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Lead UI Designer Jiyoon Yoon and Refinery29’s Entertainment Director Melissah Yang explore the creative process behind the user interface of one of 2025’s most anticipated games: inZOI. Filmed live at SCADstyle 2025, this conversation is a must-watch for game designers, UI/UX enthusiasts, and anyone curious about the behind-the-scenes magic of game development.

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Transcript
00:10Good morning, everyone, and welcome to SCAD Style 2025 for Refinery29's Next in Gaming,
00:18Life's a Simulation, with Ji-Yoon Yoon and Melissa Young. My name is Jonah Song,
00:23and I'm a graduate jewelry design student from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Today, we're diving
00:28into the world of gaming and user interface design with an exclusive look at one of 2025's
00:34most buzzed-about releases, Inzoid. Guiding us through this conversation is Refinery29's
00:41Entertainment Director, Melissa Young, an industry leader who has built her career spotlighting
00:47the intersections of gaming, fashion, beauty, and culture. Melissa's award-nominated Good
00:53Game franchise has redefined gaming content, making space for women and femme gamers around
00:59the globe. Joining her is Ji-Yoon Yoon, the lead UI designer at Crafton, the creative force-shaping
01:06Inzoi's stunning and intuitive design. Together, they'll discuss how groundbreaking UI brings
01:12life simulation to new heights, and we'll even witness a live demo. So sit back, plug in,
01:18and get ready to imagine worlds where you can shape your own destiny. Please join me in welcoming
01:26Ji-Yoon Yoon, her translator, Erica Kim, and Melissa Young.
01:45I think we're live now. Hi, everyone. How's it going? I'm Melissa Young, the Entertainment
01:51Director at Refinery29, and I'm so beyond thrilled to be joined by Ji-Yoon Yoon, who is the lead UI
01:57designer
01:58within Inzoi, as well as Erica Kim, who's going to be providing amazing translations. And I just want
02:04to let everybody know here that we are streaming live on Twitch right now. So hi, everybody who's
02:09watching online. It's going to be a great conversation. I want to open it up by asking, how many people
02:16have heard of The Sims, played The Sims, know of The Sims? All right. We got a lot of simmers
02:22here.
02:22This is going to be an amazing demo for you as well, because this is the newest life simulation game
02:27called Inzoi, brought to you by Crafton, a career-based company. I want to open it up by asking
02:34Ji-Yoon, can you describe to us what is Inzoi?
02:53Yes, Inzoi is a life simulation game. It's a game that allows players to craft their own desired life.
03:00Yes, and I think the best way for us to really understand the expansiveness of what Inzoi is,
03:06is by checking out the game trailer. So we're going to play that right now.
03:47So as you can see, the game actually went into early access launch this past Friday. So it's past Friday
03:54to Friday. No, last Friday. I'm getting my days mixed up. Sorry, I'm coming from Los Angeles. But it's been
04:00incredible seeing the response to the game so far.
04:04Ji-Yoon, I want to know, you know, Crafton is probably best known for its battle royale game PUBG. Why
04:11did the studio want to jump into the life simulation genre?
04:15ождate.
04:16First, no point at PUBG has played in 2017. I've like Pastorimo. It was the show. steward in 2017. I
04:29have so seemed to turn and enjoy in CE. But then, what did the studio want to be a fun
04:36masterpiece?
04:37It was a fun driver in the form of other servers. It was a fun delivery of craftingафron which show
04:43all the two categories.
05:01So, since PUBG was released in 2017, it received a lot of love, and Crafton's philosophy is that it wants
05:08to really push for new attempts in new genres based on that success.
05:13And we have a new title process where you can gain approval for new projects within the company.
05:20The standards used in deciding whether a project is green-lighted is the project's marketability, creativity, and uniqueness, and Enzoi
05:29actually passed all those marks and was green-lighted.
05:32That's incredible. And we were talking a little bit about, you know, the studio and how many people are working
05:37on Enzoi.
05:38I want to be clear here. How many people are working on the game Enzoi, and how many designers do
05:45you actually have on your team?
05:47Well, the current members of Enzoi Studio are about 150 people.
05:54And the UIDesign team is only 3 people.
05:59And we have been developing for 2 years, and the first year, we have been developing for 50 people.
06:14So, right now, Enzoi Studio is comprised of 150 people, and we have 3 people, actually, in the UI team
06:21only.
06:22The game has been in development for 2 years. In the first year, we had less than 50 people working
06:28on the game.
06:29Only in the recent year did we reach over 100.
06:32I really wanted to lay out that foundation just so that everyone can really understand what is possible with the
06:39number of people that you have.
