inZOI Another Life Simulation Game in Early Development

[Klinn]

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First attempt at creating a bedroom in Build Mode. She's probably thinking "Good grief this place is beige".

I did absolutely zero changing of colors or textures. Just fiddling with the construction tools at the moment.

Some furniture pieces are designed to snap together in a specific way, for example that computer desk and the chair. I'm guessing they have to be in that fixed arrangement so ZOIs can carry out the animation of sitting down and working on the computer.

No basements yet that I've found. Foundations are tricky. I haven't really figured them out. Also no terraforming tools, so no Koi pond in the backyard.

[RedMallie]

14 hours ago, Klinn said:

Why on earth couldn't the company have just simply made a demo freely available the way that most companies do? It's bizarre that they're doing it this way rather than letting potential players check it out, and allowing interest in the game build organically.

From the Twitch I watched to get the demo, I read that it will be free on Saturday.

I still did the watching and linking my account and all that SHIT, in order to learn this stuff , but I could surely go without having to jump through so many hoops to get a game.  

[Klinn]

A post at PCGamer by one of the people who are trying the game, not just the Creative Studio demo, has some interesting points and is well worth the read. Some snippets:

Quote

Even once I have married Zois together and interacting with each other, it feels incredibly stilted. Conversation topics continue to be tonally jarring—I can discuss "how to eat more and still not gain weight," which doesn't feel entirely appropriate, with some occasional dabbling in the whimsy of talking about how there's a cat only I can see.

But then, my spousal Zois start texting each other about how they're in therapy, and going through a tough time. I'm sorry, what? It felt like a totally left-field interaction, one which didn't even seem to be steeped in any emotions my Zois were going through. They'd felt tranquil and sentimental, but not sad. It's a constant tonal whiplash and I can't quite pinpoint what vibe Inzoi is exactly trying to go for.

Honestly, I would have preferred Krafton give this game even more time to cook. It almost feels like I'm playing pretend at playing pretend right now—engaging with a variety of set pieces I can do a cute peace sign in front of before moving onto the next thing. In an attempt to offer something different to The Sims, Inzoi has failed to establish any sort of identity of its own. I'm not even sure Krafton knows what direction it wants to take right now, but it needs to figure that out quickly, otherwise I fear it'll be another casualty of the genre.

 

So yes, the game is in early access and stuff you are used to may be missing at the moment. Maybe annoying but that's the nature of playing a game while it's still under development. However her other point that inZOI doesn't seem to have a clear idea of the direction it wants to take is more concerning. Normally establishing that goal early on is what guides the studio throughout a game's development. It's what makes the difference between a game and a tech demo.

Anyway, I may not agree with it all but it's worth reading the whole post of her experiences in the game.

[RedMallie]

Thank you for that article, @Klinn, like you said, it was worth the time.

I also share some thoughts with the author, like the use of AI for the creation aspect, the localization of the game (no offense, but it looks too K-popian), and the target main generation audience for which it is created. The look of the Zois is truly amazing, though, but I also like to play stories; I'm not much for the selfie moments, hehe, even if some of my sim families have tons of pictures of life events on their walls.

What worries me more is that I tried the building demo and struggled with it. Mind you, I used it only for a short while. I need to get back to try it again and actually learn the controls to have an opinion of how easy or difficult it is to use. I also did not see the curved walls among the options. I am a player who recreates stories in game and builds for those stories, so I want the game to be able to give me a comfortable way of doing that.

Like they say, more to come. 

[Klinn]

So far the only AI generative stuff I've seen is for creating textures. Fortunately you can ignore that if you don't like the idea and use the game's predefined textures (which you can recolor) or import your own, like I did with that custom top my ZOI was wearing on a previous page. The Smart-ZOI feature to generate behaviors may be a different story though. We'll see how the AI works out for that.

Yes, I struggled with the Build Studio too. Part of it just adapting to a different way of doing things, part of it is the lack of any real info or tutorials explaining how things work. The game's brief summary is just that, really brief. I looked at some of the game's predefined buildings to try to understand how all the bits work together.

