[11.06.26] One Step at a Time (Updated)

[Kjun]

Hello everyone, and happy Friday.

This week, once again, we gathered and reviewed the feedback and bug reports you shared with us. At this rate, once the December update is finished, I feel like we may need to stop developing new things for a while and focus entirely on fixing bugs and awkward parts of the game. We have collected your valuable feedback and reported issues and shared them with the development team.

We are currently looking into a number of issues, including the Dedicated trait not working properly, Smart Zoi repeatedly having the same thoughts and behaviors, drag-and-drop functionality, and changes to the appearance of saved characters. Development of the drag-and-drop feature is nearly complete, so it looks like we should be able to include it in an update. It is difficult to give you a definite timeline for the other fixes yet, but once fixes are confirmed, we will share them through the patch notes.

We have also reviewed requests for improved search, sorting, and filtering of downloaded lots, partial painting of walls and floors, curved walls, and improvements to object placement.

I would also like to clarify our DLC policy. DLC released during Early Access will be free, and any DLC you download during Early Access will remain available to you after the game’s full release. New DLC released after the full launch may be sold as paid content. Pricing is still being discussed internally, and we will share more information once it has been decided.

We are currently working toward releasing the next update in December.

I also want to express how sorry I feel that the inZOI team always seems to have such short development schedules, which sometimes results in updates that leave us wishing we could have done more. Schedule and quality often go hand in hand, and sometimes I reflect on whether we should update more slowly so that we can deliver a higher level of polish. We will share the schedule and contents of the update as soon as they are finalized.

We are also continuing to improve character animations and NPC autonomy, and we plan to expand the range of career choices in the Celebrity Update. Thank you as well for your many suggestions regarding personality expression, relationships and memories, family interactions, making cities feel more lively, and many other areas.

We are also discussing with the relevant teams whether some of the quality-of-life features created by modders could be officially incorporated into the game. It has been really exciting to see so many different mods being released since the script mod update. I am truly grateful to all of our mod creators.

There is currently no confirmed schedule for the Classic UI, height adjustment, or the ability to enter a city directly when starting a new game. However, we are planning to begin development on entering a city directly when starting a new game, and Bubbly is currently in development.

We have recorded the questions and requests you sent us, and we will share more information once our plans are finalized.

It is already getting cold here in Korea. I walk about an hour and twenty minutes to work every day. Maybe it is because I am getting older, but commuting like this is becoming a little more difficult as the weather gets colder.

Please take care of your health, everyone.
Kjun

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Kjun’s Reply to Your Comments

[1/2]
Hello everyone, this is Kjun.

Thank you once again for sharing so much feedback this week. I’ve read through every one of the more than 245 comments since our last post.

Some of you said you’d like a Zoi’s mood to change based on what happens to their loved ones. Others described a teenager being brought home by the police while the parents just kept chatting as if nothing had happened. Specific moments like these really helped us see more clearly what we’ve been missing.

1. How Zois and Those Around Them React

The feedback we received most often was that Zois don’t react to what happens in their families or around them. Kids walk around happily after their parents divorce, and a vendor doesn’t even turn their head when a commotion breaks out right next to them.

We’re discussing with the development team how to make major events leave a lasting mark on the moods, memories, and relationships of the Zois close to them. For an upcoming update, we’re preparing a system where witnessing events such as infidelity will trigger reactions from the people around them, and as word spreads, each person will react in their own way.

2. Emotion-Based Walk Styles and Facial Expressions

Thank you for welcoming the new walk styles so warmly. That said, many of you mentioned that the sad and angry walks look exaggerated and a bit out of place in public. We’ve passed along your suggestion that relaxed, drooping hands and a lowered head would feel more natural.

As for facial expressions, we’ll refine them with particular attention to eye movement, the irises, and blinking, just as you suggested.

3. Create a Zoi (CAZ)

Many of you pointed out how inconvenient it is that hair color resets every time you change hairstyles. We’ll raise this with the team in charge.

