[08.28.26] The Week Before the Update (Updated)

Hello everyone. It’s been another whirlwind of a Friday.

This week, we finally wrapped up the build, which means I can now share the update schedule with you. I’m always sorry to keep you waiting like this.

The update is scheduled for September 3rd (Thu) at 6:00 AM UTC.

Looking back over the past two months, we’ve been working at a relentless pace. And yet, now that it’s time to show you the results, I still find myself focusing on all the things that could have been better. But when you open the patch notes, I think you’ll be surprised by just how many areas we’ve worked on and improved. I may not be perfect, but I hope you know that I’m always giving this my very best.

This time in particular, we put a tremendous amount of effort into improving the fundamental systems that form the foundation of the game. We’ve refined autonomous behavior so that Zois act in ways that better fit the context around them, and basic needs such as sleep and hunger are now handled more naturally. Zois will also sit at the table with people they are close to. (If they awkwardly sit apart at first, please be a little patient with them. It’s because they haven’t become close enough yet.) You’ll also see Zois who own vehicles get into their cars on their own and drive to their destinations.

One major disappointment, however, is that we weren’t able to fully include the venue system I promised last time. The flow where customers arrive, sit down to eat, pay, and then leave—and the more specific behaviors that prevent shop owners from casually sitting in customer seats and eating—will have a prototype ready next week, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it into this build in time.

I wanted to spend just a little more time finishing it properly, but the schedule simply wouldn’t allow it. It has been weighing on me, so we’re continuing development even now in hopes of delivering it through a hotfix if possible. After redesigning the entire autonomy system from the ground up, it’s especially disappointing that we still can’t show you this particular scene yet.

Perhaps our lives are always filled with little regrets like these. Like walking home after an exam you stayed up all night studying for, only to realize you made a mistake on a question you knew the answer to. Or saying goodbye to an old friend you haven’t seen in years, then thinking on the way home, “I wish I’d said that while I had the chance.”

Even when we give something our very best, there always seems to be a small empty space left behind. In some ways, developing inZOI feels the same. There are things we should have done better from the very beginning, and only now does it feel like we’re finally completing some of those long-overdue assignments.

Even so, because all of you continue to embrace our shortcomings with warmth and offer us such generous support, we find the strength not to become discouraged and to take another step forward.

As always, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I hope you have a peaceful and comforting weekend filled with warmth.

-Kjun


Kjun’s Reply to Your Comments

Hello everyone,

August has already come to an end. Here in Korea, summer is finally starting to wind down.
We’re wrapping up preparations for tomorrow’s update, so I hope you’ll forgive me for keeping today’s post a little short. I’ll share more details next week.

Thank you for all the passionate feedback on restaurants. Since this is our first time introducing the feature, there were definitely some rough edges — in particular, we’re working to quickly sort out the issue of Zois leaving their seats, and we hope to get that to you soon. We’ve also heard a lot from you about wanting more dishes and menu variety, including appetizers and desserts, and I’ll be sure to pass that along to the team responsible.

I’ve been watching the videos and posts many of you have shared while experimenting with DLSS 5. It’s genuinely impressive to see how much of a difference the technology makes to rendering.

On the audio side, you’ve pointed out that the emotion BGM replays every time you switch between Zois. We’ll be looking more closely at the feedback you share and moving quickly on the things we can improve right away.

I hope you all enjoy the update.

Thank you.

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Hello Kjun and team. Thanks as always for the update​:four_leaf_clover:.

Many other players and I appreciate your hard work. I know that you probably have a deadline, where you have to roll out the update, but I personally would’ve also waited longer for the implementation of the restaurant features. But I understand that you also want to release the update and thank you for your honesty. So I’ll keep looking forward to it when you add it later with a hotfix.

I really love that we can now finally watch TV from bed. It’s a small feature, but it goes a long way. I also have a wishlist proposal, that lists potential activities that can also be done by a single Zoi in bed. I would be honored, if you want to check it. I’ll link it below.

Another thing I really like is that we can finally visit Zois properly, knocking on their doors, introducing ourselves to our neighbors and such. What I would maybe change is, that we ALWAYS need the permission from the homeowner to enter.

I would find it weird if I can just waltz in while the other Zoi might be asleep or is not even home. My suggestions would be to either ask the homeowner in a previous conversation “ask for a spare key” or “ask for permission to enter without knocking”. Another idea would be to set a toggle in our friendlist “can always enter: on/off”. And if we are not close to the Zoi anymore, per example because of a fight, we can revoke those rights to let the Zoi enter freely. This, in my opinion, seems more realistic than just having them waltz in at any time and I think that is a good compromise.

