InZoi, the Korean life simulation game, turned one year old last week, and its Director, Hyungjun “Kjun” Kim, held a Q&A session where he shared his perspective on life simulation games, the challenges of building one, and the lasting influence of The Sims on the genre.

Over the past 12 months, InZoi has steadily evolved through a series of consistent early access updates, including new gameplay features, bug fixes, and even a free DLC, with the team actively listening to community feedback and sharing regular development updates.

The Difficulty of Making Life-Sim Games

Despite nearly three decades of experience in game development, Hyungjun “Kjun” Kim admits in an exclusive IGN interview that building a life simulation game like InZoi has been far more challenging than expected. “Life sim games are difficult to master,” he explained, reflecting on the studio’s first year.

The complexity of simulating interconnected systems, player freedom, and meaningful interactions pushed the team beyond its limits at times, with Kim even acknowledging that, if given the chance, he might hesitate before starting the project again. This difficulty also influenced key decisions during development, including the release of an early demo to ensure players fully understood the game’s technical scope before purchasing.

Why The Sims Still Dominates the Genre

A major takeaway from InZoi’s first year has been a deeper understanding of whyThe Sims has remained the defining life simulation franchise for over three decades. “The biggest thing I learned is, The Sims has been the biggest for three decades, and I think I have figured out why that is,” Kim said.

According to him, part of that success lies in the technical and design trade-offs inherent to building a life sim. He pointed to the shift between The Sims 3’s open-world approach and The Sims 4’s more loading-based structure, acknowledging the immense difficulty behind both systems. “I understand why they did that. It’s really hard,” he explained, suggesting that creating a fully open-world life simulation may be an ambition few studios can realistically sustain.

For Kim, this realization has directly influenced the game’s development, as the team continues to learn from The Sims without attempting to replicate it directly. Instead, the focus is on understanding the design decisions behind the genre’s most successful franchise and applying those lessons to build a more balanced experience that aligns with InZoi’s own vision.

Balancing Between Ambition and Players’ Expectations

Beyond technical challenges, Kim also reflected on the pressure of meeting both player expectations and internal ambitions. He acknowledged that the game launched in early access with notable shortcomings, describing it as a necessary step rather than a strategic choice. “When it was released to customers, there were many shortcomings in the game running as a complete game,” he admitted, adding that the team relied on players to help shape the experience. “The users are testing it on our behalf, so I always feel sorry for them.”

Despite strong sales figures, Kim suggested that success is not solely defined by revenue. Instead, his focus has increasingly shifted toward delivering a meaningful experience for the existing player base. “Do I really have to make a lot of money?” he questioned, reflecting on the broader purpose of game development within a large company like Krafton.

This mindset has translated into a more community-driven approach to development, with the team prioritising player feedback and continuous updates over short-term performance metrics, while positioning InZoi as a long-term project that could evolve alongside its audience.

As the game moves forward, with a lot of new content planned for the upcoming months, its first year has made one thing clear: competing in the life simulation space means understanding what made The Sims endure for decades. For Kim and his team, that process is still ongoing, shaped by both technical limitations and player expectations.

That learning process is not only happening within the studio. Kim also shared a more personal perspective with his son as part of his inspiring process. He revealed how his son’s experience playing The Sims, and now InZoi, has influenced the way he sees the genre. Despite joking that his son “doesn’t seem to have any talent,” he noted that he has become deeply involved in modding, hinting at the kind of player creativity the team hopes to support in the future.

“Life sim games are difficult to master,” Kim said. “If you asked me if I would turn back time and make it again, I think I would hesitate.”

“The biggest thing I learned is, The Sims has been the biggest for three decades, and I think I have figured out why that is,” Hyungjun “Kjun” Kim explained. “The Sims 3 was open-world, and The Sims 4 moved to a more loading-based. I understand why they did that. It’s really hard. There may not be any other team that attempts to make an open-world life-sim game.”

“To put it simply, I’ve been doing this for about 29 years now. I’ve been making games for a very long time, but after trying it out, I realised that I couldn’t do it properly. It was too much. So, the reason we released a demo was that, well, it didn’t really fit the specs. So, we actually did it to prevent people who didn’t quite fit the game from making the wrong purchase.”

“When it was released to customers, there were many shortcomings in the game running as a complete game,” Kim admitted. “The reason we had to use early access is that we cannot see the results ourselves. So we had no choice but to use early access. The users are testing it on our behalf, so I always feel sorry for them.”

“Do I really have to make a lot of money?” Kim asked. “Isn’t that how a company is? It seems to have diverse futures. Even if some people make a lot of money, others might be presenting possibilities regarding the future of games. Who knows, maybe later on, the future of the entire game industry?”

“When I was young, The Sims was incredibly helpful to me,” Kim said.

“My son started playing The Sims,” Kim continued. “He’s much bigger than me. He asks me questions and says he wants to become a game developer too. From my perspective, my son doesn’t seem to have any talent, so I worry about him these days. I don’t know why he seems so untalented, but I thought maybe if he just played some InZOI, he might learn game development.”

“My son is now a modder for everything,” Kim said. “He makes all the mods. He is building up the feeling that he would like InZOI to be modded later on.”

Source: IGN

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