Hello everyone,
The inZOI team has returned from the year-end holidays and is happy to be back in development. At the moment, we are strengthening our core foundations under the Fundamentals First approach, while also preparing several new features in parallel.
We’d like to share with you the development progress we’ve made this week.
Weekly development updates have become a familiar routine for us. More importantly, we’re genuinely enjoying the process of selecting and organizing updates that we think you’ll appreciate.
As our hope that "this game will bring joy to others" continues to grow, we find ourselves feeling even more energized and excited.
This year as well, we hope to make inZOI an even better game—one where players can project their own lives, laugh, and sometimes find comfort. This is the core goal of the inZOI team.
And to achieve that goal, we will always strive to be developers who stand right beside our players.
Thank you
Kjun
※ For the video, please check it on Discord or the Forum
Discord: Link Forum: LinkKjun’s Reply to Your Comments
Hello everyone.
It’s Wednesday already.
Do you have any wishes or goals you set for the new year?
They say that if you can keep something going without breaking for about two months, it becomes much more sustainable after that. If you’re doing well so far, hang in there just a little longer. After the two-month mark, your actions stop relying purely on willpower and start becoming habits—making it much easier to reach your goals.
I’ll also keep moving forward without stopping this communication with you all.
This week as well, we received many opinions and suggestions about the future direction of development.
From the community, there were strong requests for improvements across a wide range of areas: in-game family, romance, crime systems, graphics, interface, genetics, NPC behavior, and many everyday life–oriented features.
Animation Improvements
We’ve seen a lot of positive feedback about the recent updates, especially the animations where couples bathe together and the expanded affection animations. Thank you so much.
Many of you mentioned that the new animations significantly improve immersion and make emotional expression feel more natural.
The inZOI team is also working on adding group activities, simultaneous interactions, and stroller features. We’re currently testing interactions where babies can be seated and moved while remaining interactive, and this looks technically feasible.
Limited “walking together” features are also in development so families can move as a group. In addition, we’ll continue expanding affectionate interactions between family members—such as kissing, hugging, and comforting one another.
Genetics System
There were many discussions around improving the genetics system. Currently, some players feel that children don’t properly inherit their parents’ facial features, and that mismatches in gender-based face presets can result in repetitive, “clone-like” appearances.
Suggestions included blending facial features by individual parts, introducing dominant and recessive genetic traits, and reflecting regional genetic characteristics.
At the moment, our system intentionally includes randomness so children don’t look 100% like their parents—but we’ll revisit this and see how we can improve it.
Daily Life & Interface Improvements
Many of you suggested features such as adjustable action duration (for example, avoiding repeated reading actions), click-and-drag interactions (for trash, dishes, etc.), and UI locking options.
With some foundational tech work, most of these seem feasible. In particular, we plan to implement action duration settings in a unified way across all interactions that involve looping motions—allowing actions to continue by default and be stopped at the player’s discretion.
We also received requests related to CAZ (Character Creation), such as separating outfit and makeup presets, expanding body and face customization options, and adding voice tone controls.
Voice tone adjustment is already planned for this year and is currently in the design phase, so we believe it can be developed without too much delay.
NPCs & Social Interaction
Many of you want NPCs to feel more natural and alive, with more random animations, conversations, lively street life, and stronger interactions with family and friends.
There were also suggestions for multiple Zois meeting and interacting within the same city, group conversations, and synchronized movement.
We are actively challenging ourselves with simultaneous movement features. To be honest, there are many technical difficulties, so progress has been slower than we’d like. Still, I really want Zois to walk together, hold hands, and move as a group—and we’ll do our best to make it happen. We’ll get there.
Crime & Career System Improvements
There were many requests to rebalance criminal careers and activities—such as success rates, rewards, police pursuit, and more realistic reactions to arrests and prison escapes.
You also suggested expanding crime content with mini-games, hideouts, and bribery systems.
Wow—there were so many ideas about crime, and they’re incredibly useful for us going forward. Thank you. As a developer, crime systems are something I personally want to explore a lot.
One idea discussed within the inZOI planning team really stood out to me: when a criminal steals something, they leave footprints or traces behind. If you erase your traces, it becomes harder for the police to track you.
On the other hand, if a thief breaks into your home and you find evidence and report it, the police can arrest them faster.
Sounds fun, right?
There were also requests for adding police careers, more realistic traffic systems, improved driving, and ambulance responses to accidents.
City & Environment Content Expansion
Suggestions included city-specific cultural identity systems, seasonal decorations, more active amusement parks, expanded movie theater features, and natural disasters like storms and heatwaves.
Many of you also mentioned city expansions inspired by K-pop culture and Japanese Akihabara-style districts.
We’re continuing to add more land to cities, and if optimization tests show this doesn’t significantly impact performance, we plan to keep expanding features like drive-in theaters and amusement parks.
By the end of this year, I think you’ll be seeing a lot more city content.
Other Major Requests
Underwater swimming and scuba diving, with WASD underwater controls
Improved appearances, behaviors, and interactions for babies, toddlers, and children
An in-game music player and support for custom music
Ongoing discussions and requests around adult content such as crime, drinking, and smoking
Console and Mac support, mod support plans, and related questions
Expanded jobs and careers, including K-pop idols, fashion, crime, fishing, and more
Stronger in-game social media, conversation, and phone features
Being able to hear your voices on Discord again this week really gives me strength.
More than any words in the world, what you say about inZOI means the most to me.
Those words aren’t just opinions or evaluations—they’re proof that the world we created has reached someone’s hands. They remind me that all the time spent fixing, polishing, and refining wasn’t wasted.
Development is like crossing a very long night. Sometimes we lose our direction, and sometimes we ask ourselves if we’re really on the right path.
Every time that happens, your words light the way again.
So more than anything else,
what you share about inZOI gives us the greatest strength.
See you on Friday.
kjun.