06:40And so, what I would love to do is dive into the game itself. We have an awesome demo planned
06:47for you.
06:48So, Ji-Yoon and Erika are gonna go set that up.
06:53In the meantime, I would love to know, Ji-Yoon, how do you define good UI?
07:00Just from your experience, what do you always want to emphasize and look for in your work?
07:11I always have 3 types I would like to say.
07:18First, is our commitment.
07:22Second, is our commitment.
07:25Second, is our commitment.
07:25Second, is our commitment.
07:27In the meantime, we have a commitment.
07:30First, is our commitment.
07:37Oh, my God.
08:13It's not stunning. It's absolutely I love that opening cutscene because I just think
08:17it's so pretty and so beautiful. Um, let me translate. Yes, yes, yes, please get the answer.
08:22So I have I believe good UI is made up of three components. The first is immersion.
08:26Second is aesthetics. Third is consistency. The last one consistency. Yes.
08:32Um, look at this cat. Isn't this so cute? What is the story behind the cat? We need to know
08:39this.
08:40Yes.
08:44Yes, I have a big idea.
08:48First, you can see this table here. It's a place where the user will be working directly.
08:54It's an area that's going to be a place where the user will be working directly into a company as
08:59well.
09:05And the user will be able to see the company in a company in the company.
09:10So the user will be able to access the company from an AR company and they will be able to
09:11access the company from the company.
09:11The user will be able to access the company from the company in the company.
09:12And we actually have extensive lore behind the game. This desk is the player's workspace. And the lore is that
09:20you are a new employee at this company called AR company.
09:23And this is the seat that you're assigned.
09:26SciCat, which is the cat you see here, is actually your boss.
09:31I know some of us would prefer this. Just kidding.
09:35So walk us through your design process to you.
09:39And you know, as lead UI designer, where do you even start?
09:42Where at the point of the game creation does UI design come in?
09:45How do you think about life simulation game?
09:48It was the first time we started.
09:52We wanted to create a life simulation game.
09:57And when we set the direction,
10:03I was thinking about what UI and UX is the first time I was thinking about.
10:12And we actually thought of that from the start.
10:14Ever since we had decided that we were going to build a life sim,
10:18we started thinking and asking ourselves for a real simulation,
10:23what kind of UI and what kind of UX should we aim for?
10:26And what were sort of your North Stars?
10:28What were your guiding principles?
10:33Well, first of all, what did the first start of the Enjoy UI UI?
10:36The first start of the design of the real graphics is the first question.
10:40Could you ask us what is the question of the real graphics in the real graphics as well?
10:45Because the conclusion of it...
10:48A conclusion is the first of all,
10:49Well, than the traditional game UI's different,
10:51I think it's important to think of the experience in the real life of the IT services and the real
10:56life of the IT services I thought was important to design.
11:05So when we first started planning the UI for Enzoi, we started with the question, what kind of UI would
11:12go with real realistic graphics?
11:13And we didn't want to follow the traditional UIs that you can find in other games.
11:21We mostly looked to real life IT services or real life experiences to find inspiration.
11:27I love that and I think it makes a lot of sense. So maybe we jump into the first mode.
11:33If you're familiar with life sim games, obviously there's the character creation mode, the build mode, and then the actual
11:38life experience gameplay.
11:40So we're diving into the character creation now. So let's talk a little bit about this.
11:46I feel like this fits what you're describing in terms of the IT feel.
11:50What were the reference points you were using for the character creation mode?
11:54Is there a room for the way to set up?
11:56Ah, yes.
11:58Yes.
11:59First, the room has the character's information to set up.
12:04The room has a space for the character's information to set up.
12:09The room here has a space for the characters.
12:10So we've done a space for the left to the layout.
12:14It's more than I have a room for the lobby of the changing world.
12:19The world is shows that the tablet inside of the tablet is really open.
12:21for the reason I designed the interface in the tablet.
12:28On the left, you can see we have the basic information of the character, which you call Zoys,
12:34and then to the right we had the menu is related to cosmetics.
12:38The concept is that you are actually working on the tablet that you just saw on your desk in the
12:43lobby,
12:44and so we wanted to make the UI feel like something you would see on a tablet, like the UI
12:49of the tablet.
12:51Very, very cool.
12:52And I think the graphics are just incredible.
12:53Let's maybe create a Zoi together, yeah?
12:58What are we thinking?
12:59Does anybody in the audience want to make a suggestion?
13:02Hair color, hairstyle, clothes?
13:08No, no, no, let's not make me, please, please.
