Last Friday, I posted “12.26.25 Fundamentals First & 2026 Roadmap_Part 1” (and quietly edited the title to say Part 1).
To be honest, posting still isn’t something I’m fully used to. I still get nervous every time I hit publish, and that’s when mistakes tend to happen.
Today, I’d like to briefly share—within what I can reasonably disclose—the development direction and timeline for three important workstreams that I couldn’t communicate clearly enough in the previous post.
These items are currently at a stage where we need to validate both technical challenges and market response, so we’re running tests in several different ways.
The Beyond the Fundamentals 2026 Roadmap is being driven by a dedicated internal team working in parallel with the existing core development team.
This work is designed to expand our capabilities without reducing focus, resources, or staffing on ongoing core improvements.
These initiatives are currently under active R&D validation and development, including Modding, Multiplayer, AI NPCs, and Canvastown (+ Fate Engine).
As these initiatives are heavily R&D-driven, timelines and scope may change depending on development progress.
In addition, schedules may be altered—or direction and scope adjusted—based on mid-stage test results and the chosen service/operations model.
After reviewing the materials, please leave your thoughts and feedback. We’ll be listening closely, and your voice will be a valuable input as we shape the direction of future development.
I have a feeling 2026 is going to be full of good things. And I truly believe that, along with that, inZOI will become more complete and more mature as well. Start the year with hope.
Kjun
P.S. I’m gathering the courage to share this video and the roadmap materials with you, even though they’re still far from perfect.
MOD Roadmap 2026
Development Direction
Because the Unreal Engine used by inZOI can be complex and difficult to learn, we will develop a wizard-style tool to help users approach modding more easily. At the same time, we will continue development toward script-based modding.We’re pushing hard to accelerate script modding, but because it requires deep integration with the game itself, there’s a limit to how much we can pull the schedule forward. We’ll do everything we can to deliver it as quickly as possible.
Schedule
January 2026
ModKit: Improve the structure so assets are handled in a JSON-based format to prevent mod data mismatches.
inZOI: Add an in-game integrated mod management system.
March 2026
ModKit: Expand the CAZ Wizard to support accessory, motion, and face modding (a MetaHuman guide will be provided).
Improve project management features (search, asset merging).
Improve the Sound Wizard (partial replacement and addition).
inZOI: For graphics asset mods, allow installation during gameplay and apply changes immediately.
June 2026
ModKit: Add vehicle modding, migrate to Unreal Engine 5.6, and test (R&D) content template modding (e.g., farming).
inZOI: Add (R&D) CLO platform integration.
Shared (R&D): Prepare for PS5 and Mac mod support, though availability may be restricted or delayed depending on policy and partnership considerations.
October 2026
ModKit (R&D): Test multiplayer-linked modding and a data-modding AI wizard.
December 2026
ModKit: Add Lua script modding support.
Canvastown Roadmap 2026
Development Direction
The core concept is to capture interesting situations you’ve experienced and let others enter that life and play it themselves. Canvastown is intended to become the first stage for the Fate Engine, and later we plan to expand it so the Fate Engine can operate in other cities as well.
A key challenge in this genre is that motivation can be hard to sustain. Simulation systems can combine many features to create emergent stories, which can lead to genuinely engaging experiences—but depending on probability, players can also end up with experiences that feel strange or underwhelming. The purpose of this system is to preserve the genre’s value while enabling players to save and share the “good runs”—the moments worth passing on.
Canvastown is designed to be small but comfortable, running smoothly even on lower-spec hardware, while still giving players space to build and customize their own city. Although it is smaller than other cities, that smaller footprint improves ease of movement and creates a unique advantage: everything around your home becomes part of your playable space.
Schedule
March 2026
Implement integration so Fate Engine and Canvastown operate together.
May 2026
Expand Fate Engine to work in cities beyond Canvastown.
Add update and download features to the Canvastown canvas.
June 2026
Release Canvastown #1, a small village with about 40 lots.
October 2026
Release Canvastown #2, expanded to about 50 lots, featuring a calm rural countryside atmosphere.
inZOI-online Roadmap 2026
Development Direction
There are still many unresolved questions that must be validated through internal and external testing to confirm the value of online features. inZOI-online is being developed while continuously migrating and matching the base game, which makes the work both broad and technically challenging.
Because this is a new direction for the genre, we are also starting from fundamentals such as defining the target audience. We genuinely hope you’ll enjoy inZOI-online, and throughout 2026 we want to discuss results and direction—based on testing—with the community and build it together.
Schedule
January 2026
Create and save your account-linked personal character (“Zoi”).
Add save-and-resume for hosted sessions, allowing hosts to pause a session and resume it later from the same state.
February 2026
Build the online Main, Plaza, and Lobby/Waiting Room pages on the web.
Add new channels for online use and provide online chat rooms.
Update the online-only “My Zoi” feature.
March 2026
Freely decorate your own house and save it to your account.
Allow other users to enter your house and play together.
June 2026
Provide tools for the room host to adjust game rules and manage participants.
Enable players to enjoy official inZOI mods together in online multiplayer.
October 2026
Support large-scale multiplayer with dedicated servers, including content such as visiting major cities.
Enable hundreds to thousands of concurrent players per server to explore, watch, meet others, and make friends.
Kjun’s Reply to Your Comments
Hello everyone — it’s Wednesday.