We’ve also noted all of your requests for partial heterochromia and independent controls for each eye, multiple layers for custom graphics, a tattoo category, and editing individual facial features.

[2/2]

4. Bug Reports

We’ve shared the following reports with the development team:

Zois cancel their current action when you switch to another Zoi (including reports that it still happens with mods disabled)
Zois won’t clean or do laundry when Smart Zoi is enabled
Homes get dirty too quickly
Reports that the pajama-changing behavior seems to work in reverse
Customers at market stands haggling and then leaving without buying

We’ll let you know through the patch notes once fixes are confirmed.

5. Drag and Drop

You shared great ideas such as handing items to other Zois, dragging items to the trash, and moving items between the fridge and inventory. I’ll pass these examples along to the developer in charge.

6. CanvasTown

Thank you for all the feedback after the alpha playtest and the streams. One of you shared that you didn’t think you’d enjoy multiplayer but changed your mind after playing. That gave our whole team a big boost.

Suggestions: proximity voice chat, creating multiple characters, an option to opt out of romance, and restrictions on using Zois created by other players
Bug: furniture disappearing after exiting Build Mode
Mini-games: we read both the view that they should tie into the life simulation and the view that they’re a fun way to take a break.

We’ll keep working hard to make both inZOI and CanvasTown games you love and remember.

7. Other Questions

We also received questions about the PS5 version and mod support, jail, and progress on the gap between sidewalks and lots. We’ll share more once these are decided.

We also take seriously your requests to strengthen the bigger foundations before the smaller details, and to stay true to the vision we first showed you.

Thank you so much for your support, and even for worrying about my health on my commute. I’ll be back on Friday.

Kjun

Bonus Question

There’s currently an issue where, when a player queues an interaction, any interactions the Zoi had already started through Autonomy get canceled. We’re looking into changing this.

Originally, we wanted to prioritize player commands rather than letting interactions pile up indiscriminately. However, some of you have found this inconvenient, so we’re reviewing a fix. Should we offer this as an option, or remove it entirely? Please share your thoughts, and we’ll do our best to reflect them!

Discord - Group Chat That’s All Fun & Games

[Kara]

Hello Kjun, and thank you for this week’s letter and video!

After reading your letter and watching the video, I wanted to share a few thoughts and remarks.

Regarding your mention of making cities feel more lively, I think nightlife deserves some attention too. Nightclubs and bars should stay open much later, as these places are meant to come alive at night. It’s also a shame that we can’t create events after midnight.

I’d also like to mention the day/night cycle. All cities seem to get dark around 6 PM, regardless of the season. Daylight hours should reflect the geographical location each city represents and change depending on the season. Summer days should be noticeably longer than winter days, with sunsets happening much later. Bliss Bay, for instance, should have daylight hours that reflect its American setting and geographical location. These details would really help make each city feel more alive and authentic.

I also hope transportation will receive more attention in the future. Please consider adding a closer third-person camera when driving, like in many other video games. Having different camera options would allow everyone to enjoy driving in their own way.

Another thing I’d like to mention is the camera system in general. The over-the-shoulder view can be quite frustrating in narrow spaces because of constant camera collisions and awkward positioning. I’d also like to point out @Carnel suggestion on this subject, which I think is worth considering: Поведение камеры в игре (с видеодемонстрацией)

Regarding SmartZoi and mods, I hope you’ll also consider taking inspiration from the Dreami mod, which genuinely brings a lot to the gameplay experience.

As you mentioned the building mode last week, I also hope it will continue to receive attention. I believe every part of the game deserves improvements to make it easier and more enjoyable to use. We understand that sometimes more time is needed to deliver complete and well-developed features. I really hope that one day the building mode will become much more complete, intuitive and easier to use.

I completely agree with taking the time needed to deliver higher-quality updates rather than rushing things.

Thank you again for listening to the community and for all your hard work. inZOI has so much potential, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it evolves.

Take care and good luck to the whole team!

[Carnel]

Greetings!

