The Next InZOI Update is Coming September 3rd!

Kjun's Follow-Up to "08.21.26 Sticks and Stones"

Hi everyone, life has been incredibly busy lately! To be honest, I almost forgot to post today—my apologies. Today, I'd like to share a dev update on how we're reworking the Emotion System for Zoi.

Have you ever looked at a Zoi and wondered, "Wait, why are they feeling that right now?" As we added more content over time, emotions were often patched in piece-by-piece. While each piece made sense on its own, the overall logic became inconsistent. So this time, instead of adding new emotions, we went back to square one and reviewed everything from the ground up.

1. Aligning the Emotion Gears

We gathered and fixed cases where the situation and the emotion didn't match up.

• Parents gaining 'Confidence' when a toddler threw a tantrum, or feeling 'Serene' after receiving a terrible gift, were updated to 'Annoyed' and 'Baffled', respectively.
• We fixed visual errors, like a Zoi looking gloomy while holding a cheerful buff description.
• Purely RNG-based emotion triggers without conditions were removed. Unprovoked mood swings were more frustrating than fun.

2. Setting Clear Rules for Negative Emotions

Our longest discussion was deciding where to draw the line on negative emotions. If a newly settled Zoi buys budget furniture within their means, getting hit with constant negative emotions just for being cheap felt exhausting rather than fun.

• Distinguishing 'Cheap' from 'Bad': Simply buying inexpensive items no longer triggers negative emotions. However, low-performance items like old beds or sofas that ruin sleep will still cause bad moods.
• School Uniform Rework: We removed heat/cold reactions tied to wearing school uniforms. Since uniforms aren't something Zois choose to wear, they shouldn't be penalized for wearing them.

3. Making Emotion Triggers Transparent

Even if the numbers make sense, players still feel caught off guard if they can't see the reason behind a mood shift.

• Reordered Tooltips: The most recently acquired emotion now appears at the top, showing you the exact cause of your Zoi's current mood at a glance.
• Displaying Names in Social Buffs: Emotions gained through conversations now show the other person's name. When a mood is caused by a person, who it was is the most vital context.
• QoL Upgrades: Added timestamps for gained emotions, along with refreshed representative colors and icons.

4. True Emotions Must Be Seen

We expanded expressions and animations so emotions aren't just hidden behind numbers and tooltips.

• New Animations & Actions: Dedicated reaction animations now play for Inspiration, Excitement, Triumph, Laughter, Joy, and Emotion. Resting animations are more varied, and a new 'Boredom' action was added.
• Autonomous Behavior & Thought Bubbles: Autonomous choices now reflect a Zoi's emotions and traits, with an icon explaining their reasoning. Overhead thought bubbles were fully revamped with intuitive icons matching the context and relationship.

5. Memories, Gifts, and Travel

Emotions don't just vanish—they turn into memories.

• Memories & Gifts: We rebalanced how memories impact dialogue choices and fixed a bug where angry memories blocked essential conversations. Gift reactions are now split into 5 tiers based on a Zoi's tastes and traits, ensuring thoughtful gifts feel rewarding.
• Trips That Last: Pre-trip excitement, check-in, and post-trip nostalgia now flow continuously, leaving distinct memories for each Zoi who traveled. We wanted trips to feel like lasting experiences rather than one-off events.

Other

Fixes We also resolved missing or duplicated emotion triggers, link issues between emotions, stats, and preferences, as well as expression display bugs. Please check the full Patch Notes for details.

Refining emotion logic isn't always immediately obvious, so it might take a bit of play duration to notice the difference. But if you find yourself having more "Ah, so that's why my Zoi feels this way!" moments, this update will have done its job.

If you run into any awkward emotion states while playing, please let us know the context. Your reports were a huge help during this update.

Thank you for helping us grow and improve.

kjun

08.28.26 The Week Before the Update

Hello everyone. It’s been another whirlwind of a Friday.

This week, we finally wrapped up the build, which means I can now share the update schedule with you. I’m always sorry to keep you waiting like this.

The update is scheduled for September 3rd (Thu) at 6:00 AM UTC.

Looking back over the past two months, we’ve been working at a relentless pace. And yet, now that it’s time to show you the results, I still find myself focusing on all the things that could have been better. But when you open the patch notes, I think you’ll be surprised by just how many areas we’ve worked on and improved. I may not be perfect, but I hope you know that I’m always giving this my very best.

This time in particular, we put a tremendous amount of effort into improving the fundamental systems that form the foundation of the game. We’ve refined autonomous behavior so that Zois act in ways that better fit the context around them, and basic needs such as sleep and hunger are now handled more naturally. Zois will also sit at the table with people they are close to. (If they awkwardly sit apart at first, please be a little patient with them. It’s because they haven’t become close enough yet.) You’ll also see Zois who own vehicles get into their cars on their own and drive to their destinations.

One major disappointment, however, is that we weren’t able to fully include the venue system I promised last time. The flow where customers arrive, sit down to eat, pay, and then leave—and the more specific behaviors that prevent shop owners from casually sitting in customer seats and eating—will have a prototype ready next week, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it into this build in time.

I wanted to spend just a little more time finishing it properly, but the schedule simply wouldn’t allow it. It has been weighing on me, so we’re continuing development even now in hopes of delivering it through a hotfix if possible. After redesigning the entire autonomy system from the ground up, it’s especially disappointing that we still can’t show you this particular scene yet.

Perhaps our lives are always filled with little regrets like these. Like walking home after an exam you stayed up all night studying for, only to realize you made a mistake on a question you knew the answer to. Or saying goodbye to an old friend you haven’t seen in years, then thinking on the way home, “I wish I’d said that while I had the chance.”

Even when we give something our very best, there always seems to be a small empty space left behind. In some ways, developing inZOI feels the same. There are things we should have done better from the very beginning, and only now does it feel like we’re finally completing some of those long-overdue assignments.

Even so, because all of you continue to embrace our shortcomings with warmth and offer us such generous support, we find the strength not to become discouraged and to take another step forward.

As always, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I hope you have a peaceful and comforting weekend filled with warmth.

-Kjun