Toward the tail end of a recent global showcase, Inzoi’s game director Hyungjun “Kjun” Kim answered questions about the upcoming life sim. One, which came from a content creator who had endured the lengthy process of killing her Zoi via unmet needs, was basically: how many ways can Zois die?
“One of the biggest features of this game is death,” Kjun answered frankly (via an official translator). “In Inzoi we have a lot of different types of death, because life comes with death. In Inzoi you could go to the bathroom and if you slip you might die. Or if you eat some old food you might have to go to the bathroom and, again, die. And when you fix broken-down electronics you might get electrocuted, so you need to be careful. I made the chance really low, but actually electronics can very often break down. We have 16 different types of deaths.”
When my girlfriend asked me if I’d ever played The Sims, I told her about the time I made the entire Addams Family and put them in a gothic mansion. She told me she’d made a family of Sims too, then taken away the swimming pool ladders while they were swimming so they eventually fell prey to exhaustion and drowned. We’re built different, I guess. The point is, for some players the ability to kill off your tiny simulated imaginary people is essential and it sounds like Inzoi will deliver on that front.
“But one thing that I can say that only exists in Inzoi,” Kjun went on, “is dying from the need for recognition. In the modern world you find a lot of people feel fulfilled from being recognized by others and this death reflects that. For example, in Inzoi let’s say I fought with someone and that rumor spread and came back to me. I could get a text message about it, or a friend of mine could tell me about the rumor and if the rumor is negative then my need for acknowledgement can go down. And if that drops too drastically then you might die from that.”
Reputation systems sound like an important part of Inzoi, and we’ve already heard about one way they can interact with its many ways to die: if a Zoi dies with a bad reputation, they can come back as a ghost. Imagine kicking the bucket because people were mean about you via text message, and then being forced to haunt the mortal realm seeking redemption. Sounds rough.
“I reiterate, we have a simulation and death and this type of thing is a part of the game,” Kjun concluded. “Another thing that I wanted to mention about death is that you could get hit by cars. So you might want to be careful around cars.” Inzoi will feature driveable cars when it releases in early access, but only as an experimental feature you can enable in the menu. Otherwise, driving is automatic. Though presumably, still a little bit dangerous.
Inzoi will be out in early access on March 28, for a price of $40. It’ll be available on Steam.