This week brought a lot of discussion and differing opinions. Thank you, as always, for sharing your thoughts on our development. We truly appreciate both the support and concerns around multiplayer, and your feedback on what should come first for the game’s core priorities.
Before posting this, I didn’t anticipate so much worry — and it made me think I should have emphasized one point more clearly: the inZOI team is staying focused on the fundamentals. Multiplayer is being developed by a separate team, while the core inZOI team is dedicating the majority of our people and effort to improving the foundation of the life simulation.
Based on community feedback, we want to update you again on our major development topics — and more than anything, we believe it’s important to show real, visible improvement in inZOI. We’re also reviewing how we can deliver Fundamentals First updates more frequently, especially for players who’ve been patiently putting up with missing or inconvenient features.
This is the inZOI team’s key goal. Before investing heavily in new features, we’ve set our top development priority for 2026 as making existing features smoother, more complete, and higher quality.
It’s a new year, so we’ll work hard to show you an inZOI that keeps getting better. Beyond Fundamentals First, we’ll continue tracking your feedback, expanding our internal list, and staying committed to fundamentals. And we’ll share the list of improvements we’re working through more often.
Story Progression & Family System Improvements
Many of you asked us to restore story progression for inactive families and NPCs — and you emphasized that it’s essential to keep the town feeling alive through marriage, childbirth, and family tree growth. You also suggested having a toggle to enable or disable story progression.
We plan to build this with more control:
Per-family story options, so you can protect the families you care about
Adjustable intensity for normal/drama families, so you can control how strongly they participate in events
This will help bring life back into the town through marriage, childbirth, and family tree growth — and we will develop this with toggle options.
Birthday management
You also requested the ability to manually manage birthdays and host birthday parties. Right now, aging automatically happens at midnight, which many of you pointed out as a problem.
Birthdays are already in our development plan for this year. I’m sorry we added birthdays so late. We’re pushing internally to include birthdays before inZOI’s first anniversary — though the timeline may still shift slightly.
Skill System & Autonomy Controls
We’ve received suggestions to improve the HUD so players can view not only overall skill levels, but also more detailed performance indicators (e.g., number of books published, creation of high-value works, etc.), along with introducing an achievements system. We agree this is valuable, and we will reinforce these systems through internal discussion.
We are enhancing a meta system that summarizes what the player has accomplished and offers guidance on what to try next. This includes systems that record milestones such as how many generations you’ve raised, whether you’ve fully progressed a specific career, and more. By tracking player behavior and providing long-term goals, we aim to make content feel more connected and continuous.
To support this, we are planning development so that records go beyond simple checklists like memory or journaling—linking them with social systems as well. Some of these records may remain as platform trophies or badges to reflect your play history, while others will provide in-game rewards such as unlockables to strengthen motivation.
We also received feedback that Zois should be able to autonomously fulfill their needs, and that there should be autonomy control toggles for risky behaviors (e.g., betrayal, divorce, etc.). In addition, there were requests for a system that allows players to finely control whether autonomy is permitted for every interaction. We agree, and we’re preparing to develop these features.
That said, extremely granular control may be difficult to deliver immediately, so we plan to expand it in stages. We understand that feedback on this topic has been especially frequent recently, and we recognize that the demand for these options comes from concerns about issues in Zoi autonomous behavior within inZOI. We’ll work hard to improve it.
Multiplayer Development
Multiplayer is being developed by a separate team, and we’ve clearly communicated that it will not take resources away from single-player development — but many of you still shared concerns.
Some players believe multiplayer could help the game succeed, while others worry that focusing on multiplayer before core content feels complete could be harmful. We also received feedback about voice chat, permissions, blocking features, and more. Multiplayer is being developed as an optional feature, and we’re building it so it can be enjoyed independently from single-player.
We believe all of this comes from how much you care about inZOI — and we’ll continue to focus even more on strengthening the single-player experience.
Modding Support & Script Modding Delay
Many of you were disappointed that script modding has been delayed to December 2026. This was a decision made to support the transition to Lua and ensure stability. I’m truly sorry about this.
One challenge is that as content grows, the amount of work required to support script modding also grows at the same time.
We believe modding is essential for the game’s long-term life and creativity. So first, we will prioritize:
improving the usability of the Unreal Mod Kit
providing more convenient, clearer guides strengthening modding support overall
Everyday Life Feel & NPC Behavior Improvements
Many of you said immersion depends heavily on:
stronger autonomous behavior based on personality and relationships
realistic depiction of family emotions and daily routines emotion-driven automatic reactions
a city that feels alive through diverse ages, jobs, and daily events
We’re continuously improving this, and we’re especially focusing on family daily-life interactions — particularly involving children and babies.
This week, we’re working on pillow fights in bed. We’ll keep pushing forward.
Other Requests
We also received many detailed requests, including:
improving elevator and stair modules inside buildings, and adding curved stairs
making cooking more realistic, adding the need for grocery shopping, and enabling cooperative cooking
improving city/world editing, empty-lot management, social relationship tags, transportation systems, and more
We always carry your support with us. We’ll keep strengthening the core systems, expanding modding support, and building a realistic and immersive life simulation — and we’ll do it with energy and care.
Thank you. See you again on Friday.
kjun
※ For the video, please check it on Discord or the forum.[/p]
🔗 Discord: Link
🔗 Forum: Link