inZOI Another Life Simulation Game in Early Development

[Firestaar1]

It seems the auto-save feature only works when you're in live mode @RedMallie

I'm glad you at least got some play time!

You and Klinn are much braver then me... I have yet to try to play more then one Zoi at a time

Also your house may be small red, but it looks quite comfy

LOVE the shots Klinn... especially the heart stopper Red loves so much

 

[Klinn]

I'm not that brave @Firestaar1 , I really only play one Zoi of my current couple. I leave the other one to depend on her autonomy. She actually has worked out pretty well, better than I thought the game's code would handle things.

 

It looks like somebody is grinding his coffee brewing skill, not just the beans.

There are an amusing number of detailed steps Zois go through to brew a cappuccino. Somebody on the dev team must really, really love coffee.

[Firestaar1]

12 minutes ago, Klinn said:

There are an amusing number of detailed steps Zois go through to brew a cappuccino. Somebody on the dev team must really, really love coffee.

Yes! I noticed that as well!  One of the several "little" details I've found in the game that I seriously love considering it's early access!

I think that's enough coffee to keep he and his "roomie" awake for at least 2 Zoi days (considering how fast sleep decays)

 

[Klinn]

Apparently EA is sending out surveys to TS4 players asking them what they think of inZOI.

Have any inmates here in the asylum received such a survey?

Quote

Understandably, it seems that InZOI’s success has caught EA’s attention, and the company reportedly sent out surveys asking Sims players what they think of the new life sim. According to a Reddit post made by loco1989, one of their friends told them they received multiple surveys sent from EA asking about their enjoyment of InZOI, including questions such as how many hours they spent creating their Zois, whether they used the game’s clothing editor, and more.

 

 

[Kimi]

I haven't but sometimes I delete stuff without reading it completely.  I will check. 

[Klinn]

Some random observations:

1. When a Zoi gets better at cooking they can make larger meals which will serve multiple other Zois, but at the moment there's no "Call Family To Meal" command. You have to switch to each member of the household and try to get them to eat their share. When the Zoi who cooked the meal finishes their piece they clean up not only their own plate but also throw out any remaining food too. So at the moment it becomes a bit of race for other Zois to get some before it all disappears.
2. I wish we could disable SMS messages from the Hope Foundation. Yes. I'm donating again. No. I don't need to read the same old heartfelt thanks message yet again. We need the typical "click link to stop receiving these messages" option at the bottom of the text.
3. My Zoi's bag (personal inventory) is almost full of gifts he's received. I dare not place them in the house because good old roomie will throw them in the trash. I think I may have to create a "trophy room" to display them and lock the door so she can't get in. Goof.

Continuing the random theme, my main Zoi was out fishing and caught the big one:

Later that day:

He: "Honey, look what I brought home for you!"

She: "Get that thing out of my house".

 

[RedMallie]

He only got her a SHARK?????  Of course she'd want it out!!! 

[RedMallie]

I lowered my settings again, and this time, for the short time I played, the game did not crash. Yoohoo!!!

 It's definitely not the best look for the game, but the current settings may give me a chance to explore a little bit more, so, I'll suck it up.

We have a saying in Mexico that is similar to that proverb about the frog and the scorpion; the scorpion cannot change its nature, right? Similarly here, it was not Krafton that made a game and pretended it was not VERY much Korean aesthetically, culturally, and specially in gestures / animations; it was I who chose to think I could deal with it because it was not REALLY soooo much aesthetically Korean, riiight? 

Maybe in a few years modders-or even Krafton if they see sales in making a less vernacular game-, will give InZoi a more generic style. In the meantime, I'll accept that I made a mistake in buying the game, learn to control it, and learn to build in it. The lighting is gorgeous, and as long as I don't see Zois jumping in joy like little children (or pushing that damned lock of hair out of their faces), I can play it, if my machine can run it.

In my latest tryout, I had these Zois, who are definitely not my Thor and Trina, chat more, and I actually managed to make them do some of the 'urges' they had, by buying them tablets to do them.

Then, as time went painfully slow, a bit after 6pm, since they were tired, i sent them to sleep in the same bed.

I was expecting to see them either not go in on the bed, or jump out of it as soon as the other Zoi tried to get to bed.

It was a nice surprise to see them being able to sleep in the same bed.

Both of them snore, but she snores is a very feminine, discreet snore that sounds more like a delicate moan, while he snores in a very 'manly' devil-may-care-about-whoever-hears-you-or-can't-sleep-because-of-your-loud-snoring, snore.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love Kimchi, Bulgogi, Korean pancakes, and other food; I am not that much of a fan of K-pop or K-drama in general!! 

