Still Moving Forward (Updated)

For some reason, I feel especially happy to see you all today.

Our team worked incredibly hard again this week. But when I arrived at the office this morning and checked the latest build, I was reminded that there is still so much left to improve. Lately, there are times when I feel overwhelmed and wonder whether the game I’m making is truly heading in the right direction.

Reading through your feedback from the recent survey reinforced something important for me. Our highest priority is to create clear goals for players to pursue, build interactions and situations that feel natural rather than awkward, and ensure that our various systems and content have enough depth and work together organically. Of course, improving stability and reducing awkwardness remain essential challenges as well.

Even so, I think I’m fortunate. I genuinely love making games. This week, there were moments when looking at the build left me feeling exhausted, but then an idea would suddenly come to mind—something that could dramatically improve Zoi’s interactions and conversations—and before I knew it, I’d be completely absorbed in development, forgetting about lunch for a while.

Still, I believe things will work out because all of you are here with us, and because everyone on the team is giving their best.

Working hard doesn’t guarantee that everything will go perfectly. We all have things we cannot do, and we all make mistakes. But as the saying goes, the darkest hour comes before dawn. Who knows? Maybe everything will come together like a movie, and inZOI will become a game loved by even more people around the world.

There is one truth about life that I firmly believe in: life is always changing. Even when things are difficult today, better days can arrive tomorrow.

Today’s post ended up sounding a little like a personal reflection. I suppose I’ve become more comfortable talking with all of you on Discord. I still vividly remember the first day I had to write a post here. I couldn’t even log in properly and had to ask a colleague sitting next to me for help. I also remember trying to reply to every individual comment because I wasn’t sure how to respond, only to be amazed by the sheer number of messages coming in. Over time, that naturally evolved into the format I use today. I guess that, too, is something that changed with time.

Thank you, everyone.

I’ll see you again next week.

Thank you.

kjun

※ For the video, please check it on Discord or the forum.

🔗 Discord: Link

🔗 Forum: Link

Kjun’s Reply to Your Comments

Hello everyone,

It’s getting hotter here in Korea, and it finally feels like summer.

This week, the overall reaction to recently revealed features such as vehicles, GPS, camera improvements, and basements has been extremely positive. Many players have described these as some of the most noticeable improvements since Early Access launched, and there is a strong sense that immersion is steadily improving. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. That said, we still have a lot of work ahead of us.

One message continues to appear consistently throughout your feedback: adding new features is less important than making existing systems work together in a way that feels like real life. I completely agree. Going forward, I am placing greater importance not on individual features themselves, but on how naturally they connect with personality, memory, relationships, autonomous behavior, and daily life loops. Improving these areas takes time, but they are critical to the future of the game.

In particular, we received a tremendous amount of feedback regarding the Trait, Relationship, and Memory systems. While players generally feel that the characters look great visually, many believe they still feel too similar to one another and lack distinctive personalities. Players want traits to affect actual gameplay rather than simply existing as descriptions. They want traits to influence behavior, animations, dialogue, emotional reactions, school life, careers, friendships, and romance.

The Memory system is another area where expectations are high. Rather than functioning as a simple record of past events, players hope memories will have lasting effects on relationships, conversations, emotions, and long-term character development.

For future updates, we are not only planning new content but also improvements to how Zois process personality, understand context, and react to the world around them. With the upcoming school update, we are experimenting with more trait-driven behaviors and reactions. We hope you will enjoy watching how different Zois experience school life and continue sharing your observations with us. Your feedback will help shape future content development.

Because of this, the development team is currently reviewing and adjusting our overall roadmap. As many of you have suggested, we are discussing reducing the number of entirely new features. Increasing the depth and interconnectedness of the game while continuously adding major new systems has proven challenging. After the school update, our focus may shift more heavily toward improving existing systems and making them feel connected, believable, and life-like. ^^;

Vehicle-related feedback was one of the largest topics in this week’s report. Players have responded very positively to the improvements in vehicle physics, but many would like vehicles to evolve beyond simple transportation. Suggestions include vehicle damage, repairs, maintenance garages, gas stations, car washes, vehicle ownership systems, customization, taxi-driving careers, and eventually even larger social systems such as insurance and accident handling.

We also identified and fixed issues related to family members riding together in vehicles. Additionally, vehicles can now perform U-turns properly, making travel significantly smoother and reducing the need for teleport-style movement.

GPS and minimaps were welcomed by nearly everyone. Players especially appreciate how much easier navigation has become in larger cities. However, one frequently requested feature is a minimap that rotates based on the player’s direction. Zoom controls, custom waypoints, and support for underground levels are also among the most common requests.

Regarding the building system, players continue to praise the visual quality but often feel limited by the current level of freedom. Requests for freely placing furniture and decorations, expanded city editing tools, additional empty lots, more residential spaces, and larger basement functionality appeared repeatedly. Many players also expressed concerns about limited living space for grown family members who wish to move out and start independent lives.

We have also heard your feedback that cities still feel underutilized. While inZOI contains large cities and populations, we recognize that we are not yet taking full advantage of these resources. To help bring cities to life, we are currently preparing festival systems and city-wide events for future updates. If you have ideas for festivals or local events that would fit specific cities, we would love to hear them and pass them along to the responsible developers.

Many of you also continue to request more business-related content. Features such as hair salons, clothing stores, and other player-owned businesses are among the most popular suggestions. We are actively encouraging the development team to continue exploring these possibilities.

From a gameplay perspective, one recurring criticism is that cities are large but do not yet offer enough meaningful activities. Even when stores and facilities exist, interactions can feel limited and daily activities can become repetitive. Players frequently request expanded life-simulation content such as hospitals, supermarkets, salons, laundromats, school activities, local events, festivals, part-time jobs, farming systems, and production chains.

Within the modding community, the most common concerns are not about mod functionality itself, but about the support process. Many creators find it difficult to track mod review status and feel that official responses can be slow. Suggestions such as expanding the ModKit, supporting script-based mods, and creating private testing groups continue to appear regularly.

As it happens, we are actively preparing for future mod support. If there is enough interest, I would love to experiment with a private testing group involving community members. In fact, I have been working on a very small mod myself. To be honest, this is the first mod I have ever developed, so I am a little nervous. I keep wondering whether I am building something that truly meets your expectations and needs. I hope to share it with you soon and discuss it together.

As always, thank you for your feedback, encouragement, and support. After reading this week’s discussions, my biggest takeaway was this:

“The direction is right. Now give it more depth.”

If I have misunderstood, please let me know in the comments below.

Thank you once again for helping us start every Wednesday with energy, excitement, and motivation.

— kjun