Latest news with #Hyungjun"Kjun"Kim
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
InZOI director hopes the Sims rival will be "successful and beloved," continues moonlighting as a philosopher: "Life is a tragedy when seen up close, but a comedy when viewed from a distance"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The hyperreal life sim InZOI is poised to be a worthy Sims competitor once it releases in early access later this month, offering players both a tidy open world and, according to director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim, life-changing philosophy. "As the saying goes, 'Life is a tragedy when seen up close, but a comedy when viewed from a distance,'" Kjun says somberly about InZOI in PC Gamer magazine's new issue 407, Jokerfying simulation games forevermore. Kjun has an amusing tendency to speak about InZOI like this, as if he's an ancient astrologer who's just seen the future in a barrel of wine; "It is said that among primates," Kjun said after InZOI was delayed in 2024, "raising a human child to adulthood takes the longest time because humans must be prepared to endure and adapt to their ever-changing surroundings. The extra love and care that is required to properly nurture a child is how I see our journey with InZOI – a game that we will be nurturing together from its Early Access birth." An early congratulations to us all on our new parenthood – InZOI's early access period begins March 28. More seriously, though, if you take the time to embrace his high-flown metaphors, it's clear that Kjun understands that intimacy is what attracts players to games like InZOI or The Sims. These simulation games grant you nearly full control of their worlds, as long as you take the time to learn all the quirks of gameplay – playing God requires patience. And a good attitude, Kjun says. "Beyond simply creating a successful and beloved game," Kjun tells PC Gamer, "we hope that InZOI will bring comfort to many players' lives." "We believe that observing life from a broader perspective can help us enjoy it more," he continues,adding: "We hope players will experience diverse lives, explore various scenarios, and enjoy life as if it were a playground." Hyper-realistic The Sims rival inZOI will announce a "roadmap for future updates, and pricing and DLC plans" in this month's showcase.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Inzoi's game director teases plans for ghost Zois getting shackled to the mortal realm, karma-starved and seeking redemption if they die with a bad rep
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The early access launch for fresh new Sims competitor Inzoi is just about six weeks away and information about its features—those coming in time for early access and those planned to be developed later—are arriving at a weekly pace now. Over the weekend we got yet more details about Inzoi's life sim features, this time revolving around the afterlife. In his weekly teaser for fans in Inzoi's official Discord server, game director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim got into talking about the paranormal, specifically ghosts. He acknowledges that Inzoi is mostly focused on realism, which is obvious from its glossy, well-lit visuals but also the features it's chosen to prioritize. Kjun does want to see some fantastical elements make it into the game though. "We want to keep the playability of ghosts fairly limited so it doesn't overshadow the main gameplay, but we also want to make sure the experience is engaging enough when it does happen," Kjun told players in Discord. 'Ghost gameplay' as Kjun's currently explained it revolves around Inzoi's karma system, which we saw a little of during some Inzoi playtests with content creators last year. They showed some karma-affecting actions (like farting?) and a karma score in each Zoi's profile. Kjun says that Zois who die with enough karma points will pack up for the afterlife peacefully, but those with poor karma will remain as ghosts and will need to hang about attempting to restore their karma. Ghosts as they'll be implemented for Inzoi's early access in March will be present but you won't be able to control them. That's planned for later. "Any further development for ghosts will have to come after the release," Kjun says. "That said, our current build allows you to encounter ghosts at set times under certain conditions." As for what's planned for even further down the line, Kjun doesn't count out the possibility of other paranormal Zois. "While we're committed to refining the realistic elements of inZOI first, I'd love to explore more fantasy-driven elements in the future," he added. The majority of life sim players coming from The Sims 4 will be familiar with the popularity of "occult" sims like ghosts, vampires, werewolves, mermaids, etc. They're a whole popular gameplay category, some with their own dedicated expansions packs. As Kim says, that's not really Inzoi's aim, but it's nice to see Inzoi Studio entertaining the idea of dipping into some of those popular fantasy characters. You can keep up with everything we know about Inzoi ahead of its early access launch in March and in the meantime keep track of the other upcoming games like the Sims that we're expecting this year. Sims 4 cheats: Life hacksSims 3 cheats: Classic hacksSims 4 mods: Play your waySims 4 CC: Custom contentProject Rene: What we know
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Upcoming The Sims competitor InZOI will feature ghostly Zoi that hang around after death to fix their karma
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The game director of InZOI, the upcoming competitor to The Sims, has revealed what happens to your Zois after they die. Spoiler alert: some of them may stick around. If you're someone who likes to let your Sims live out a natural life, dying due to old age or an unfortunate accident, congratulations, you're a monster and we can't be friends. I get far too attached to my creations and turn their aging off entirely, but for those of you who prefer to let nature take its course, there is some life after death in Inzoi. As spotted by PCGamer, director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim took to the game's Discord server to explain some of its upcoming early-access features: "We want to keep the playability of ghosts fairly limited so it doesn't overshadow the main gameplay, but we also want to make sure the experience is engaging enough when it does happen." InZOI has a karma system, and if your Zoi has enough, it'll make its way to a peaceful afterlife when it dies. If it doesn't, it'll hang around after death as a ghost that you can "encounter at set times under certain conditions." They won't be playable right now, but that is planned for later on. "Any further development for ghosts will have to come after the release," Kjun says. Although the ghosts won't be playable yet, InZOI is implementing Nvidia Ace, the company's generative AI that features text-to-speech capabilities meant to make NPCs more life-like. It calls these NPCs "Smart Zoi," and in the video shared by publisher Krafton they sort of just seem like regular NPCs that react to the world around them. I saw the tech used at an Nvidia demo last year (not for InZOI), and wasn't very impressed, but maybe it'll be implemented in a creative way for InZOI. To get a better idea of what this Sims competitor will look like, check out our InZOI preview. You should also check out other games like The Sims if you're a fan of the genre.