[Klinn]

Glad to hear you've got the game running a bit better, even if the graphics are compromised as a result. At least you can have some fun!

Personally I don't find the Zois' actions and gestures particularly Korean or K-pop. Perhaps some like the posing for selfies. I just think of them behaving like the little computer-generated goofballs that they are. Not specifically K-pop goofballs. I'm probably behind the times.

I laughed at your description of F/M snoring styles. So true.

[RedMallie]

Thank you!!!

You're much more objective than I am! It's just some things, and then, I can't stop seeing the animations as too particular. Or maybe it's just that I cannot see my characters represented with the game features.

[Klinn]

.

Further proof of how cat-addicted the devs are -- check out the description of the large painting my main Zoi recently produced.

They do try to be fair and include a dog portrait as well:

Now that my Zoi has maxed out his painting skill he produces perfect quality works more often. As you can see, these fetch a good price, usually almost double of the initial estimate shown. I've set up 4 easels in the house and have him cranking out product. During one day he generated over 25,000 M for the family.

Maybe he should quit his "main gig" sweeping floors at the local amusement park. There's probably space in the house to set up more easels.

[Rosewin]

[RedMallie]

I bet there is!!! Congratulations to your artistic-floor-sweeping Zoi!!

[Kimi]

With as much as this game is influenced by cats the devs missed the best "pun". On the cat portrait, the quality should say "purrfect". The one of the dog and any others should keep "perfect". 

[Klinn]

Yes! Since it's early access, there's still time to correct this grievous oversight!

[Klinn]

(Warning: long rant ahead)

My main Zoi, being a maxed-out virtuoso on multiple instruments and singing, received an invitation to a Musical Competition. Sounds cool, let's sign up for it and see what it's like!

I was expecting some sort venue where your Zoi could perform. Maybe one of the public parks or town squares would be temporarily fitted up with a stage, lighting, adoring NPC crowds, whatever. Or at the very least, allow entrance to one of the many unused buildings in the city which just happened to contain a concert space. Your Zoi could do their thing, other NPC Zois would give similar short performances, and a winner would be declared.

Nope.

Here's what actually happened. My Zoi walked up to the cab sitting outside the house and faded to nothing. The cab never moves. Just like going to a non-rabbit hole job. the Zoi is actually standing on the sidewalk, just invisible. Other townies walk by and wave and greet him. They must be wearing special glasses to see invisible Zois.

The "musical competition" which involved no music of any kind was 3 hours of staring at the sidewalk. My Zoi finally materializes after it was over. Was there any indication that anything had actually happened or the results of the competition? Nope, nada, Not even a pop-up box saying you won or whatever. Just silence.

I drag my Zoi into the house and have him paint some more art for sale and other activities. Before heading to bed I happen to notice that he has a tiny blue dot indicating a "sad" mood. Mousing over it brings up this:

Spoiler

Good grief, "on the verge of tears". Drama queen anybody?

That tiny little blue dot was the only feedback the game gave me.

Yeah, I know it's only early access and maybe the game will be much more fleshed out in a year's time. but geez, a simple pop-up notice at the end of the competition would have been a much better placeholder until they can create something appropriate.

Ah well, he can go back to his job sweeping floors at the amusement park with a dark cloud over his head and take it out on patrons at the park.

[RedMallie]

 

2 hours ago, Klinn said:

take it out on patrons at the park.

That should help him get a much thicker skin, huh? Losing a competition is not the end of the world! 

[Klinn]

.

At least his job at the amusement park has given him an opportunity to study potted plants really really closely and discover their secret for levitating above a surface.

There must be a scientific breakthrough just waiting to be revealed here!

Hmm, the game needs a "mad scientist" career track. Could be fun.

[RedMallie]

[Kimi]

I got stuck in a loop! I don't know if I can explain this or not, and of course I forgot to get a screen shot. I sent my Zoi to the beach front because her fiancé works there. I had the option to "get married" while talking to him and thought, why not! I hated doing the wedding thing in Sims!
The game gave me the option to move him or her into each others place or to pick a new home. I was going to go for that option. It brought me to the map to pick but I didn't know what the housed looked like. (not a great option in my opinion) So I was going to cancel the whole thing and just look to see if I could see them in map mode without the moving aspect on. Well, I hit escape. That's when the trouble started. It brought me back to my Zoi, BUT it looked like I was still in the map mode. And by that I mean the description was still there and the locations for the houses. Every time I hit escape, it did the same thing. I went back into the map, but I was like a ground level. The only thing I thought to do was pull up task manager and quit. 

