Dear readers, I am SHOCKED! And I weigh my words. I came out of 45 minutes of exclusive interview granted by Kim Hyungjun, producer and director of inZoi, with my jaw dropped and my eyes locked in a wide open position, as I did not expect everything that was presented to me. Be careful, I am not saying that this will please everyone and I am not saying that everyone will get hooked on this game. But if you are a fan of simulation games and you love spending hours building and simulating life in a city (e.g.: The Sims, Cities skylines, etc.), you have here a game with unlimited potential that will blow your mind.
I was able to get my hands on a demo of the game at Gamescom. It all starts with the character editor, which will allow you to create Zoi (the name of the inhabitants of inZoi). And that’s where the first shock comes in. There are no fewer than 250 customization elements in this character editor, with a huge choice of options for each of these elements. You can modify everything down to the smallest detail: eyebrows, beard, chest hair, muscles, underwear, and so on. There are predefined bases to help you, which you can then modify, but you can also start from scratch. And for the colors it’s simple, you have access to the entire RGB palette. Do you want to recreate Shrek or Wallace from Wallace and Gromit? No problem! The editor is crazy and you have access to all of them in the demo currently downloadable on Steam to get an idea.
From there, one could say that Krafton (which is not at its first attempt when we know that they notably developed PUBG) wanted to impress everyone with an ultra-developed character editor and that we will then find a classic insipid sims-like. In any case, that was the idea I had. But I was wrong. The rest of the game is even more infinite in terms of customization. To be honest, when I picked it up, I went back to my old Sims reflexes and immediately bought a house that I started to customize, then I asked myself: “well… and now what do I do?”
In fact, the interface offers so many options that I felt a little lost. So I walked around and I felt a little like I was in GTA while walking the streets of my city, total freedom. And that’s when I understood. The game is not limited to building a house in which you will put sims with whom you will be able to have fun, no this is only a small aspect of this game which is in reality a complete simulation of life.
This is also what Kim Hyungjun called it when I asked him to describe this game in a few words: realistic life smulation (this is also the origin of the name, Zoe meaning vie (in Greek). They extended the simulation outside the house, to the level of the entire city. The game is much closer to a simCity or Cities skylines in the sense that you manage an entire city, fully customizable. It was when I saw the producer show me what he could do in the game that I understood that when I had picked up the game a few minutes earlier I had not grasped the range of possibilities it offered. And these are almost infinite. Don’t you like this park? You can modify the trees to put pretty cherry trees. But you can also cut down the trees and make an amusement park. Or install a bed and a lamp. Hey, what if this lamp could have a lampshade with Shrek’s head? It may seem totally incongruous to you, but it is possible!
I started to seriously hallucinate at that moment, when Kim Hyungjun showed me the powerful tool developed with the support of their AI team: the creation of 3D objects to integrate into the game. You take an image on your computer, you import it into the game, and a few seconds later… you have a 3D object generated by the AI locally on your computer. It’s incredibly powerful. See for yourself with the image above: in a few seconds, we created a 3D Naruto and an apple that we can then resize, enlarge, enlarge, rotate, etc. All this from a simple image on your PC. And the best part of all this? You can share it with all the other players via Canvas, like for the character editor.
But I wasn’t at the end of my surprises. Because I was then presented with the motion capture. Take any video of a person moving (or even your webcam to record a sequence of you moving) and the game will recreate those movements for your character. The AI does an awesome job again. And you can also share that sequence of movements with other players via Canvas.
This is where we understand that the game has no limits. Not only have the developers already integrated more than 1,500 pieces of furniture and objects for your homes and just as many clothes and accessories for your characters, which already leaves a completely crazy choice, especially since they will continue to add more, but it is in reality the content generated by the players and shared with others that will explode the range of possibilities. You will be able to stage and simulate everything in this game. And Krafton has understood this well since they have planned a character studio in which you can stage your characters in a personalized setting as desired, make them do the movements you want and take photos of them that you will share. But they do not intend to stop there and are already working on a music studio in which you can add music to make video clips. The TikTok movement had better watch out…
Enough about customizations, what will this simulation game allow you to do? First of all, you should know that each Zoi has its own life and is individualized. It’s not about having characters controlled by AI who wander aimlessly around the city to give a semblance of life. No, each individual has their own characteristics and behaviors. The Zoi live their own lives without player interaction. And you can monitor everything with extremely detailed reports that will allow you to manage your city. Their karma in short. This allows you to see at a glance the impact of your choices, which are also enormous: do you want people in your city to be more withdrawn, have more difficulty making friends? Or that they promote family ties? That couples argue often? That the city is unsafe? That it is difficult to find a job there? In short, so many sliders that give you fine management of life in your city. And based on this, you will see after several hours of simulation the impact that this will have on each character individually. Depending on their behavior and actions, you will be able to intervene. It is not about punishing them, but about reframing at the individual level.
Moreover, in case of good or bad actions, you could receive SMS reacting to this behavior. Because yes, you have a smartphone that gives you access to many details, even allowing you to buy a car online. This is the future. The Zoi simulate community life in the most complete way possible. Finally, I must mention that the AI also offers you, as a player, valuable help thanks to a chatbot that can answer all your questions and help you become the master of the world in the smallest detail. More than 8,000 different dialogues have already been implemented in this chatbot. By the way, I was told that you could unlock elements by chatting with the chatbot… Obviously, the Zoi will adapt their behavior to the evolution of the weather and city conditions, for which you can also add special effects: occurrence of fireworks, presence of butterflies in the parks, quantity of animals of each species (would you rather have a city full of cats or crocodiles?), cleanliness and appearance of the city (from the very clean modern to the dirty and unwelcoming post-apocalyptic city),…
I will stop at this description of what I saw in these few minutes of presentation, which have already blown my mind, because I think you will have understood how far inZoi goes. Once again, it is possible that this type of game does not speak to you at all, but technically it is very very impressive. And visually, thanks to Unreal engine 5, it is also very successful. But let me give you one last figure that, personally, finished me off. After seeing all these features, I asked Krafton how many years it had taken to develop this game and how big their team was. And there I took the final slap. I was told that they were at this stage at 1 year and 8 months of development… yes, only. And that the team was made up of 120 people, to which “are added” the 80 people of the studio’s AI department. It’s really impressive to see what they were able to do in such a short time and with a team of a normal or even modest size. This makes me think that this is only the beginning and that the game will continue to be enriched with crazy features. And the best part of all this? I was assured that they do not intend to give in to the sirens of subscription models, that it will be a “classic” game. one payment. There will certainly be DLCs at the end of the years with new cities and major updates, but the financial model will remain classic.
inZoi will be released in early access open to all by the end of the year. In the meantime you can already discover its character editor via the demo on its Steam page.