First of all, dear Kjun, please dress warmly! It’s possible the forum didn’t translate it quite correctly, but if you really are walking in the cold 1:20 in one direction every day, then it’s certainly beneficial, but at the same time it can be slightly dangerous. None of us players want you to catch a cold!

Now about what was shown in the video, and what we really liked:

Dragging items from the backpack - wonderful, a very much anticipated feature.

Eating on the go, which can be taken from the inventory. The main thing is that this should happen automatically only at a critical hunger level, and not when we’ve sent Zoey somewhere with the plan to feed him. Eating a burger on the go when Zoey was sent by the player to a restaurant for the purpose of feeding him would be rather strange behavior.

Texture rework in CAZ and heterochromia - excellent!

More realistic emotion display, affecting the walking animation - beautiful! They really sometimes lack emotionality in facial expression, even though the gesticulation can be even excessive at that.

Also, I first read the message from @Kara above, and only then watched the video. She mentioned one of my long-standing topics (for which I thank her separately ), and while watching, it suddenly just struck me (I hope the translation will be correct? I mean that a thought suddenly occurred to me): there it is! It’s implemented here! The wall in front of Zoey is lowered, and all the other walls in the room behind Zoey are raised, even though they’re not external! Did they really add this?!

But pausing the video, I saw with disappointment that this turned out to be simply the “Over-the-shoulder view” mode selected.

But you have to admit, it’s a convenient display, right? Except it’s tied to the character, and this is really inconvenient in some situations. Though usually in such situations we’d be pushed into a corner of the room, but here it does allow “seeing through the wall”. Can we hope that such a view will actually appear in normal control mode? I just don’t even know whether to trust my luck, or am I harboring false hopes?

Here’s the frame I’m talking about:

[Dezzy]

I am very excited for the drag and drop feature, heterochromia eyes, additional cooking details, and an update to custom textures. I’m glad facial expressions are being worked on!

I do really hope that someday individual facial presets for eyes, mouth, nose, and more will be added as features in CAZ so that it’s easier for players to make unique zois. Also I do hope that you guys can make walls, roofs, and other structures in build mode cost money so it isn’t free.

Personally I would be extremely happy if you guys pause from developing more DLCs after the celebrity update to work on core features of the game like animations, skills and quality, CAZ, build mode, personalities, neighbors (hopefully), bugs, and etc.

[Muffin]

@Kjun

This week, once again, we gathered and reviewed the feedback and bug reports you shared with us. At this rate, once the December update is finished, I feel like we may need to stop developing new things for a while and focus entirely on fixing bugs and awkward parts of the game. We have collected your valuable feedback and reported issues and shared them with the development team.

Thank you. While new stuff is always nice, the backbone of quality is maintenance that keeps things running smoothly, so I appreciate you stopping content to focus on fixes.

Thanks for also clarifying the DLC situation & I am happy the ingredients got updated, I personally care about needing realistic cooking and the need for ingredients as it drives my gameplay.

I would like it if Zoi could not autonomously get free soup in the fridge when hungry, make that player driven or something, it just takes aways the hardship of trying to keep them fed when they run and grab that.

All the other small improvements you are looking good. I am excited to try the adjustments to textures to see if there are any issues when I up load my images.

We have also reviewed requests for improved search, sorting, and filtering of downloaded lots, partial painting of walls and floors, curved walls, and improvements to object placement.

I appreciate you letting us know. Even if these things don’t get implemented, it helps knowing that it was seen and was considered.

A lot of times we keep asking and asking, b.c we just don’t know if it got seen or lost in the wave of all the other post.

We are currently looking into a number of issues, including the Dedicated trait not working properly, Smart Zoi repeatedly having the same thoughts and behaviors, drag-and-drop functionality, and changes to the appearance of saved characters. Development of the drag-and-drop feature is nearly complete, so it looks like we should be able to include it in an update. It is difficult to give you a definite timeline for the other fixes yet, but once fixes are confirmed, we will share them through the patch notes.