Thoughts? 

[Klinn]

A couple of suggestions:

1. Generally speaking, using the ESC key is unreliable. Look for a "Go Back" option in the upper-left corner. ESC should mean the same thing as Go Back but I've found the game sometimes gets confused by it.
2. The game also can get confused if you try to do something other than the expected course of action. In other words, the devs have not allowed for various possibilities the player may do, but only what they expect the player should do. Deviate from that and things can go sideways.

Any chance you have an older auto-save that you can bring up, hopefully without losing too much play progress?

I'll see if I have an old save I don't care about and test the same sequence of actions.

[Kimi]

Thank you @Klinn, I will remember that!

Thankfully I wasn't playing that long so I just had to send her to work again and play the interaction with him again.

[RedMallie]

 

I did a tiny bit of playing with my Zois yesterday, but I also forgot to take screenshots.  

I edited their outfits, and I must say that I had forgotten that once you own the game, you can actually change the characters' outfits.

Nothing much really in terms of gameplay, except that I had complained about time going at snail pace even when using the speed buttons, but then yesterday, my Zoi woke up in the middle of the night, and  sort of went into a fast forward drive to accomplish things. I am not sure what I did with the controls, but it was much faster and less tedious. 

[Klinn]

Heh-heh @Kimi I tried to replicate your sequence of actions with my previous couple of teens, now young adults, but ran into a some problems.

1. Since they had only just aged up to YA they had an empty romantic bar, so I had to speed-run them through a bunch of romantic interactions to get them up to sweethearts where the marriage option becomes available.
2. Proposed marriage, which was accepted, and then -- nothing. Oh yeah, they were already living together in a house, so no need to choose where to move. Oops. That didn't work.
3. OK, sent my main Zoi down to the beach to find a woman and try to badger her into becoming a romantic partner. Took forever for one to appear (was word already out?)
4. Trying to get him to introduce himself to the woman was ridiculously frustrating. They did that stupid pathing thing where they're 10 feet apart, you tell him to go over and talk to her, but he wanders 3 miles back and forth all over the damn beach. Cancelled that and tried again with no better results. Tried again (grrrr) and I finally gave up. The pathing in this game sucks big time.

Yes, I was yelling at the screen.    Anyway, sorry Kimi but I wasn't able to test what happens in your situation. But I'm glad to hear your old save didn't lose you too much progress.

 

1 hour ago, RedMallie said:

yesterday, my Zoi woke up in the middle of the night, and  sort of went into a fast forward drive to accomplish things.

If both of your Zois are sleeping and only one wakes up, the other remains sleeping, the game can get stuck on fast speed (5X) or super-duper fast speed (10X). Hitting one of the other speed buttons should fix that.

By the way, by clicking the regular game speed buttons the fastest you can go is 5X, but if you drag the thin scroll bar below the buttons over to the right you can get it up 10X.

[Kimi]

With the understand that inZOI is a new game and also an early access game, ere is what I have realized about inZOI:

• It very much feels like the original Sims. I have issues with trying to have them do what I ask. 
• Don't wake the F up in the middle of the night because you're worried. You can worry about that stuff in the morning. 
• Routing (as Klinn has already said) is not the best. When I was trying to get them to get married, she decided she wanted to play darts so she ignored me. Mind you, this happened both times!
• There is a lot of gameplay that is lacking, which I'm sure will be added to as we go along, so that's just a gripe right now.
• I'm also not a fan of the way the Zoi's panel is off to the side, or that when I click on one, I travel to that spot. I just want to click on it and bring you home. Or look at the one that I am playing, click on the other and have the other one ask the first one a question. Hopefully these will be addressed. 

I won't ever make posts on Steam or wherever else they are taking suggestions, so if anyone else does this, feel free. Yes, I will just gripe in my little corner of the internet and hope it changes.  

[RedMallie]

On 4/27/2025 at 4:02 PM, Klinn said:

Took forever for one to appear (was word already out?)

 

On 4/27/2025 at 4:02 PM, Klinn said:

By the way, by clicking the regular game speed buttons the fastest you can go is 5X, but if you drag the thin scroll bar below the buttons over to the right you can get it up 10X.

I think I did this. Both things.    Accomplished am I not?   

 

10 hours ago, Kimi said:

Yes, I will just gripe in my little corner of the internet and hope it changes.  

I mostly do this, too. On one strange time when the Character Creator was released, I was in Discord and managed to comment on several issues--I think I did post comments somewhere. But then, I got stray again and can't find where those went. But surely someone got them, riiiight? 

