On November 14th 2025, Producer & Director Hyungjun 'Kjun' Kim first brought out the concept of Canvastown and asked for feedback. Since then, a small team has been working on this feature. Today, Kjun shared the first peek into the development to InZOI Canvastown, alongside the multiplayer feature coming with it.
Table of Contents
Wednesday September 2nd Catch-Up
Kjun's Follow-Up to "09.04.26 Open Catalog"
Hi everyone, Wednesday already. Feels like autumn is finally settling in here in Korea 🍂
Here's another look at what we've been working on.
Event System
Lately we've been polishing things so that the events happening in inZOI are easier for you to notice. We put a lot of work into these events, and it turns out plenty of them were slipping by unnoticed.
To start, we're preparing to let married couples go on dates with each other. We're also working on stabilizing the event system itself, along with improvements so events can trigger across a wider range of times of day.
Restaurants & Businesses
You've shared a lot with us about what's been frustrating with restaurants, and what you were hoping for. Right now the restaurant setup UX and the recipe support features aren't working as smoothly as they should. So we're adding a separate set of options for restaurant mode in the business settings UI, and temporarily disabling the drink and baking/pastry recipes. After that, we'll be improving the dining flow further so that food and the act of eating can come together properly. I hope you'll trust me and bear with us just a little longer.
On the business side, we're also looking at the break-time settings many of you have asked for, along with a variety of business events. If you have thoughts on this, they'd be a big help to us.
Autonomy Improvements
We're still hard at work on autonomous behavior. We're improving how Zois search across floors when looking for an object. We're also adding a reaction where a Zoi raises a hand to greet someone they know, and behavior where a Zoi with a bad relationship gets kicked out if they're wandering around your house.
Some of you might worry that anyone will get thrown out the moment they walk in, so to be more specific: we're thinking of having the homeowner send them off only after they've stayed for a certain amount of time.
CAZ
So many of you have been enjoying the CAZ creation features — it makes all the work we put in during September feel worth it.
We added family photos, character blending through genetics, family tree setup, a wider range of relationships to register, voice customization, and more. The team is also continuing work on the preference editing and deeper relationship editing that didn't make it into this patch. There's plenty more on the way, so stay tuned.
On Friday, I think we'll be able to share something a lot of you have been curious about.
See you Friday 👋
Developer Diary Recap
○ The main focus of the Developer Diary was Canvastown. The explanations of it adjusted over time, to which Kjun feels it's natural to the development. It will likely change to feedback.
○ Canvastown is a separate experience from the main gameplay. It is independently built by a few small teams who have never superseded the efforts to improve the main life simulation aspect.
○ There will be a dedicated button to enter Canvastown, clicking which will bring you to MyZoi section where the player creates or chooses an avatar Zoi.
○ After entering Canvastown, you'll be brought to MyHome, which is completely customizable by the player with a possibility to use homes made by others from Canvas.
○ The central location of Canvastown is the AR Company where you can socialize with other players and NPC employees through the text chat feature. Interact with other Zois to enter one on one conversation mode.
○ Employee NPCs will reply based on their personality and their current situations. They are also able to end the conversation or have their next course of action influenced.
○ From the control tablet near the center globe, you can teleport to other's MyHomes and interact with objects and Zois in there.
○ Canvastown also features custom mini-games. The ones shown in the video were racing and parkour.
○ There are also scenarios which players can set which can be played alone or with other players.
○ Besides native tools, it is also possible to utilize modding capabilities to create new experiences from scratch to be shared with others.
○ It is possible to host private sessions where players can either play with their friends only or completely alone. The AR Company area only allows up to 50 players per channel to keep it from becoming chaotic. Inviting friends to the current channel is being explored.
The video was closed by showcasing some of the scenarios made by the team for Canvastown. Scenarios can have ending conditions, after which players are given an option to end it or continue it. Below we'll recap these using Google Translate.
○ The first one, roughly translating to I Am a Farmer Starting Today, features Joseph, a CEO returning to his hometown to acquire his grandmother's farmland. In there, he has a reunion with his childhood crush. After 17 hours, the player is given an option to continue the scenario and enjoying the country life or end it by selling the land.
