s good. You’re really good. I would like to add my thoughts to the questions about your video:

As for the phone, it doesn’t matter if the message is shown in full or only a part, the most important thing is how it will feel (I touched on part of this issue @Kara ) Now the phone is like a regular UI - we see it in Zoi’s hands only in a few cases: when Zoi uses appropriate animations) - that is, the phone is not a full-fledged game object with which the player interacts through Zoi. But I would like to be able (as an idea) to buy a new phone, break the phone, personalize the phone: change the ringtone to a call and messages (well, add them first) or even put in do not disturb mode (so that we do not receive notifications about calls and SMS) Change the theme color in your phone, icons, etc. The main thing is to make it a full-fledged game object. I would also like to have on the screen not just the UI of the phone, but a real 3D model of the phone with a UI, like this:

And it would also be an excellent implementation of the animation of turning on the phone, for example: if it is a regular smartphone, then its screen would simply play the animation of unlocking and turning on the menu. If it were a folding phone, it would fold in half on the screen, indicating that it is ready to work. :upside_down_face: In real life, I generally walk with a Nokia N95 built in 2008, I like it by design. It would be cool to be able to have more than just a smartphone (in my opinion) and it would be cool to see an animation of its keyboard movement on the screen. :star_struck:

I also want to say in general about what I saw in the video that it will be enough for the type of update that I described here [06.19.26] After the Update: Our Focus on the Base Game (Updated) - #27 by NIck_Olay . This is just enough for a small update and will give players the opportunity to try them out and find bugs in advance of the big update.

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(post deleted by author)

1 Like

Thank you for sharing updates with us!

I personally prefer the old style of SMS, as it feels more realistic and occupies less space on the screen. But the other UI changes and the esc addition are wonderful as well as the visual changes on the CAZ.

I also really appreciate making it easier to customize NPCs and I think a wonderful future addition would be to allow us to switch to NPCs like we can switch to other households. I find that sometimes it gets frustrating trying to do specific actions and it’s good to have a little more control to fullfill certain storylines.

Overall I love where the game is heading and thank you once again for your dedication!

4 Likes

Please keep the current style of short preview of the phone messages.

Showing the entire message will occupy more screen space, and can interrupt game-play.

Thank you for sharing the updates.

8 Likes

Thank you, Kjun and team. This update looks great, as usual and we are looking forward to the bug fixes so thank you again :thankyou: :custom_butterfly:

inZOI really needs a noreuploadallowed option in Canvas

It would be great if this was a standard built in option in the Canvas upload template. I imagine ticking a box to allow/disallow the sharing/reuploading of creations.

Thank you for all your hard work & have a wonderful weekend too​:heart_hands::two_hearts:

3 Likes

Add more NPC children in the city, outside of school.

Please add NPC children and NPC adults with NPC babies to the city, who move about, run, play in parks and public play areas, interact with NPC parents and other NPCs, throw tantrums and cry, have NPC children autonomously approach playable Zoi children to interact and play with them.

Currently the city does not have any NPC children visible other than in schools. Please add more NPC children and babies with adults to the city.

Unless we force the schedule of playable Zoi children to visit public areas, the children on their own do not go out on streets or parks. Add autonomy to all children, playable as well as NPCs, to interact with other children in public areas outside of the school.

Allow playable Zoi children to autonomously interact and play with NPC children in parks and public areas.

Add autonomous behavior to NPC children to approach and interact with playable Zoi children in parks and public places other than the school.

Have NPC children friends visit playable Zoi children homes to interact and play.

11 Likes

Dear Kjun,

I hope you’re doing well.

A large number of players are currently experiencing the “Steam Authentication Failed” error immediately after launching the game. This issue first appeared with the 0.8.0 update, and it has now remained unresolved for approximately 2–3 months.

Many of us have submitted logs, screenshots, and other technical evidence to your support team. Unfortunately, the responses we have received have been generic and do not provide any meaningful updates on the progress of the investigation. As paying customers, it is frustrating to have no clear communication regarding an issue that prevents us from accessing a product we purchased.

We sincerely hope your team can prioritize investigating and resolving this problem. If a fix is not expected in the near future, we would appreciate an alternative way to launch and play the game without relying on Steam authentication.

If neither a solution nor an alternative can be provided, then customers should at least be offered the option of a refund. Leaving affected players without updates or a working product for several months is simply not acceptable.

We would greatly appreciate a transparent update on the current status of the investigation and an estimated timeline, if available.