I like the sprinkle of chaos that we can actually burn food now. I just hope it functions properly, because my Zois have the tendency to walk away one second later and completely forget about the food when autonomy is on. So I hope this will be improved alongside it.

All in all, I like everything that is shown, including the business relationship part. But I can’t say it enough, and some other players feel the same way, that certain businesses just stopped functioning properly. I’ll link the forum post here as well and I can only ask you to take a look at it​:folded_hands:.

Thank you for all of your hard work and have a relaxing weekend​:four_leaf_clover:

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Thank you for all the work and thought you’ve put into this update. I’m really looking forward to it.

I’m a little worried about food burning and even starting a house fire. For example, if there’s a toddler in the house and they get hurt, the Zois immediately run to the child. I really hope my house doesn’t end up burning down because of that

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Kjun, I hope you guys can work overtime every day, tirelessly working overtime, day and night :winking_face_with_tongue: I hope there’s a small update every three days and a major update every five days.

Seeing Inzoi fill with more and more content gives me pleasure and excitement. Every time I see the upcoming content updates, my body squirms with joy, hehe, hehe, hehe…

Also hoping to see future update plans. Sometimes I really don’t know the Inzoi team’s next update direction and content, please work hard on those overtime shifts :cat_with_wry_smile:

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Dear Kjun,

thanks again for a great update and all your ongoing efforts to improve the fundamentals of Inzoi further!

I like the small things added in the video, like watching TV from bed or the fact that Zois would choose to sit near to somebody they know. I also very much appreciate that we will be able to properly visit other Zois - this was an issue until now and often not working properly.

Even though a small change but I am really happy to see that Zois will finally autonomously choose their car over taking a bus / subway to go somewhere. I was hoping for this change for a long time already.

Of couse a pitty that the new restaurant updates will not be part of the update next week but I am happy to hear that you are planning to deliver these in a hotfix some weeks later :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Looking forward to the update next week and thank you!

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That’s good, that’s what I wrote about recently :+1:

Well, it’s nothing to worry about. I think this can be added with a small update in a week or two weeks.

And so we sit waiting for the update. I think the next major update should be focused on fixing, improving, and adding to CAZ, or more precisely, the Zoi creation system, since it’s the foundation.

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Dear Developers!

Let me speak not about game mechanics, but only about psychology, but honestly: I would really like the development of the game not to create regrets in your hearts about things that didn’t get done on time, thoughts of “why didn’t we do it this way from the beginning?!” and that feeling of “everyone expects more from us, but we’re not giving enough!”

Instead of that, let what inspires you every day be the fact that you’re improving this game and bringing us joy — in big portions and small ones. The main thing is that you have the intention to bring this functionality to the standard you’ve envisioned, and you will do it. Whether it happens on September 3rd or in 2-3-4 weeks — none of us players will cry out in disappointment because of that. If only because you’ve communicated this intention to us. And not just at the level of “I think we’ll decide to do something like that someday,” but by actually telling us that work on it is already underway.

You see, when we know that you’re already doing it — that brings joy. And no one, as I’ve already told you, will judge you for not doing it “yesterday.” So please, keep only love for what you do in your hearts, and joy from the fact that you’re sharing it with hundreds of thousands of people. That’s so much better than “emptiness” and the feeling of “we’re not keeping up.” And this love will seep into the game itself and be felt by players.

After all, it’s not only what we do that matters, but also what feelings we put into it. Subconsciously, players will definitely feel it. So let it be positive emotions, and not the other way around :folded_hands:

With love for you and your team! :heart:

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First of all, thank you to the team for all the hard work you’re putting into inZOI and for continuing to improve the game. :heart: I really appreciate the effort and I genuinely want to see inZOI keep becoming better and more immersive.

One of the biggest things I hope you can keep working on is the IN-GAME GRAPHICS, especially how people look during actual gameplay.

The skin is probably one of the things I want to see improved the most. The character creator can make really good-looking characters, but in-game the skin can sometimes look too smooth and flat, almost like a mannequin. I would really love to see much more natural skin texture, pores, subtle imperfections, realistic skin shading and better color variation. The characters should still look like real people once we leave CAS and actually start playing.

LIKE THESE FOR EXAMPLE DON’T LOOK TOO SLIM, SHINY AND PERFECT.