Quick tip in case you haven't noticed it -- you'll probably get sick of endless scrolling through the parts of houses or types of bedroom furnishings etc. I didn't realize that the graphic at the top of each list, like the simple line drawing of a house, has pieces you can click on e.g. the window. That will automatically filter the huge list so it only shows the windows. Nice idea but I didn't see it mentioned anywhere.

Have fun! 

[Klinn]

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So today I decided to concentrate on house exteriors. Stuck to a pretty basic design to keep things simple, "the house in the woods".

From right to left there's the living and dining rooms, main entrance, kitchen, shared bathroom, and one of smaller bedrooms. Not visible but towards the back of the house is a second small bedroom and the master bedroom and ensuite.

 

See that sort of birch board texture on the gables? Is there any way to copy that to the main walls? Not that I've found. Texture tools are rather limited. Also, I don't think that lawn tractor has moved in a while.

Here's an overview to expose all the weirdness I tried to cover up when carefully arranging the previous screenshots.

OK, some of the issues I came across:

1. No multi-select. Want to pick several walls and paint them the same? Not easily, you have to select each 1-meter-wide strip of a wall at a time to add them to the current selection. And as mentioned before there's no copy-and-paste of a texture you've tweaked to get the color the just way you want. There should be slots to save your favorite colors / textures.
2. No hedges that I can find, hence all the poplar trees in the shot above.
3. No ground textures in the sense of "spray painting" a little area, e.g. wood chips under the plants, or a worn area of the lawn due to foot traffic, that sort of thing.
4. Surprisingly limited selection of doors. I wanted a double entrance door, or failing that, a door with a sidelight. Only thing that came anywhere near close is the one I used above and it's glass & metal thing more suited to an office or commercial building.
5. Somehow the lawn to the left of the walkway ended up raised small amount and couldn't be lowered to match the right-side lawn. You can see the issue most clearly in the first screenshot above.

Ah well, more experiments tomorrow!

 

[RedMallie]

7 hours ago, Klinn said:

Yes, I struggled with the Build Studio too. Part of it just adapting to a different way of doing things, part of it is the lack of any real info or tutorials explaining how things work.

Exactly. I kept looking for the "help" option, but there wasn't anything useful anywhere.

7 hours ago, Klinn said:

the graphic at the top of each list, like the simple line drawing of a house, has pieces you can click on e.g. the window

I did notice that, thanks!

 

Your observations are very interesting!

I noticed that I could not overlap roof sections, only some eaves (I think).

I tried to set up a different fence, but could not work the feature for the life of me. As far as I could see, I was within the lot limit, but I kept getting a notification that the fence item could not be placed on top of other item, whatever that other item was. Will need to go back to try again another day.

I changed the color or the front door in the basic house preset, and I managed to save the whole door as a new or personalized item, since I did not see how to save the new color as a preset. This allowed me to copy the door with the customized colors to the other doors in the house.

I tried to move the house, but I did not see what that option actually did. When I tried moving the lot, the whole blueprint moved to a side in the void that is the Build Studio right now. That void makes it very difficult for me to work out how I want the house to look.

The controls themselves. I usually change the WASD controls to the arrows on the right of my keyboard, next to the numeric pad, because I am left handed and control my mouse with my left hand and the keyboard with the right, right?  I did not see options to change the controls.

Again, more exploration is needed, but I would love to have a more robust help option within the Studio.

 

[Firestaar1]

Very interesting observations, thank you!  I haven't played with the build demo too much, as I was working yesterday as well and today was my annual dr appt and lab in my old town, then brunch with my parents.  Came home and laid down for a nap as they ended up sticking both arms (left arm twice) and something happened with my right arm that was...weird is best way I can explain it, so both arms are quite sore now and when I got home I felt exhausted.

I'll probably play around a bit more with it tomorrow.  Tonight is TS4 with a friend.

[RedMallie]

Glad to hear you're back home and relaxing, Fire!

Tonight's TS4 for me, too!!! 