13:12She looks cool, I like her.
13:16And maybe do you want to talk a little bit
13:17about all the customization that you can do
13:20for when creating your character?
13:23Yes, in the bottom you can see
13:25Joy Presets, Face, Body, Outfit, Accessories, and Crafts
13:31and there are all the menus.
13:33You can select all the menus
13:34and then customize it.
13:38Yes, so you can see below we have these tabs
13:41Joy Presets, Face, Body, Outfit, Accessories, and Crafts.
13:44You click on each of the tabs
13:46to adjust each of the options.
13:50And everything is customizable, right?
13:52From the different, you know, muscle tones
13:54to, you know, the size of your head.
13:57You can really make it your own, right?
14:09So, yeah, it's only been four days into Early Access, but we've found a lot of players have created their
14:16own characters.
14:17So, yeah, it's only been four days into Early Access, but we've found a lot of players have created their
14:28own characters,
14:29maybe even taken to the likeness of celebrities, and uploaded them to our online canvas service.
14:38Yeah, I mean, I think we all know that design can really dictate how players experience and immerse themselves into
14:44a game.
14:45What did you want players to feel while they were in the character creation mode through your UI?
15:02So, we're really focused on the idea of wanting the player to feel sense of feeling.
15:07So, we're really focused on the idea of wanting the player to feel sense of feeling.
15:19presence, like a sense of building their own identity.
15:22We wanted them to feel like they were sitting in front of a mirror and kind of sprucing themselves up
15:26before going out,
15:27and like trying out different outfits before they went out.
15:30We try to follow that flow of trying, of yourself in real life, trying to prepare for an outing.
15:37Yeah, and I think the part where you can really make it your own, whether it's a reflection of yourself
15:42or someone around you,
15:43I think just speaks to character representation that's always been a big topic when it comes to gaming itself.
15:48And I know this allows you to really explore and make sure that you feel seen in your own game.
15:54So, I think that's really wonderful.
15:56So, how do you make sure, though, that functionality and design go hand in hand?
16:02Because that's a big part, too, about the gamer experience.
16:08Oh, that's really difficult.
16:13First of all, simple is best.
16:18Simple is best.
16:20It's a famous word.
16:21There's a lot of joy.
16:24There's a lot of joy.
16:51So, if you want more details, then you can click on icons or menus to find more depth.
17:00So, we really try to think about the information hierarchy and how we would display that on the screen.
17:05I think that's super interesting because you'll see that later on, too, when we're actually in both the build mode
17:10as well as the gameplay,
17:12how layered all the menus and all the information is.
17:17I think our person looks pretty good.
17:20I also love the nail art.
17:21That's really, really cool.
17:23As a nail girlie myself, I love to see it.
17:26I did want to highlight the studio feature because that is something that is unique to Enzoi.
17:30Can you walk us through it?
17:32Yes.
17:34On the left, you can see the studio button.
17:40You can see the studio button.
17:42You can see the studio button.
17:51There's a button called studio on the lower left of your screen.
17:54If you click on it, you can send your character or Zoid to a different space and you can kind
17:59of see what your character looks like in all these different spaces.
18:03And different lighting, different everything.
18:06I also love that the studio default setting here is basically she's a content creator with a light ring.
18:12It's a nice little detail.
18:14It feels very, very true.
18:15Also with a gaming chair.
18:18I think this is really cool because obviously when you're in character creation,
18:21how you experience your Zoid or your character in game is going to be different than often how you see
18:26it in a character creation mode, right?
18:28So this is your way to really see all the different ways.
18:30that your Zoid will exist.
18:34Um, okay.
18:37She's ready to party.
18:39Um, maybe let's move her in, yes?
18:42To her home?
19:00So after you're done customizing your Zoid you can add more family members as you can see in the button
19:05at the bottom center or you can just decide to go with the single Zoid and move them in.
19:23Once we do this, you're gonna be able to see your boss approve the creation of your world and your
19:30family moving in.
19:34You always need to get the green light from your boss before you do anything.
19:47Alright, so what are we seeing here now?
20:10So what you see here are the cities that you can play in.
20:14And in Zoid we have Towon which is inspired by Seoul.
20:18We have Bliss Bay inspired by Los Angeles.
20:20And we also have Kuchinku.
20:22This is going to be released in August.
20:25And I do want to highlight the fact that there are a lot of game updates already planned ahead of
20:30time, right?
20:31Yes, that's right.
20:32Yes, that's right.
20:36We're all doing Hot Fix updates today.
20:39We're all doing Hot Fix updates.
