Inzoi, the supposed successor to The Sims, which never really carved out a big enough chunk of the culture for itself, continues to develop and evolve in all sorts of unique ways. Now, the game’s lead developer is looking into introducing an alternative way to experience a life sim—not as The Sims but rather as an RPG.
As spotted by PC Gamer, Hyungjin Kim, Inzoi‘s game director, has announced a new mode for the game, modeled more after RPGs than the usual life sim, which tends to focus on a whole family or big group of people managed by the player at the same time. As the latest Inzoi Steam event page explains, this new mode, called Canvastown, will let players take control of a singular custom Zoi and then connect to an online server where up to 50 players can interact with each other.
“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,” Kim explains.
NPCs in the online space have preset roles, but it seems players will also be given the ability to tailor NPCs “like a movie director” and create custom scenarios.
“I believe that the biggest joy of playing RP (role-playing) games isn’t to ‘clear a game,’ but rather to have a world where you simply coexist with other people. That was the origin of 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,” Kim says.
This single-character RPG mode is still very early in development and in somewhat of a rough shape, Kim indicates, as it was slowly developed by a small team at the studio. The foundations are there, and players will have room to experiment and try something different for a change, and we’ll see where that’ll go in the future.
