inZOI 1st Anniversary: A Retrospective and the Future

[p]Today, as we celebrate inZOI’s 1st anniversary, I wanted to share a brief reflection and our plans moving forward.[/p][p][/p][p]As with many things in life, every beginning starts with excitement. However, when we first met our players on March 28, 2025, I felt more anxiety than excitement. inZOI launched into Early Access after just one week of demo testing. Preparing a demo before launch was not an efficiency-oriented decision from a development standpoint, as it required us to prepare two builds simultaneously. Even so, we made that choice for a reason. At the time, I felt inZOI was not yet ready to be sold as a paid product. I wanted players to try the demo first so they wouldn’t purchase the game if it didn’t suit their preferences or hardware. A year ago, I wasn’t asking players to buy the game. If anything, I was closer to asking them not to.[/p][p][/p][p]To test stability across various hardware specifications, I brought my personal PCs to the office and spent entire weekends testing and troubleshooting. There were many moments when problems remained unsolved, and I faced limitations that our team alone couldn’t overcome. These are the moments that can demoralize a developer. Despite this, many of you continued to play and support us for over a year. I wanted to express our gratitude in some small way. So in this build, I included a special anniversary cake, and that cake reveals a special message when sliced. It may not be a grand gift, but it represents my appreciation for staying with us through an imperfect and evolving game. Even now, I still feel a sense of apology. There are still bugs to fix, awkward or incomplete content, and unfinished memory optimization. However, our team is gradually becoming more familiar with the genre, and we are steadily building the experience needed to do better. [/p][p][/p][p]If I could go back to the beginning of development, I might hesitate before choosing this genre again. This is because the development difficulty is extremely high, and delivering proportional enjoyment for the development cost spent is really tough. Perhaps that is why there are so few games in this genre. Or perhaps, it would reflect my own limitations. Even through these challenges, the process of receiving your feedback on Discord and improving the game step by step has been a great source of happiness for me. To be honest, I thought many of you would try the game at first and quickly leave. I never expected such a long and ongoing dialogue with so many of you all. Among all the games I have developed over a period of close to 30 years, this journey has been the most meaningful. Thank you, sincerely.[/p][p][/p][p]To mark this anniversary, I would like to recommend you a book: The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer. The book emphasizes a Stoic mindset, accepting what we cannot control and letting go of unnecessary worry. This philosophy resonates with the emotional direction we aim for in inZOI.[/p][p][/p][p]Now to get back into sharing our development for inZOI, these are the plans we have for the rest of the year.[/p][p][/p][h3]\[Fundamentals First][/h3][p]The ongoing “Fundamentals First” project is progressing faster than expected thanks to the strong support from our players. So far, we have successfully completed a total of 55 items. Based on this positive progress, in April we plan to slow down the pace of adding new features and instead focus on addressing bugs. We will refine the content that was introduced quickly to meet previous schedules, improve overall quality, and prioritize fixing identified issues. Although some timelines for the remaining Fundamentals First items have been adjusted due to internal circumstances, we will carefully ensure that all items are addressed without omission.[/p][p][/p][p]The main goal for April is “full-scale stability improvement and optimization.” To achieve this, we will focus on the following:[/p]

• [p]Expanded Graphics Settings,[/p]

[p]We will add more options to graphics settings within April, allowing players with lower-spec hardware to enjoy a smoother and more optimized experience, while ensuring that high-end rendering quality remains unaffected.[/p]

• [p]System Memory Optimization,[/p]

