annaplaybook

[annaplaybook]

Current Feelings After the June Update – Inzoi

Before the latest update, I was really enjoying my save. Despite the frequent freezing that occurred after social interactions between the Zois, the game was still playable. I could overlook the bugs because the experience felt alive and engaging.

I was genuinely happy to see that issue fixed in the new update, but that relief quickly turned into disappointment when I noticed a new problem. After every interaction, Zois now pause in an idle state that looks similar to the Create A Zoi pose. There's a strange animation loop where they just stand there glitching. Their expressions has been improved, but their body language is missing. It's hard to tell how they're feeling, and that body language was something I really liked.

Another change I don't like is the new time-skip window for school and work. It now takes up a significant portion of the screen, with no option to minimize or close it. It breaks immersion in a way I wasn't expecting.

I'm also noticing that interactions which should be positive are sometimes resulting in negative outcomes - and while I can't confirm if it's a bug or not, it's been happening enough to feel frustrating.

It's hard to explain, but all these small issues have gradually drained my excitement. I find myself missing the connection I used to have with my Zois. I was hoping this game would be the one I could keep coming back to, especially after how much I enjoyed it before the recent update.

I'm really hoping future patches bring back some of the emotion and fix what has been lost.

[annaplaybook]

School Uniform For Bliss Bay

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Contemporary Minimalist House For Dowon

🌿🍃🌿🍃🌿🍃

[annaplaybook]

My Generators for Character and Story Creation

After months of work creating generators to help brainstorm endless ideas for characters and stories, I'm finally ready to share them with you! They can be used for games like Inzoi and The Sims.

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📖 Story Generator This one is inspired by The Sims 2 simple plot logic - a character's dream or desire paired with their current conflict or situation. To help spark ideas, I've added random emojis as visual prompts. These can be interpreted in creative ways, and I find they really help you think outside the box.

🪪 Name & Surname Generator I've collected over 100 names and sorted them into two categories: American & multicultural, and Asian. I'll keep updating the list as I find more. More name categories might be added if needed.

🚻 Create a Character Generator This is the most detailed yet concise generator I've made. It's designed especially for Inzoi, and I may add new features over time. I like to use it alongside random images to help visualize faces and explore outfit combinations. It's been super helpful for creating diverse and distinctive characters.

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If you try one of my generators and want to leave feedback, feel free to comment here. Thank you for giving them a try. =)

[annaplaybook]

How I Play Generational Gameplay Across a Whole City in Inzoi (Early Access)

First, I want to simplify things and share some recommendations to show that this playstyle isn't as overwhelming as it might seem.

After playing for 203 hours and using the standard time setting of 96 minutes per day, I've found that three in-game days feel like a week. That's usually enough time to build skills, start relationships, get married, and have children.

Relationship & Pregnancy Settings: I've set all relationship settings to the lowest. Building friendships and romances can take two days or more, especially if the Zois have busy schedules or limited time together. Pregnancy chances are very low, and married Zois do not get pregnant unless you're playing with them, even if they’re in a positive relationship. (This has been consistent in my experience.)

Population - Bliss Bay & Dowon: Bliss Bay has 14 lots, Dowon has 12 lots. If there's an empty house or apartment, the game will generate a random family and move them in. This can happen daily if you leave lots vacant. To prevent generated families, click on the empty house and select "Delete-All" to demolish it. Apartment buildings cannot be demolished, and Zois will continue to spawn there even if there are no beds. I usually only keep new Zois if they spawn as a married couple with children.

How I Manage the Population: To keep the population manageable, I only let Zois marry other playable Zois. If Zois grow up together, they often build strong friendships that can evolve into romance. If they have bad childhood relationships or no romantic matches (because of age or chemistry), they might stay single.

Managing Siblings for the Next Generation: Example from my gameplay; Joey is older than Violet. He’s a young adult, and she's still an adolescent. They met in school and became friends. Once Violet ages up, Joey will move in with her at her parents' house. Her parents are middle-aged and likely to pass away before Joey's do, so it makes sense for him to support her household.

Joey's sister, Makayla, moved in with Mingyuan Lai, a former high school classmate who was living alone after his roommate left because of a conflict. Mingyuan really likes Makayla, she doesn't feel the same yet, but I've left her there to see if their relationship develops while I'm not actively playing them.

Apartments: When Zois have complicated relationships or struggle to find a partner, I move them out of big private properties and place them into apartments. It's a way to keep them on hold until something happens in their story. Leaving the big properties for a bigger family.