20:40We're all doing Hot Fix updates in a short period of time.
20:44And as I mentioned, we're going to be able to get a lot of content.
20:51Yeah, over the last three days, every day, we've been rolling out Hot Fixes.
20:55And we also have short term updates coming up.
20:57We have big updates coming up in May and August as well.
21:02Amazing.
21:03All right, where should we move in our Zoid?
21:05Should we go to Towon or should we go to Bliss Bay?
21:08What are we thinking?
21:10I think we'll ask the audience.
21:13I think we'll ask the audience.
21:16Bliss Bay, all right.
21:18We're going to the west side.
21:39So this globe that you see in the loading screen is actually the world that you got approved to create.
21:47Amazing.
21:48I did want to ask, you know, we talked a little bit about the fact that game has been launched
21:53for four days.
21:56How do you decide what sort of community feedback you take and try to implement and address and what, you
22:03know, might not be possible or what you sort of leave behind?
22:08What's the question?
22:10What are the questions?
22:28What are the questions?
22:36I'm not going to do that.
22:37We are going to prepare them for a few minutes.
22:42We actually try to gauge what feedback came out the most frequently.
22:48If we observe that some type of feedback comes out very frequently in all different regions
22:54of the world, then we're definitely putting that in.
22:56But if there are any technical difficulties attached to the feedback that we get, then
23:01that item of feedback might take some time.
23:03Over the past three days, the biggest feedback that we've been seeing is that they want a no aging feature.
23:09I think we'll be able to add that soon.
23:11Oh, amazing. As you know, gamers have opinions and they always want to make sure that they're heard.
23:17So walk me through this map mode because what I find really interesting about this is that the city map
23:23is displayed as three-dimensional on a tablet,
23:26which is usually displaying 2D images, right? It's a very subtle and very fresh way to think about mapping.
23:32How did this come together?
24:06So as you can notice around the tablet, you have your desk that you just saw in the lobby, and
24:13this pad, this tablet, shows you a map of that world that you had created.
24:20And so we kind of tried to follow that natural flow of having your world approved and then getting to
24:26see the world and then jumping in.
24:28Very, very cool. Let's move Samantha in somewhere. Where should we move her into?
24:38I think this looks fine.
24:43As you know, you know, with life simulation games, there's all these different modes.
24:47And for some gamers, creating characters is all they want to do.
24:51For others, all they want to do is just build houses. I myself am a builder.
24:54I will spend hours upon hours building the perfect home. So I'm personally very, very excited about this mode.
25:01What I want to kind of dive into first is, I find it interesting that as soon as you load
25:05into the game itself, this is essentially your guide, your user guide on how to play the game.
25:10Why don't we go this route instead of, say, a tutorial?
26:05So in Inzoi, the idea is that we don't want to force players to play any one way to play.
26:10we want the players to decide how they want to play the game themselves.
26:14And so we didn't want to have a tutorial that would just define the gameplay flow for them.
26:19We wanted them to look for the information that they wanted when they need it.
26:24And so that was one idea.
26:27Another reason was that developing a tutorial actually takes a lot of time and effort.
26:32And even up to the release, we were adding new features.
26:35So it just wasn't feasible to build a full tutorial.
26:39Yeah, that makes sense.
26:40I mean, games can kind of have their own lore, their own memes,
26:44their own sort of experience depending on how players want to shape it.
26:47So it definitely makes sense for a game like this,
26:49where you're literally defining your own destiny to go this route.
26:53So maybe we can walk through the build menu and build our home.
27:07Okay, if you look up here, we have a lot of different menus.
27:11The first thing is preset for those people who find building homes too difficult.
27:34So if building isn't your thing, you can just work on a preset or if you want to build from
27:39scratch,
27:39you can move on to building tab and just start building your home.
28:02And you just build your home from here.
28:04You make your living room, bedroom, bathroom.
28:07I want to talk about the build menu because what I find interesting is that
28:11instead of text tabs, you actually have a blueprint of a home.
28:15And that's sort of what you're indicating to players to then click through
28:19to see all the different building features that you can purchase and decorate your home with.
28:22So guys, can you talk to me a little bit about this design choice?
29:08Yeah, so building content can actually be really complex and it requires a lot of decisions to be made by
29:16the player.
29:17And so categorizing all of the options was a big task.
29:21And for references, we try to look at a lot of different building tools or similar menus in games.
29:28But ultimately, we chose to focus on the Sims method, obviously,
29:33and we kind of molded our menus to kind of take after that feel.
29:39I mean, I think it's interesting you reference the Sims because obviously,
29:42the Sims has very much dominated the live simulation genre for so long.