[Klinn]

The devs just dropped a hotfix today. A few tweaks and fixes but it doesn't seem to be too earthshaking. Unless you were one of the folks experiencing crashing I guess!

Anyway, details can be found here.

 

[TechCat]

#see you in INZOI:

 

[Firestaar1]

On 3/21/2025 at 9:30 PM, RedMallie said:

Tonight's TS4 for me, too!!! 

I hope you had a fun play session!

[Klinn]

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My latest ZOI. He's not exactly a beach bum / surfer, but does have a rebellious streak.

A little bit of clipping of the pant leg against the edge of the cart. I wish we could make the eyes a bit bigger overall. All sorts of control points to change the shape of the eye, but unless I'm missing something, not the overall size.

I need to check if we can substitute a custom background in place of one of the three that come with the Character Studio.

[RedMallie]

Love the hoodie!!! 

[Rosewin]

[Firestaar1]

He looks fun.  I think changing eye size is in the option that's not the detailed one, but I can't remember what they call it.

[Klinn]

On 3/21/2025 at 6:12 PM, RedMallie said:

I noticed that I could not overlap roof sections, only some eaves (I think).

The trick is to hold the ALT key while placing or stretching the overlapping roof. ALT kind of acts like the Sims 'MoveObjects' cheat.

Here's an example of a more complex roof assembled that way:

You can see there are still some issues. The eves of the middle overlapping piece stick out through the gables of the other two roof sections. In addition, the game insists on drawing those decorative blocks at the of every ridge, which means the ones that are part of the middle roof section stick up through the ridge of the other two roofs. Changing the style of the roof can make those decorative blocks smaller but never eliminate them entirely. I think one of the roof styles has a light-colored ridge so that might blend in better.

You could of course design the house slightly differently to avoid the gable problem.

Obviously the devs didn't think we players would be doing complex stuff.

@Firestaar1 If you remember that command / button to make the whole eye bigger, please let me know. It's probably there somewhere but I'm missing it. Thanks!

 

[RedMallie]

1 hour ago, Klinn said:

Obviously the devs didn't think we players would be doing complex stuff.

Obviously!!! 

 

1 hour ago, Klinn said:

The trick is to hold the ALT key while placing or stretching the overlapping roof. ALT kind of acts like the Sims 'MoveObjects' cheat.

[Kimi]

Your ZOI looks very much like the guys I went to HS with back in the day. I grew up in California and there were so many like this guy. 
(Fun fact: we use those baskets at work and the ones in game are accurate!)

[Firestaar1]

18 hours ago, Klinn said:

If you remember that command / button to make the whole eye bigger, please let me know. It's probably there somewhere but I'm missing it. Thanks!

I was wrong, mostly.  It thought it was the Basic Editing; however that only moves the eyes in/out from nose, or up/down on face.  However, I was able to kinda make their eyes look bigger by playing around with some of the detailed editing pull button options.

[Klinn]

Thanks for double-checking that, Firestaar. I guess making whole eyes bigger/smaller would be on the wish list for future features. Otherwise we'll never be able to create a ZOI version of Audrey Hepburn. 

[Firestaar1]

You are most welcome Klinn

[Klinn]

OK, the question for today is -- house foundations! As in, how the heck do you create house foundations?

I've been struggling with this since the demo was released and still can't figure out how to make it work. it appears that you're supposed to use what the game calls "platforms" to make foundations. When you first place a platform, you can adjust its size etc. Do something else and come back to the platform and suddenly you cannot change it's size any more! Better hope you made it exactly the right size and shape the first time because you're stuck with it. The only change which you're allowed to make, and only sometimes, is this weird "platform within a platform" thing. I have no idea what that's about. I've pulled apart the sample houses to try figure out how they did the foundations, but zero clues.

Has anyone managed to get foundations working? Please tell.

Also, the demo having a non-skipable intro sucks. I don't need to see the girl panting on the street for the zillionth time. 

[Klinn]

OK, house foundations part deux -- I think I've figured it out!  For starters, completely ignore the "platforms". I'm not quite sure what they're supposed to be used for, but they don't work for foundations.