Keeping Relationships Dynamic: I schedule family meetups in advance at specific locations. To encourage new connections, I sometimes sync these events so multiple playable families are in the same area, giving them the chance to meet and interact naturally if they want to.

Age Progression and Birthdays (Still Experimenting): This is an idea until ages are going to have more information. One season in the game lasts for one week, so one in-game year is made up of 4 in-game weeks. We can celebrate life stage transitions, starting from the child stage. When a Zoi ages up, I pick a day for their birthday party. Since the adolescent and young adult stages feel quite long, It's possible to have more than one birthday party.

Once the younger generation ages up, birthdays become less frequent. I treat the adolescent stage as the teenage years for now, and I don't consider it a separate life stage unless their appearance changes in a future update.

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Thank you for reading. 🤗

[annaplaybook]

My Graphics Settings for Quieter Inzoi Gameplay

My previous custom game settings caused my PC fans to run loudly, making long play sessions unenjoyable. I've now found settings that keep good graphics quality while reducing the strain on my system (Intel Core i5-11500). I'm sharing these settings for anyone with a mid-range PC who wants to enjoy quieter gameplay without major visual compromises.

🤗🖥️🤗🖥️🤗🖥️🤗🖥️🤗🖥️

[annaplaybook]

Summer outfit inspiration for Bliss Bay

[annaplaybook]

Is This a Secret to a 'Perfect' Build?

I started thinking about the old story-driven games we used to play back in the day - or at least the demo versions of them. Games like Life is Strange and This Bed We Made. I wanted to understand the feeling their environments evoke.

The rooms in those games feel intimate, filled with secrets and sentimental objects. We get to exist in that space with the character. I've always said it feels like an excessive invasion of privacy, because we get to see everything in their home, a kind of glimpse we don't get in real life. Do we call that cozy? I don't see it as just decoration, but as a meaningful reflection of reality and nostalgia.

I wanted to try this intimate, cluttered approach in my new build in Inzoi. And although it's not as messy as I originally intended, the use of several custom 3D objects helped recreate that same feeling I had when playing story-driven games. I think it's more authentic, more beautiful - even if the house has a simple structure.

Maybe the feeling of nostalgia is addictive. Or maybe it's that what's familiar in every home, whether messy or orderly, full of sentimental objects - makes it more appealing than a perfectly styled space with no story to tell.

[annaplaybook]

Second Apartment Building Just Completed! - Inzoi Build

[annaplaybook]

The Use of Reshade On Inzoi

Even after seeing the improvements in color, I honestly don't think Reshade is necessary for Inzoi. But if you're curious about what it can do, here's what I tried.

The original colors and sharpness in the game are quite soft. This gives the world a cool-toned, muted feeling. I often find that even in the middle of the day the game has a chilly atmosphere, almost like a melancholic film.

I wanted to enhance the realism and make the colors pop more, but in a natural way.

Here's what I did:

Added soft sharpness for a bit more clarity

Tweaked saturation just enough to highlight colors without making it look harsh

Included a subtle vignette (shadow around the edges) to give it a more cinematic tone

The result pretty much convinced me that it feels surprisingly close to real life.

If I continue using this preset from now on, it's because I like realism. It doesn't make the game look drastically different, it just feels more alive. ❤️

[annaplaybook]

I took a few notes. 📚

I spent a couple of days gathering my thoughts and working on a bit of a "rebrand" for my building content. Man, figuring out intros and how to hold viewers' attention isn't easy - even for a video about a game. I decided to go with a minimalist intro that leans into storytelling. It's the part I connect with the most. The next step is to improve everything: gameplay, video quality, images, camera angles, and music. It takes time and a lot of thinking, but honestly the process is fun. I’m always writing things down and hope to keep sharing more - and better work as time goes on.

[annaplaybook]

My Relationship Settings in Inzoi

I only recently discovered that the relationship mechanics in the game aren't flawed, they actually depend heavily on the city's settings.

By default, most sliders are set to medium, which I noticed gives a 50/50 effect that feels unbalanced. For better control and more good results, I think it's best to set the sliders to either the highest or lowest values.

When it comes to relationships, Zois are influenced by compatibility, civic consciousness, and conversation karma. Civic consciousness seems to impact whether interactions have a positive or negative outcome. I realized that the reason couples and random Zois were constantly fighting was due to the high priority given to negative interactions. Apparently, the conversation karma positivity was set to medium/high, but it turns out that this slider should actually be set to the lowest to encourage positive behavior. Likewise, conversation karma negativity should be set to the highest.