Hair quality is another huge one for me. I really hope the noticeable pixelation and artifacts can be reduced, especially around individual hairs and when the lighting changes. I’d love for hair to look clean and detailed from different camera distances and angles.

Lighting and shadows are also extremely important. I hope they can eventually become much more realistic and cinematic without the pixelation or strange artifacts we sometimes see. Characters and environments should look great in normal gameplay, not only in screenshots. Day, sunset, night, indoors, outdoors and different weather could all have their own atmosphere while still keeping everything looking natural.

Physics is another area I really want to see pushed further. More convincing physical reactions between Zois, vehicles, animals, water and the environment would make the world feel much more believable.

Cars and traffic are another big one. :automobile: When cars disappear after accidents or vehicles suddenly pop in and out, it really breaks the feeling of a living world. I hope traffic can become much more persistent and believable, with vehicles remaining in the world naturally instead of simply disappearing and respawning. I also don’t think we always need pop-up notifications telling us everything that happened. Sometimes it would be much better to simply watch the world react for ourselves.

And animals reacting to the environment is something I really want to see too. :bird::flamingo: Animals should react when Zois or vehicles get too close, birds could fly away from sudden movements or sounds, and animals could react to water, weather and other things happening around them. More physical reactions would make them feel like actual living creatures rather than just objects placed around the world.

These are the things I’m personally hoping for the most. I really believe improving skin, hair, lighting, shadows, physics, traffic and animal reactions could take the realism of inZOI to another level.

I know the game already has a strong foundation, and I really hope the team keeps pushing these areas instead of stopping at “good enough.” I want the realism to be something we actually feel throughout gameplay, not just something we see in the character creator or screenshots. :heart:

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Regarding hair and hairstyles, I’ve already made a suggestion here https://forum.playinzoi.com/t/topic/12802— support it if you’re interested.

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I agree that hair, skin, lighting and animation can still improve and I agreed with you on that in your forum post regarding the skin, but I don’t think GTA VI is a particularly fair benchmark here. (The screenshots are clearly from GTA VI). Rockstar is working at a completely different production scale and has spent many years developing GTA VI, while inZOI is still an Early Access life sim whose team is currently focusing heavily on fundamentals, autonomy, bugs and existing systems.

They have different visual directions, and GTA’s authored characters are very different from a game where every player can create completely different Zois in CAZ.

Improvement? Absolutely. But I’d rather the team polish inZOI as inZOI than start measuring every individual system against one of the biggest AAA productions in gaming. I know that sky is the limit, but I think this can get frustrating quickly for the devs if we demand a scale like this. Of course that’s only my opinion on it​:four_leaf_clover:

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CAZ would indeed need a lot of improvement. Starting with seperate facial sections we can customize. I often have the issue, that one certain part of the face doesn’t fit, but the limitations don’t let me work on it properly. So I agree that this would be a good, essential next step

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@MuTaRe_0.6 Inzoi and GTA 6 are games in very different classes. :laughing: You destroy yourself with your obsession with realism. :grin:

I think the graphs are sufficient. @Minthyuyu @EllaEstella @HeinziDerHeld @JoyIsFunner @LeeLoo @Carnel I wonder what they think about this.

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Yeah!!! You’re right it can get frustrating for the DEVS and yeah, it’s too much to demand for that kind of texture especially from GTA6 but my point was just to lessen the Shiny, polished, smooth mannequin skins/bodies and maybe just get an idea from that image​:sweat_smile::sweat_smile::sweat_smile:
And about GTA6… Yeah, INZOI and GTA 6 are aiming on two different things I know, but to be honest I truely admire GTA6’s presentation if U look at yesterday’s official trailer well… of course I’ve neither liked the crime system nor played or planned to play it, but I do like the open world and live immersion of NPCs, Vegetation and simulation​:smiling_face::smiling_face::smiling_face:

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In other words Inzoi is not GTA. Why are you still comparing them? They’re two different types of games. :laughing:

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Oh :head_shaking_horizontally: !!! If u don’t like realistic Graphics and Gameplay put on the cartoon filter and set Vehicle density low​:grin:

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Inzoi do you think this is a cartoon right now? :laughing: If you want a real life simulator you need to buy an RTX 9900 TI 96 GB and 128 GB DDR5 ram :grin:

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And it’s been a long time since I saw u hear​:grin::grin::grin:
I wander how u reacted to last brainstorm​:rofl::rofl::rofl:

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I’m not a fan of realism. I find Inzoi’s graphics satisfactory. :grin:

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So, u won’t download/update your game with big future content in the future, huh?

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