[Firestaar1]

15 hours ago, RedMallie said:

On one strange time when the Character Creator was released, I was in Discord and managed to comment on several issues--I think I did post comments somewhere. But then, I got stray again and can't find where those went.

They actually closed the ability to comment on the character & build demonstrations feedback, and opened fresh new threads for the Early access version.  And yeah, trying to find your own feedback there is pretty impossible as usually within an hour there have been at least 100 new posts

 

[Klinn]

My main Zoi's job sweeping the floor at the amusement park is pretty monotonous. He completes all the assigned tasks within the first hour of his 11-hour shift and I spend the rest of the time trying to find something for him to do. But you can only eat so much cotton candy.

So lately I've been using the "Call Over" command to invite some Zoi he's met to join him at the amusement park and spend hours chatting away. But that doesn't always work. Last attempt was with a woman who must have been on the other side of the map, surrounded by barbed wire and attack dogs since it took her so long to finally make her way over.

But that's OK, my Zoi was just standing there killing time until his shift was over, so endless waiting didn't phase him. The amusing thing was that when she finally showed up over an hour later, she ran up to my Zoi and refused to have anything to do with him. The game popped up a message that she "declined to make plans with you". Ummm, you spent over an hour running all over the place to meet with me just to say you don't want to meet with me?

It didn't appear to be because any of her motives were low. She didn't rush over to get something eat or use the bathroom or fart in my Zoi's general direction, she just stood there. Ever the optimist, I had my Zoi strike up a conversation anyway, and she freely took part in that. "No, I refuse to make plans with you, but what the heck, since I'm here, let's have a little chat. BTW, have I shown you my collection of shrunken skulls?"

 

[RedMallie]

[Firestaar1]

 

[Klinn]

.

My pair of Zois who started out as teens have grown through the young adult and adult stages and have now become middle-aged.

Mark decided that the most appropriate thing to do upon reaching middle age was to quit his floor-sweeping job at the amusement park and become a professional football player, because why not.

This is a rabbit hole style career so it's not like you see any football field or other players or do drills. There are no games to win or lose, no trophies that I've seen, although it's early in career. He doesn't even have uniform to wear. Cheap team.   He just disappears into the taxi in the morning and reappears in late afternoon.

I guess with his musical talents he can sing the Zoi national anthem before the game, and his vast experience with sweeping will allow him to clean up the locker room afterwards.

Put me in, coach! 

[Kimi]

I wish you could cheat/change the ages. Also, the way that the rabbit hole works for jobs is a little annoying and I am not sure how I want it to be, but not like it is? Also, the time does NOT pass fast enough, even if I drag the scroll all of the way to the end. Annoying, but these are things that will hopefully be addressed. 

OH! And making group meals? Will that ever be a thing?

[Firestaar1]

4 hours ago, Kimi said:

making group meals? Will that ever be a thing?

This has been one of the heavy feedback options as well.  Apparently when your cooking gets high enough you can, however a LOT of players have given feedback they'd like this to be changed for when they play families.

[Klinn]

I agree that group meals would be great, especially if your Zois could multitask and have conversations while at the dining table. At the very least, I wish that cooking meals that feed multiple Zois (as mentioned by Firestaar) would let you put the leftover portions in the fridge for others to eat when needed. Maybe they go bad after a week or so, whatever.

Interestingly enough, I almost always play on the lowest speed.   I'll crank it up when sleeping or in a rabbit hole, but for all other times like interactions between Zois and practicing skills, I like to dawdle along.

 

Edit: @Kimi  I wouldn't be surprised if forcing age group changes will be a cheat in the future, along with motive toggles. The devs promised some cheat codes in the May update so hopefully soon we'll see what they include.

BTW, I was surprised that your Zoi's age is not included in their Zoi card. Yes, they list the age group, but not how long they've got until they reach the next stage.

[RedMallie]

 I think I agree with both @Klinn and @Kimi on the issue of time or game speed. I like to have plenty of time to get to understand the game feature I'm checking and how it works out, so the snail speed is good for that, but then, when I wish to speed the time to see the fruits of my labor, I only accidentally made it go reasonably fast, and then, my Zoi ruined it by waking up! So, I think there should be an easier option or bar to make the time speed up as needed, because it was hard to realize what I did (thank you, @Klinn for your help in that), and I'm not sure it will be easy to replicate it again as I want.

[Kimi]

Same Klinn! I would like to know when they are aging. 

