Veteran game journalist Stephen Totilo has the most in-depth story I've read so far on inZOI, the very viral upcoming life sim game from South Korean company KRAFTON. You should subscribe and read the whole thing on his newsletter (maybe get your company to expense it!), but here's some keys details, gleaned from his interview with lead inZOI developer Hyungjun Kim:
It's only been in development for under a year: "[KRAFTON] gave his team eight months to create a promising build. They cleared that hurdle."
InZOI will support sharing UGC, but not a UGC marketplace: "He’s excited to let [players] customize whole rooms with 1,000 objects in them and upload them for others to use. InZOI will support the sharing of user-generated content, but not a monetized marketplace."
Individual play sessions have 300 simulated "citizens" who interact with each other: "A player’s session in inZOI is set in a simulated city with a maximum population of 300 people, or Zois. Weather and car traffic are simulated. So are the citizenry’s daily routines. Kim talked about simulations that will allow rumors to spread, though says the first viral transmission that the team tested was for a cold."
Instant karma gonna getcha: "People will operate on a karma system, and those who develop too many negative vibes will, after death, become ghosts who haunt the city and occupy one of those 300 population slots. 'When time passes, naturally, the souls will be purified,' Kim said. 'They will make it into heaven. The warning will go away. And you’re going to be able to see babies born.'"
Speaking of which -- and I think this is a scoop on Stephen's part, at least in the US press -- the underlying premise of inZOI is gloriously wacky. Possible spoilers ahead:
Kim showed me its overall conceit: inZOI is rendered as a simulation that’s playing out on a tablet placed on a virtual desk. The player is overseeing the simulation and reporting to their boss, who is… a cat.
There are a lot of cats in the inZOI world, Kim said, casually mentioning the game’s most unexpectedly tantalizing feature: “We have all these relationships between the cats. They have their own stories.”
I read those lines like three times and had to double check I had read them right.
"That game has some quirks," Stephen put it to me, confirming that, yes, your boss in inZOI is indeed a cat. Which seems like a Haruki Murakami short story except that it's probably about to become one of the biggest games of the year.
Sounds like a super cool and delightfully playful world James. I especially love the karmic aspect, LOL. Thanks for your always excellent reportage.
Posted by: Dario | Wednesday, October 09, 2024 at 09:52 AM