I just wanted to comment on the devoted trait. I believe all devoted zoi’s should not cheat, as that is the whole point of using that tag, but I also think each trait should express devotion differently. A devoted charmer likes to be romantic, buying flowers and stuff, with a recluse would prefer cuddling on the couch at home with you.

I also want to express how sorry I feel that the inZOI team always seems to have such short development schedules, which sometimes results in updates that leave us wishing we could have done more. Schedule and quality often go hand in hand, and sometimes I reflect on whether we should update more slowly so that we can deliver a higher level of polish. We will share the schedule and contents of the update as soon as they are finalized.

I prefer slower, more fleshed out and polished content. Having a bunch of shallow or broken content isn’t fun to play. I am even fine with the game releasing 1 or 2 major expansion every year like FFXIV does, ONLY if it will mean fully fleshed out content with a solid gameplay loop.

We are also continuing to improve character animations and NPC autonomy, and we plan to expand the range of career choices in the Celebrity Update. Thank you as well for your many suggestions regarding personality expression, relationships and memories, family interactions, making cities feel more lively, and many other areas.

Please, oh please may you nail making each trait (sentinel, charmer, etc) react and feel different so when players play as them it offers a different experience. May my rulebreaker strive to cause trouble, and my pacifist try to calm other Zoi’s down. xD

In regards to the Celebrity content being expanded, this has me excited about what you mean. We talking soloist and stuff?

We are also discussing with the relevant teams whether some of the quality-of-life features created by modders could be officially incorporated into the game. It has been really exciting to see so many different mods being released since the script mod update. I am truly grateful to all of our mod creators.

I hope these get picked:

• Zoi control (technically the MCCC I was suggesting)
• Closet Picks – Style Switcher
• Poseplayer
• allow proposal on vacation

It is already getting cold here in Korea. I walk about an hour and twenty minutes to work every day. Maybe it is because I am getting older, but commuting like this is becoming a little more difficult as the weather gets colder.

I bike/walk to work, and while age can play a factor, winter is just so much harder to commute in. I keep saying humans are supposed to hibernate, we are not equipped to be anywhere but in a cozy blanket with some tea during winter. lol

Stay warm out there @Kjun and team, and thanks for the update.

[inzonto33_0002]

hi Kjun,

“Release small, release often” is a common software mantra for stable platforms. Delaying releases until you have a bigger bunch of stuff to release, just makes the pending and larger release more volatile. Bug fixes and tweaks are perfectly suited to small releases. We have confidence in you - keep the releases coming!

[Annie]

I’m very excited about these upcoming changes; the December update looks like it will bring significant improvements to the game.
I wanted to share some thoughts here regarding the body animations like I did on Discord. Body language is very crucial, and we don’t want Zois expressions to come across as overly exaggerated or awkward. For example, if an angry Zoi were to walk around in a public space with their fists clenched, the same way they do at home - it wouldn’t look natural at all. It could even break the players immersion. Instead I hope to see animations that feel more natural and convincing, animations that blend seamlessly into the specific situation the Zois finds themselves in.
Looking at the current emotion system, sad Zois start crying even in front of peers and classmates. It doesn’t feel appropriate for them to react that way every time they’re sad.
It would be great if you could refine how Zois express their emotions based on their personality. I feel like we can’t stress it enough.
Thank you for everything you do!

[Muffin]

When he said having to make us wait longer, I thought he meant not as a way to mass dump items, but more so as if I am working on say the idol expansion, instead of following Ea’s we have to drop a new expansion every month schedule, so here is one pack with singing, and then this one with dancing and so on, I thought he just meant giving more time to flush out their DLC instead of rushing them out.

I didn’t consider it might have been what you described.

[Nichtmitmir67]

Hello Kjun,

in Germany we had the first frost (-3 °C), but cold is something different^^
Great to hear that better/deeper jobs are on Your list, usually playing Jean Lee in Dowon as professional gamer, its the same with every new game I start^^. I don’t care about become a star, but when this would come to K-Pop career as a new maximum level, this could be my next job.
As we have still Young adults with university degree as predefined Zois, make this please possible for custom Zois without aging up.
But before I pay any Euro for a new DLC I hope You can fix the immersion breaks because of emotional changes and I also hope You mean this with “We are also continuing to improve character animations and NPC autonomy”.