○ The second one roughly translates to Secret Beauty Salon. It features a hairdresser who writes down the secrets of the customers to her book. After 21 hours, the scenario can be ended by fleeing the town or continued by surrendering the money earned from selling secrets.
○ The third one features a woman working in a convenience store with a difficult manager and customers. However, she is seeing a regular customer who is making the time a little easy. After 18 hours, players can end the scenario by quitting or continuing it for money and love.
○ The fourth one (translating to 32 Hours) is about Jamie, a homeless woman, who hears about a legendary treasure that'll disappear in 32 hours. The scenario ends when either the net value is 90,000,000 Mew or when 1 day and 10 hours go by.
○ The fifth one, roughly translating to Life Game, sees a husband at risk of losing his job who has a wife and triplets. This scenario has no ending conditions.
○ The final one features a woman who has lost her memories and her lover who she can't remember. After 20 hours, it is revealed that her lover is a stalker pretending to be her partner, giving the player an option to end the scenario by ending it or continuing it by forgiving him.
This Week's Developer Diary
09.11.26 Canvastown Preview
Happy Friday!
I am writing from Shanghai as I'll be attending the TapTap Game Fest tomorrow, which I briefly mentioned in a previous post. At this event, we plan to showcase our multiplayer capabilities as well as the 'MyHome' feature in a brand new game mode called 'Canvastown,' which a small team from our studio has been developing step by step. The name 'Canvastown' represents the idea of you and I living together in a creator's village.
We want to make sure your expectations are properly managed, as features like building an entire city from scratch or laying down roads—as rumored online—are not available yet. Of course, we plan to continue developing features to help decorate your city and edit terrain in the future. Right now, it's just a side project, and we are very much focused on our core goals.
The main goal of Canvastown is get away from mundane daily life and capture memorable moments within life simulation so you can jump in and enjoy only those extraordinary moments. It’s also where you can craft interesting storylines, participate in a set role, and live out their lives.
The attached video shows a brief concept: players go online, enter pre-made scenarios through "AR Company" to participate in a set role. In our dedicated online space, around 50 people can converse and interact in the same channel under mutual consent. The NPC Zois behave according to their roles we’ve assigned. Like a movie director, you can assign roles and cast your actors to create your scenario. I often wondered if doing this would've been me reinventing the wheel (doing unnecessary work) since players usually prefer familiar gameplay.
To further support this gameplay, we'll be providing script mods so that small features to help enliven your story can be implemented. Using mods, we were able to create mini-games like car racing—though it’s admittedly a lesser experience than dedicated racing games. We want to create a flow where these mini-games intended for Canvastown can later be added to the main game as well.
I believe that the biggest joy of playing RP (role playing) games isn't to "clear a game," but rather have a world where you simply coexist with other people. That was the origin for the creation of 'AR Company.' I’ve been pitching my concept where players can, for one moment, step away from reality into this world of inZOI where they can live out a different life. Thinking of the movie 'Ready Player One' might make it easier for you to visualize.
Of course, looking at the current build makes me sigh. There are so many lacking areas, and we have a very long way to go. But someday, I hope to bring this dream of mine to life.
I want to merely provide a solid foundation, and I want it to be you who will be writing the stories upon it. By allowing you the space to create unpredictable situations and social interactions, it may take time, but I do foresee where that can become a living, breathing world.
I am quite introverted and dislike stepping outside my house, but when it comes to game development, I am particularly outgoing when it comes to the challenges of creating something new. However, just last Sunday when I added kimchi as an ingredient to my pasta and nervously checked my beloved wife's expression to see if she liked it, I have a similar anxiety for tomorrow's event.
Some say it’s good to take on new challenges rather than playing it safe, but unlike in games, reality comes with people's evaluations, criticisms, and sometimes applause, which makes it scary for me. I told the company that I would decide the future of Canvastown based on the event's outcome. It might go well, or many shortcomings might be exposed, but I believe it's a necessary process to move forward to the next step.
I hope to write to you all with good news.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for always supporting us.
Hoping that one day we can live life like a game,
From Shanghai ~ kjun
What are your thoughts on Canvastown? Would you be playing there when it comes out? Let us know in the comments below and keep an eye on Sims Community for more updates on InZOI!
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