You can tell the difference between negative and positive sliders by their color: the redder it is, the more negative it is; the bluer it is, the more positive. Just make sure you're reading the context of each slider, like conversation karma. After experimenting with these settings, I've seen more positive interactions. Zois still say mean things from time to time, but overall they get along much better.

I think first impressions are important too, they might give a hint about compatibility. Civic consciousness seems to play a role in how successful interactions are, so it's interesting to tweak that and see what happens.

As for the relationship sliders (romance, friendship, etc.), they affect the pace and success of progress. Personally, I leave them on medium to slightly low to keep things a bit more challenging and realistic. I might lower them a bit more and see how that feels.

I'm really glad I figured this out before giving up on these settings completely.

[annaplaybook]

Recent creations 🦋

I didn't expect to spend half my time building and creating custom content rather than telling stories in Live Mode. I've always leaned more toward gameplay in simulation games - but with the freedom to customize almost anything, I’ve realized just how much I needed this for self-expression.

I'm still conflicted about the gameplay itself, as I’m trying to figure out how to manage everything, or simply put, my play style. I wasn't prepared for a simulation like this after getting used to a much simpler gameplay loop. Now in Inzoi everything matters.

Once I get back into the game, I'll try to figure out how I really want to play, and maybe one day I'll even create a small machinima just for fun.

But until then, I'm happy to share some of my recent creations; a new apartment to live in, comfy pajamas, and a cute guy.

☁ 🖍️☁ 🖍️☁ 🖍️☁ 🖍️☁ 🖍️

My Canvas

☁ 🖍️☁ 🖍️☁ 🖍️☁ 🖍️☁ 🖍️

[annaplaybook]

My current feelings after 25 hours in Inzoi

[annaplaybook]

Inzoi reminded me that realism is a bit far from perfection

Have you tried creating a male Zoi yet? Because I'm going to talk about the male presets and how different they are from the females.

The female Zois are perhaps the easiest to modify. They have soft facial features and can be made attractive even with small adjustments. However I find the male Zois a bit harder to work with, especially if I have a specific head in mind that doesn't look too muscular.

Currently, in the demo, there are a number of nice male presets, but I noticed that some of the heads share the same eye and nose shapes. What is quite limiting in creating different faces is the lack of separate presets, such as eyes, noses, and lips. If one head preset is the only good base for a specific face I want to create, it can lead to a "same-face syndrome."

When I started creating my male Zoi, I felt a little frustrated that he looked too mature for my liking. But then I realized that the models and graphics aren't designed to give the same fantasy of idealized characters like in Sims games, for example. It's aimed to be realistic in its own way, and maybe, like many, I've been "brainwashed" by beauty standards in the media, making me want to apply them in the game. This realization changed my mind and made me want to create heads that just look authentic.

It's possible to create an attractive male in Inzoi, but they are way different from those in other video games.

I created two Zois today, and I'm pretty happy with the results. I like that when they become young adults, they have 50% more mature features than in the previous life stage. I love all the details, and at the end of the day - this is a life simulator, and nothing is perfect, but everything is pretty in its own way. ❤️

[annaplaybook]

Day 2 in Build Studio

In all the years I've built houses in The Sims 2 and 3, they always mimicked the imagination or reference.

Inzoi build mode is mind-blowing; the customization is endless, and the realism feels like a copy and paste of real life. It's so much fun to build, and I can get lost in it for hours.

You have no idea how much I've wanted a realistic simulation, even if it's not fully complete yet. 😇

[annaplaybook]

This is going to be a long journey…

After creating my Zoi-self and recreating my original avatar from Second Life back in the day, I can't describe my excitement for Inzoi and its massive customization potential.

If you've played Second Life before, you might be familiar with the trend of sharing photos and videos of stylish avatars across social media. It was a hobby of mine as well, along with blogging for several in-game brands. I left Second Life on November 30, 2023, but I'm still attached to my avatar - who, funnily enough, I spent a lot of money on.

Recreating her in Inzoi just reminded me of Second Life skybox. An open space for creativity and role-play. Inzoi is so different, so fresh, aesthetically pleasing and inviting.

I can't wait to create, it's so much fun to express ourselves!

If you're curious about my creations in Second Life, you can find my gallery on Flickr here, and my name on Canvas is AnnaOnCanvas. 🫶🏻💌

I hope you're enjoying Inzoi!