NPC Emotion action breaks our conversation

With today update You are still not able to fix this. Even in my household the conversation breaks if one Zoi think, he must show the world that the emotion has been changed. This is completely uninteresting, I only care about the action queue, that it will be executed as I wish. If You are unable to understand this or reproduce it, I can make You a short video or write a guide how to reproduce this. [image] [image] same time other Zoi: [image] then this action: [image] same time Zo…

Cheers

Roman

[FREEDOM_55]

@Kjun

Hi Kjun! I was really happy to see heterochromia finally featured as coming to inZOI and CAZ. Since this feature is now being developed, I wanted to suggest a few additional controls that I think would make its implementation much more complete and useful for character creation.

Heterochromia and Full Independent Eye Controls

Since heterochromia is being added, I’d love for it to go further than simply allowing the left and right iris to have two different colors. Heterochromia can also be partial or sectoral, so it would be great if we could control the degree and distribution of the secondary color within each individual iris, including how much of the iris it covers, where it appears, and how strongly the colors blend. I’d also really like the individual left and right eye settings to have access to the same relevant controls we normally have when editing both eyes together. So things like pupil size, iris size, the existing iris color channels and color/blending controls, and any other applicable eye-preset settings should be independently adjustable for each eye. Basically, if a setting can normally be changed for both eyes together, it would be great if we could unlink the eyes and adjust that same setting separately for the left and right eye. That would make heterochromia feel like a full independent-eye customization system instead of only giving us two separate iris colors.

Independent Asymmetrical Iris and Pupil Alignment / Strabismus

I would also like to suggest that the left and right iris alignment be independently adjustable. CAZ already lets us asymmetrically shape and position the eyes themselves, so I’m specifically talking about the iris and pupil position within each eye. It would be great if we could move the iris and pupil together inward, outward, upward, or downward independently for the left and right eye, ideally with separate horizontal and vertical controls. This would let us create subtle or more noticeable esotropia, exotropia, hypertropia, and hypotropia, as well as very small natural alignment differences between the eyes. The iris and pupil should move together as one unit so the pupil stays centered within the iris; the goal is simply to let us control the gaze/alignment of each eye independently. I think this would pair really well with the new heterochromia controls because it would let us customize both the appearance and alignment of each eye separately.

[Kara]

@Kjun

Suggestions: proximity voice chat, creating multiple characters, an option to opt out of romance, and restrictions on using Zois created by other players

As someone who has spent a lot of time playing roleplay in multiplayer games, I’m honestly disappointed by the direction you’re considering for inZOI’s multiplayer.

I believe text chat would be much more suitable for a life simulation game. Roleplay is all about immersion, storytelling and developing our characters. Proximity voice chat can easily lead to trolling, unnecessary noise and break immersion. It also makes it harder to stay in character and truly experience the stories we create together.

I’m not against multiplayer at all. Quite the opposite! I was really looking forward to it. But honestly, I’m very disappointed that you’re choosing to introduce proximity voice chat in a life simulation game like inZOI instead of focusing on written communication. I genuinely think this is the wrong direction for the kind of immersive multiplayer experience this game could offer.

And, I’m not really a fan of the idea of adding different walking styles based on the Zois’ moods. In the end, I feel like this would just make their movements more or less the same, with the only difference being that their walking style changes depending on their current mood.

What players were actually asking for in the first place was the ability to choose a different walking style for each Zoi, giving them more individuality and making it easier to distinguish their personalities. A bit like the voice system, where we can assign a specific voice to each Zoi. That would be much more interesting and offer genuine customization rather than having their walking style automatically change based on their mood.