Step 1: Draw out the walls of your house as you normally would. You'll probably use the Selection Tool as you do this to delete specific walls or select them to change their size or color / texture.

Don't worry about getting the house exactly right, you'll be able to freely add or edit rooms later. But notice that if you select a floor and try to pull it up, only that floor moves. It does not give you a foundation under the house.

Step 2: Click on the "Room Selection Tool (Create a Surface)" instead of the regular Selection Tool. No, I have no idea what that popup description is really supposed to be telling us.

Step 3: Click on the house, then the 3-axis button and amongst all the usual gizmos you can use to alter the size of the rooms, notice that there's an up-arrow in roughly the middle of the screenshot below. Drag that up and voilà, your house now has a foundation.

>phew<

That's the basics, next up I'll see if I can delete wall sections to create a porch out front where the main entrance will be. Anyway, hope this brief explanation was clear enough and helps anyone who was confused about the process.

[RedMallie]

It has been very helpful to see your pictures, so thank you very much, dear @Klinn 

[Kimi]

I might make another board just for tutorials. Great work!

[Firestaar1]

13 hours ago, Klinn said:

hope this brief explanation was clear enough and helps anyone

Absolutely clear-especially with the screenshots- and helpful, thank you SO much Klinn

Sidenote: I absolutely LOVE the countdown timer!!

[TechCat]

i say it is early access. it will be early access for a while,

devs need input, its a long way to go. but it is a stone in ea´s pool, and thats a good thing.

 

[RedMallie]

7 hours ago, revengerde said:

devs need input, its a long way to go. but it is a stone in ea´s pool, and thats a good thing.

I absolutely agree. 

And I also love the countdown!!! 

[Klinn]

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Build another house. Wanted to experiment with a 2-storey high main room, creating a raised platform in the middle of it plus a balcony overlooking the main area. And many of the other bits and pieces I hadn't played with before. Yes there's an ice cream truck parked outside. You'll see why in a moment.

I've got a lot of screenshots to show all the different rooms so I'm going to spoiler all the picture spam below.

Spoiler

The house looks a little different at night.

What's going on inside?? Maybe a party?

Yup, there's a raised dance floor, balloons, disco balls, the whole bit. The smoke machine seems to be broken though. Up on the balcony are some comfy chairs to relax while keeping an eye on the action below. OK, not much action right now, but once word gets around, watch out.

(sorry about the crummy framing of that pic, the game's photo mode doesn't always cooperate)

Here's a more normal room, the kitchen. Originally the whole room had that greenish wallpaper but somewhere along the line it got changed.

Here's a more traditional overhead shot showing the rest of the kitchen: The sink doesn't show up very well, it seems like the counter top continues right through it.

After meal prep, time to eat in the dining room. Notice that the table, illuminated by overhead lights, is not casting any shadows on the rug below it? The game has two types of lights, one that casts shadows and one that doesn't. I assume they are split up that way because casting shadows costs noticeable performance. Will have to check it out later.

Here's the overhead view of the whole dining room. The weird light under the cabinets on the left seems to be leakage from a light in the room on the other side of the wall.

One of the bathrooms. We are sitting on the toilet, so to speak. Note the 'clutter' item on the floor to the right. Those bottles were supposed to be on top of the counter, not underneath. Oh well.

Overhead view of the bathroom:

The master bedroom complete with Red's favorite poster and, for some reason, a hobby horse in the middle. I try not to judge.

Overhead view of the master bedroom plus the ensuite to the right. That bathroom's wallpaper reminds me of Space Invaders.

"We appreciate you taking this lovely tour with us today. Hope to see you again soon".

You can see there are lots of things that need fixing but I either didn't notice them before taking the screenies or I was just getting really tired of Build Studio.

[TechCat]

SmartZoi will be part of the game  :=)

j

[Rosewin]

[Firestaar1]

Very nice overall IMO

I laughed out loud literally at Red's "picture" and the hobby horse in the bedroom

That's really interesting & more then a little cool about SmartZoi; though I can't help but wonder if this is a separate setting we have to turn on, or if it's already on as default.