[Firestaar1]

I agree with all of this, especially on the time.  It's so frustrating that even when I hit the max speed, it barely does anything in way of going faster.

[RedMallie]

Check this very educational, and extremely funny comparison  : 

 

[Klinn]

Sure, but just wait until pools are added to inZOI.

[Kimi]

That was funny!

[RedMallie]

It was, wasn't it?  

 

And yes, I am looking forward to some options to add some @KayBee spice to our saves!! 

[Firestaar1]

Wow, I'm actually surprised Sims 4 Karen took longer!!

Speaking of InZoi, I wonder when the new "BIG" update will be taking place.

[Klinn]

I'm wondering the same thing @Firestaar1. Now that my first pair of Zois have reached middle age I'm tempted to start a new family and explore other skills and careers. But the possibility of a significant update coming soon-ish (maybe?) gives me pause. Perhaps I'll wait until then.

On the subject of killing off Zois, I wonder about building a house with a flat roof and stairs to reach it, luring a Zoi up there, then removing the staircase. Will they eventually decide to make a jump for it?

[Firestaar1]

[RedMallie]

Interesting scenario, @Klinn  

[Klinn]

Having explored Bliss Bay pretty thoroughly, for my next game I'll use Dowon as the setting. The two largest building lots are corner lots which means your Zoi will go and stand on the corner when trying to enter or exit the house. But none of the prebuilts are set up that way. So I've been tinkering in Build Mode to come up something with more suitable.

A couple of minor observations from using Build Mode:

1. I wanted the house to have a slight foundation. Only a couple of inches high so it was not just sitting on the ground. But when I did that, my test Zoi couldn't enter the house. Those couple of inches were an insurmountable obstacle. To make it work, you have to add some stairs, but there are no stairs which are only a couple of inches high. No ramps either. Sigh.
2. When testing routing / pathing, the game can be in pause mode. Click the spot you want to check and if it can't be reached, the walking + red slash icon will briefly appear in the Zoi's action queue.

BTW, I'm using a new test game to experiment with Dowon's lots and boy, saving a new game is so much faster than my previous one! I guess having played long enough to go through several age stages there's a bunch more data to be saved in that one.

[RedMallie]

3 hours ago, Klinn said:

wanted the house to have a slight foundation. Only a couple of inches high so it was not just sitting on the ground. But when I did that, my test Zoi couldn't enter the house. Those couple of inches were an insurmountable obstacle. To make it work, you have to add some stairs, but there are no stairs which are only a couple of inches high. No ramps either. Sigh.

Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!!! So that was it!!!! I have some pictures about this issue, but I don't have them at hand. I was trying to make the front porch of my Zois house just that: a little above ground, but not much, maybe three steps high. But the stairs did not budge! I mean, I was able to place them on the platform, but they did not look like they were clicking into place. Without the stairs, my Zois could not step into the house, but with the steps it did not look like they could either. I'll post the pictures later today, ok?

[Klinn]

Sure, if you get a chance to post pics showing your issue I'll be glad to see if there are any suggestions I can provide.

Completely random unrelated observation -- there are too many high rises in Dowon and not enough sunshine gets through. Message ends.

[RedMallie]

I am going to follow your example, @Klinn 

I'm playing InZoi in a moment after I post the pictures. I'm using a household with only Mallie to explore the world and the game mechanics. I will build something basic to get me started, or maybe I will see if Mallie would like to rent a place? Most important thing: I'll see if the game holds with the lowest parameters set since my graphics card is not the best yet.

The pictures I have:

I am not sure why but the stairs did not lock onto the floor easily. There is this gap as you can see. I must say I don't remember testing this, but it looked awful and I would not leave it like that even if it worked.

Then, there is the void space where the floor or item I was using is making space for a wall, but I was not going to enclose that porch. The overhanding edge of the platform is horrible. Need to learn how to prevent this, too.

 

I took a picture of the house next door. I wat to be able to build something like that. The stairs are solid, not only floating steps, and the door is very close to the top of the stairs. I was actually trying to do this and not a porch, but I could have compromised on the porch, if the stairs had behaved. 

 

And the back of the houses. I love that they have the service alley and that the garages are there. But why then can't I have that? At first I thought I had built that stone fence at the back of the property, but then I realized that I didn't. It is the division of the end of the lot imposed by the game. It does not allow me to make a similar driveway towards a garage. So sad. 

 

Ok now. I'm going to tackle InZoi and see how long I manage to play. Mallie will either have a blast, or she will blast me off for putting up for this.  Either way, it should BE FUN!

[Rosewin]