[Carnel]

@Kjun

Bonus Question

There’s currently an issue where, when a player queues an interaction, any interactions that Zoi has already started through Autonomy get canceled. We’re considering changing this.

Initially, we wanted to prioritize player commands over letting interactions accumulate indiscriminately. However, some of you found this inconvenient, so we’re looking into a fix. Should we offer this as an option or remove it entirely? Please share your thoughts, and we’ll do our best to reflect them!

I think interrupting an ongoing interaction isn’t necessary — it’s better to queue the new command. But it’s very important that the player can manually interrupt the current action, and that cancellation works instantly, no matter what Zoi is doing: washing dishes, sitting on the toilet, waiting for someone from the next room… The animation should stop immediately, as quickly as possible without losing the feeling of a natural transition to the action we’ve assigned.

And no automatically added actions between what Zoi is currently doing and what the player ordered! For example, in the case of using the toilet, Zoi should stand up and go, say, paint a picture, instead of heading to the sink to wash hands. Yes, it’s unhygienic, but the player’s command should take priority over such things.

This lack of “self-inserting actions” is especially noticeable in situations where I first send Zoi to the toilet and then to the shower to make sure they’re clean. And when Zoi decides to wash their hands between these two actions — that’s really not the behavior you’d expect to see unless they have some kind of “neat freak” trait. But even with that, Zoi should still immediately do what the player wants, even if their mood drops from doing something they dislike.

P.S., and please, I’m begging you, ask your colleagues to fix the issue that was mistakenly considered solved but is actually still easily reproducible. You didn’t mention it in “known issues,” so I’m writing about it here. Here’s the post where it’s described in detail what needs to be done to guarantee getting text stuck on screen: https://forum.playinzoi.com/t/topic/16105/14

With my playstyle — often taking photos with the UI hidden — I get this text almost immediately in every gaming session and can’t get rid of it until I go back to the lobby.

[daria]

@Kjun

There’s currently an issue where, when a player queues an interaction, any interactions the Zoi had already started through Autonomy get canceled. We’re looking into changing this.

Originally, we wanted to prioritize player commands rather than letting interactions pile up indiscriminately. However, some of you have found this inconvenient, so we’re reviewing a fix. Should we offer this as an option, or remove it entirely? Please share your thoughts, and we’ll do our best to reflect them!

In my opinion, it’d be ideal if the queue were saved, because I usually give a Zoi a list of actions and then switch to another Zoi. And it’s important to me that all the actions I’ve set get done by that Zoi without me controlling them. At the same time, there needs to be an option to remove any action from the queue with one click, and for the Zoi to immediately stop doing it (if they’ve already started).

I’m fine with Zois automatically washing their hands after using the toilet, but I agree with @Carnel that this action shouldn’t trigger automatically if taking a bath or shower is next in the queue.

[Sephrenia]

@Kjun

Homes get dirty too quickly

That’s actually an understatement. I’m currently furnishing a house with lots of decor, 3D objects, and multiple fireplaces. I can literally watch everything get dirty in real time. Every time I switch from Build Mode to Live Mode, I see all the furniture gradually getting covered in this layer of grime/dirt. And please, please finally do something about this terrible fireplace lighting. It’s neither pretty nor cozy, and it bleeds through the entire house. The fireplace downstairs is lighting up the bathroom next door, as well as the entire upper floor.

[Carnel]

@daria

I’m fine with Zoe automatically washing her hands after using the toilet, but I agree with @Carnel that this action shouldn’t trigger automatically if the next thing in the queue is taking a bath or shower.

No, I’m also not against not having to plan hand washing as a separate action every time.

But still, this should only happen if I haven’t planned anything else for her yet. I send her to the toilet — the queue is empty after that — Zoe washes her hands on her own. But when I need her to rush somewhere immediately after the toilet (say, she’s late for work or school, or needs to catch some passerby who’s trying to disappear from view), and Zoe is leisurely going to wash her hands, pushing my action aside — that’s quite unpleasant.

About washing hands before a shower — I just brought that up as an example of the maximum degree of illogical behavior