[TechCat]

it is free part of the game.

the weak point at early start is the live mode.

here more about smartzoi

[RedMallie]

11 hours ago, Klinn said:

he master bedroom complete with Red's favorite poster and, for some reason, a hobby horse in the middle. I try not to judge.

   I soooo love that poster!!!!! 

I'd not judge either!

The lights with you initials were fantastic!!!! You're soo into the building mod already!!! I tried it yesterday for a bit, but I still haven't found a way to comfortably move around. It's just my being used to TS4, I guess. Will need more time in the Build studio and probably more tutorials to get the hang of it. I did not keep your thread open when I tried the foundations, and of course, I could not make them work.

Like @Sleepycat said, rubbish adulting!  I'll have to come back to watch the info about SmartZoi later.

 

[Firestaar1]

1 hour ago, RedMallie said:

rubbish adulting

YES!! Because of this "adulting" thing I have to be responsible and wait to buy, & play with the new shiny til tomorrow as it will be released when I should be in bed to do the work thing tomorrow

[Klinn]

5 hours ago, RedMallie said:

I soooo love that poster!!!!! 

I thought you would be pleased to see your Yummy Male Creature (tm) reappear in a different game.

BTW when I was thinking of what custom image to put in that frame, I decided to try the so-called "AI" feature to see if it could be persuaded to generate an image of a naked man. I did this purely for science, of course, not to pass on an interesting tidbit to you. Sadly whatever checkpoint data they're using doesn't seem to have much nudity in it. Or maybe my prompts weren't specific enough. We must redouble our efforts!

[RedMallie]

Oooh! Thank you for your scientific endeavors, @Klinn!!!!

I must admit that, on most posters, a semi nude is much more enticing and stylish that a full all balls out picture!!!! 

 

Yummy Male Creature (tm)   is NOT like most posters, though. 

[Klinn]

@Loralie0512 and @FzzyDg8 you both said that Zois were a bit too realistic to be enjoyable to play, and I mentioned that the game had several rendering modes in addition to realistic. They may not make enough of a difference when coming from The Sims, but here's some examples:

My current Zoi in realistic mode (sunrise lighting is kinda blown out):

And here he is in Cartoon mode, a bit more stylized:

It may also help if your viewpoint is further back so you're seeing the whole Zoi instead of a close up like those shots. I'm actually playing zoomed out at the moment since I find it easier to see another Zoi when you're talking to them.

Anyway, just thought you'd like to see the options in the game. Fiddling with graphical settings may also make a visual difference but I haven't looked at those yet.

[Firestaar1]

Mine is finally downloading now!

Except the part my Internet just went out due to a temporary outage in my area. This day seriously feels like a damn Monday.   

I'm having to write this from my phone

[Klinn]

Hope your internet recovers soon so you can join in on the fun!

Further proof that cats are taking over the world. Well, the world of inZOI anyway. Not only does the local cafe feature a huge mural of the inZOI cat, but the tables have cute little cat lamps, and I think there's a paw-pillow over on that couch in the background.

BTW, the main currency is apparently "Meows" represented by a capital M with a stroke through it. Not to be confused with "Meow Coins" which is an entirely different currency.  Meows are used for things like buying your home and adding stuff to it via Build Mode. Meow Coins are used in the Meow Store to buy mood modifying donuts. OK then. (edit: my favorite is the "Donut of Crime"  which means your Zoi will become safe from having crimes reported about them.)

How to get and spend Meow Coins here.

Money cheat to get more Meows (not Meow Coins) here.

 

[KayBee]

Looks like I'll finally be joining the club soon! I was thinking about updating my graphics card, but it seems everything was a bit too outdated so I bought a new PC yesterday and brought it home today. It will take me some time to get it set up, but once I do I will finally be able to check this out for myself!

[Firestaar1]

 It finally JUST came back on!

Congrats on the new PC Kaybee!