Thank you for your time, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,
Ryo Chin

1 Like

Hi I’ve been loving the high school update… but some things I would like to see with it is being able to customize the outfits clubs wear for activities, like the cheerleaders and football players I’d love to make the uniforms different colors at some point. I do also wish there was more theater and music with school. I love the music classroom and think it would be really cool if students could start bands, and perform in plays and musicals. I personally don’t mind the way we see previews of text messages, it’s nice being able to check the full message when I choose. Also I’m not sure if this is happening to other peoples games, but despite me making the safety level low in my cities I have never seen a burglar…

I appreciate the latest hot fix though and look forward to more customization with npcs!!

3 Likes

Thank for the update! I am happy that you are choosing to focus on improving existing content rather than adding new one. I believe it will be more difficult to address certain issues once more systems are added to the game, so this is great news.

I hope the working over the weekend is smooth, and you can fix the issues that you found. Please do not tire yourself with unnecessary overworking. In the end, this is a product and a product cannot be more important than actual real people. A fix can wait a few days, we will be patient.

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Yeah!!! that’s definitely a great idea :light_bulb: :boy:t6:

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Wow!!! omg this is good, especially on custumizing NPCs maybe modders will make mods that change NPCs appearance and much more , and the other thing am excited on is joining other people’s conversation without them stopping that’s so good and will be realistic. And thank you for your hard work we all look forward to seeing even more beautiful content like this thank you all :hugs: :hugs: :hugs: .
. And it would be nice if you would consider adding more NPCs at the Beach :beach_with_umbrella: to make it more realistic and one thing not saying too much but it would be popular and breath-taking if you would consider adding a functional Hospital :hospital: gameplay, Thanks again if you would consider this feature in your future :crystal_ball: UPDATES :hugs:

1 Like

An update that we can all cheer for! Thank you @Kjun and team for all the time and energy that you are putting into Inzoi. I hope i may just say that this game has grown so well and hearing you address the issues of stability as a major priority helps me to remain patient and positive.

  • As a few friends have mentioned already the phone messages are more convenient when acting more like a small SMS notification rather than a banner notification that will disrupt too much; perhaps there might be a way to ‘dismiss’ or ‘mark as read’ so that the phone will not be as full of notifications.

  • I appreciated the new death animations that have been worked on. They are very well done, and work well at adding a new level of depth. I believe @Kara made a good suggestion about the reactions of other Zoi when a death occurs. I would like to add my thoughts to this of perhaps allowing the dying Zoi’s karma to affect their (natural causes)death animation. The animations i saw in the update made me think perhaps of ‘clutching the chest’ for someone that lived a more criminal or violent life with low karma/reputation and perhaps for someone that lived a giving and family orientated life ‘gently seeking a chair or bed to lay on and pass away’. The surrounding Zoi may also react according to their relationship whether cheering or weeping.

Thank you all and have a good weekend, albeit a busy one.

5 Likes

Thanks for the update, working out bugs and stability issues seems more urgent, after all what good is a broken game with a bunch of broken features right?

Regarding the Phone UI, I like simplicity, contact name and subject title: “Welfare: Farming Tool/ Jessica: invite/ John: hi”. Don’t make the entire message pop up, that is a little too intrusive and as more zois start calling you, it would get annoying fast. It is best to keep it as nonintrusive as possible. Alert me I have a text and when my zoi or myself has time I will read through it and respond appropriately.

I would suggest adding a select all option in the text messages delete section though. Sometimes I am just trying to delete all my mail.

Outfit Indicators: Yes I think it would help me faster identify Mods and the different content.

Accessory: thank you for adding mask. I like mask as a fashion accessory.

Death Animations: Looks nice, I like the variety.

2 Likes

Kara

2. Reactions to death

I really like that natural deaths and other types of deaths are becoming more realistic. However, one thing that really stands out to me is how other Zois react when it happens.

When a Zoi is dying, nearby Zois—including family members and close friends—often just continue with their daily activities as if nothing is happening. It would feel much more believable if they immediately stopped what they were doing to focus on the person in danger.

For example, they could gather around them, look worried or panicked, comfort each other, pretend to call an ambulance, or try to help in some way. Even if the outcome doesn’t change, these reactions would make these moments much more emotional, believable, and immersive.

Thank you again for all your work. I’m really excited to see how inZOI continues to evolve.

I just wanted to add to this Reactions to death suggestion.

I personally found witness death in another game for some random I don’t even know annoying. So it would be nice if this only happened with Zoi’s you are friends+ or awkward- with. Sad over a friend, devastated over a BFF, slight amused over awkward relationships while happy over an enemies demise.

Maybe pacifist mourn all people, even wishing their enemies could have been friends and things didn’t have to end in such a sad way, but a malicious person might be glad their enemies are gone and have the option to celebrate. Different traits and relationships means different ways to feel about the demise of strangers, enemies and BFF’s, so every zoi mourns differently.

1 Like