[p]We will focus on improving memory leaks and overload issues, which are common challenges in simulation games. We also plan to introduce options that allow players to better manage system memory usage based on their PC specifications.[/p][p][/p][h3]\[New Content Roadmap][/h3][p]As we focus the majority of our efforts into fundamentals, we will also be working on some new content based on this schedule.[/p][p]April — Jobs & Freelancing[/p][p]The career system will be significantly expanded to include interviews, promotions, collaborative tasks, vacations, remote work, and retirement/pension systems. A new freelance system will also be introduced, allowing players to take on work such as package delivery alongside their main jobs. Additionally, the revenue model for created content will shift from one-time earnings to a weekly income system.[/p][p]May — High School Life[/p][p]In addition to the existing rabbit-hole system, a new on-site high school system will be introduced. Players will be able to experience a wide range of school life, including classes, exams, prom, and graduation, alongside unique classmates.[/p][p]July — Travel, Resort Improvements, and Prison[/p][p]Players will be able to move between cities through both immigration and travel, and the Cahaya resort will be enhanced with more content. A prison system will also be introduced. Additionally, issues related to family trees and cross-city Zoi connections will be resolved.[/p][p]September — Festivals & Vehicle Interactions[/p][p]City festivals and user-created holidays will be added to the calendar system. Vehicle interactions will be expanded, including repairs, car washes, audio systems, in-car conversations, call taxis, and taxi driver jobs.[/p][p]October — Karma System Improvements[/p][p]A new system will be introduced to track changes in a Zoi’s karma throughout their life. The karma report will also be improved with a summary feature.[/p][p]December — Fame, Reputation, Celebrities, and Social Media[/p][p]This will introduce new content related to celebrities, influencers, social media, performances, fame, and reputation. We hope you look forward to a more dynamic and unexpected Zoi life experience.[/p][p][/p][h3]\[Enhanced Mod Support][/h3][p]Through our year-end survey, we confirmed strong demand for script mods. To meet this demand, we are dedicating additional resources to accelerate its development, and timelines are continuously being shortened. Depending on progress, we expect to introduce this feature as early as this summer.[/p][p][/p][p]Our goal is not just to enable modding, but to provide an enhanced modding environment. Key features currently in development include:[/p]

• [p]Improved Usability: A dedicated GUI for more convenient use of cheat functions.[/p]
• [p]Modder-friendly Environment: An HTML-based GUI for more intuitive and efficient mod creation.[/p]
• [p]Communication Channels: Dedicated support staff available on Discord for quicker responses.,[/p]
• [p]Modder Support: Ongoing consideration of support programs and additional tools for mod creators.[/p]

[p]As someone who personally enjoys and values creation of mods, I am committed to delivering a satisfying experience in this area. We will also conduct another survey to gather your feedback as we continue improving the system.[/p][p][/p][h3]\[Canvastown][/h3][p]While simulation games offer high freedom, they can sometimes become repetitive. It isn't always easy for interesting situations to emerge naturally. Just as YouTube can gather interesting real-life moments to show the world, we wanted to create a system within inZOI where players can save and share their unique gameplay experiences.[/p][p][/p][p]While the existing Canvas focuses on sharing created buildings and characters, the upcoming Canvastown will focus on sharing real experiences and stories in the form of save files. Players can upload their created stories for other players to experience, and players can also jump into one-of-a-kind save files that were created using mods and cheats. These shared worlds can either be enjoyed alone with other NPC Zois or with a small group of other real-life players in a multiplayer session.[/p][p][/p][p]Over the past year, through the diverse feedback I received from all of you, I’ve come to realize that every one of you is a remarkable “creator,” full of incredible ideas and imaginations for this game. With that said, the sheer amount of requests I received from all of you is something I could spend my entire life on and would still not be able to complete with my team. That's one of the main reasons we designed Canvastown, for it to be a space where we can aggressively support modding to allow you, our players, to expand upon what's available and create content that our development team isn't able to provide, all by yourself.[/p][p][/p][p]The goal is to build a UGC (User-Generated Content) ecosystem where the entire playerbase can be involved in the creation process. With the rich variety of high quality assets and data already available in inZOI (with more continually being added) alongside easy to use modding solutions, the future could see countless player-created scenarios collected in Canvastown, at which I think inZOI can grow beyond just a game and evolve into a truly living world.[/p][p][/p][p]We are eager to prepare a test build for this as soon as possible so that we can gather your valuable feedback. However, before that, we need to first ensure the completeness and stability of the existing systems.[/p][p][/p][p]In just a few hours, inZOI will officially reach its 1st anniversary. For the next year of inZOI, we will continue to listen to the community, improve stability and quality for the game, and keep taking bold creative risks. We will keep working toward making this game a truly living world.[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you sincerely for reading.[/p][p]We hope inZOI brings a small sense of happiness and enjoyment to your daily life.[/p][p][/p][p]With lots of love,[/p][p]Kjun

🔗 Discord: Link[/p][p]🔗 Forum: Link[/p]