That mural is super cool Klinn! Being a cat lover myself, I LOVE how they have so much CAT in this game

 

 

[Kendrana]

The graphics in the game are amazing. Something tells me that my PC wouldn't be able to run it, though I don't really understand how to compare the chips in my computer to what is required for the game to work properly. All I know for certain is that my PC is roughly three years old.

[TechCat]

Quote

Hello, Creators.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for your overwhelming love and support you have shown towards inZOI. I am fully aware that, due to the game’s many shortcomings, some of you may have experienced crashes or found the available content lacking. I deeply apologize for any frustration this may have caused.

When I watch the inZOI streams done by our talented content creators, I sometimes feel as anxious as a parent watching their child’s first kindergarten performance. Yet seeing them have fun makes me feel like I’ve gained the entire world. Because I wanted to incorporate as many of your valuable ideas as possible and attempt new experiments, I understand that the game might feel unstable and incomplete at times.

Even so, you continue to show warm support and encouragement in the community, and I sincerely thank you for it. The inZOI team always keeps an eye on the messages you send, and we are committed to working even harder to reciprocate your kindness. Although we may be lacking right now, we are determined to prove that this is not just another “Early Access” game that just take advantage of it. We truly wish to communicate with you, build this game together, and remain dedicated to that promise.

This project began as a small, personal endeavor driven by my own enthusiasm, but with the support of KRAFTON and all of you, it has grown far beyond my initial expectations. While this growth is wonderful, I also feel a profound sense of responsibility that comes from your tremendous outpouring of love and support.

With your encouragement, I promise to keep expanding inZOI. At the moment, our team is a bit worn out from launch preparations, so we will be taking a short break to recharge. Once we are back with renewed energy, we plan to establish a dedicated channel on Discord, where we can actively discuss and reflect on your feedback together. Our goal is to grow and evolve inZOI day by day and week by week, ensuring it becomes the best possible experience for everyone.

However, I also recognize that frequent updates can sometimes introduce unexpected issues. Therefore, we will prioritize stability and be thorough in our internal reviews before implementing any new changes. Going forward, we will remain ever grateful for your support, strive to communicate more closely, and continue improving. Above all, our aim is to ensure that you can truly “enjoy” inZOI from the bottom of your hearts.

Once again, thank you all so much for your overwhelming support.

Sincerely,
Kjun

 

here, from the creator,

 

[Klinn]

The dev also published an amusing (in a dark way) post indicating that they've issued a hotfix so players can no longer run over children and kill them with their cars. Oops.   Details here.

Also, if you haven't seen the dev's presentation at GamesCon in Germany last summer, near the end he shows off a "blooper reel" of some amusing bugs that cropped up during development, like babies whipping out their smartphones to take selfies.

[Firestaar1]

What a thoughtful thing to even take the time to send out an announcement simply to thank us for our support!

 

[Firestaar1]

On 3/27/2025 at 9:32 PM, Klinn said:

My current Zoi in realistic mode (sunrise lighting is kinda blown out):

Klinn, where did you find these settings please?

[Klinn]

@Firestaar1 In the small toolbar at the top of the screen there's a sort of diamond-shaped button called Filters. Click that and a sub-toolbar will pop up with the various rendering options. I assume these are rendering modes already built into the Unreal graphics engine they're using. I'm not sure why I would ever want to use the Fisheye Lens.

Funny thing happened yesterday. A neighbor dropped by to visit the newcomer (my first Zoi) much as you might expect in The Sims. However, to reach the front door and introduce herself, she went into my home's back door, walked right through the house and out the front door, turned around, and then knocked.   I think pathing still needs some work.

So I've started over with a new Zoi, Prof Hamworth:

A studious adult with his hair starting to turn grey, although my vision of the Prof includes having a bit of Indiana Jones adventurer in him. Beneath that knitted vest he's actually rather buff. We'll see if I can ever bring out that characteristic in the game.

By force of habit, I'm still constantly hitting the space bar to toggle pause mode on/off. Nope, doesn't quite work that way. Drat.

[RedMallie]

That message by Kjun was very thoughtful indeed.

@KayBee many congratulations on the new shiny!!!