The lead dev on life sim Inzoi was sick of making MMOs where everyone was mean to each other and wanted to create a game like The Sims he could enjoy with his son

News
By published

"I have 24 years of game development under my belt, and I've been working on MMORPGs for the longest time. I got sick of it."

Inzoi reveal treailer - a character with a bob, wearing a white tshirt smiles while walking down a city street
(Image credit: Krafton)

In a recent interview with Game File (users may encounter a paywall), Hyungjun Kim, lead developer of upcoming life sim Inzoi, explained some of his reasons for working on a challenge to genre juggernaut, The Sims.

"I have 24 years of game development under my belt, and I've been working on MMORPGs for the longest time. I got sick of it," Kim said.

Kim said that he both became concerned with a lack of genre diversity in Korean game dev⁠—an overemphasis on MMOs⁠—and that he personally grew disinterested with the genre's emphasis on competition and conflict. Kim seemed particularly perturbed by the darker emotions these competitive games draw out of players, necessitating the development of "really strict systems to prevent players from abusing each other."

Kim's very personal motivation for making his own life sim adds an interesting extra dimension to Inzoi, a game with a 120-person team and potentially interesting use of homegrown AI tools from publisher Krafton⁠—players will be able to scan real objects into the game, as well as generate clothing/furniture patterns by prompt.

TOPICS
Ted Litchfield
Associate Editor

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.