29:46Can you talk a little bit, at least on the building part,
29:49of how we're able to sort of what you were thinking about to distinguish yourself from, say, The Sims?
29:55Yes.
29:55Well, first of all, we have a little bit of a difference.
30:02First of all, we have a little bit of a difference.
30:04We have a little bit of a difference.
30:11We have a little bit of a difference.
30:13We have a little bit of a difference.
30:44So I think here, we try to differentiate ourselves from the Sims by gearing more towards realism.
30:50So we try to look for something that would look like you would see on your smartphone.
30:56For example, like IKEA app or furniture order service apps.
31:01So we kind of try to follow that natural flow of how you would first think about covering your walls,
31:09like deciding on your wallpaper, and then you would order furniture.
31:12We try to really follow that realistic flow, and I think that's what we focused on when we try to
31:16differentiate ourselves.
31:17I think that makes a lot of sense because when you hover over the items, like the furniture,
31:22it's almost as if it's like a shopping catalog.
31:24You have obviously the name of the product itself, but then a little bit of a description.
31:29So it's very much focused on the design aesthetic interior design,
31:33and really being able to live out your fantasy of what your real home, what you aspire to have.
31:59Yeah, that was actually really intended. We wanted the furniture catalog to look like a real life catalog.
32:06And one of the items of feedback that we got that really touched me was that people who majored in
32:11construction and furniture making,
32:13they were really into the realism of this menu.
32:17Yeah, I think, again, I'm a builder. So being able to spend hours and hours picking the right texture,
32:22the wood grains of my chairs, the wallpaper, the lighting, is just very, very exciting for me.
32:29I do want to highlight one really special feature that Enzoi has, which is the 3D printer.
32:34Because this is very, very cool, and I think it's worth doing a little bit of a demo.
32:39Can you walk us through it?
32:54Yeah, so you have a 3D printer menu in the menu that you have in your left. If you select
33:00an image that you have on your computer and input that, you can wait a bit and you'll see what
33:06happens.
33:06It means, it's like magic.
33:14It's like magic.
33:19I think it's a very innovative thing.
33:24Players were having a lot of fun with this.
33:26They were making all these different items using this feature.
33:29I think it's really innovative.
33:32Yeah, so basically you can literally take any image,
33:35upload it into the game,
33:37and it will create a 3D version of it that you can then use as an object within the game.
33:42I tested it out.
33:43The only picture I happen to have on my PC was a top half photo of Nick Jonas.
33:48and I did Pritnik Jonas into my game.
33:50So yes, you can do people too.
33:53But that being said, the fact that you're able to customize all of this
33:56and really, you could literally take objects from your own room
33:59and put it into your in-game room, which is very, very cool.
34:04Like, look how cute that is.
34:06And you can also set the price of these too, right?
34:08So if you wanted something to be really expensive, you could.
34:11Or is it just free?
34:23Yeah, for now, I think we just have the base price.
34:30The price doesn't really change based on the quality yet.
34:34Well, that makes sense.
34:35Because it would be unfortunate if you uploaded something
34:37and then you couldn't even buy it yourself.
34:41I think I also would love to talk a little bit about the online community feature of it
34:46because I know with Canva, you guys are working in collaboration with that
34:50so that people can essentially download objects and download characters too.
34:53Can you talk a little bit about that?
35:14So you can also enter Canvas from that tablet that you saw in the main lobby.
35:19If you click on your ID, then you can enter Canvas.
35:23You can also go to Canvas.playinzoy.com to see what people are uploading.
35:30So you can also go to Canvas.playinzoy.com to see what people are uploading.
35:40So these are all creations from players using the 3D printer.
35:45And here you can see today's the most popular Joy Customizer.
35:52Can I go back? Is that a homewrecker CEO?
35:55No, it's a CEO.
35:58Hmm, I want to download it 1.7K times.
36:03What are the storylines being made with this guy, honestly?
36:06Do you want to download it 2.7K times and start reporting it?
36:10Yeah, so if you download it, you can put them in your game.
36:18So if you can find it a lot of popular popular people.
36:25You can see there are a lot of likenesses of celebrities,
36:30and this is a list of the top creations that players have uploaded.
36:33so the most popular and this character is really impressive to me because they used the accessory feature and character
36:52creation and 3d printer to really make the artwork like human
37:06so let me pick one and download it and put it in our game
37:27so you can just download anything from canvas and then just immediately add it to your game
37:34that's so cute a little total clock um i would love to i know we still our house is not
37:40done yet
37:40that's okay but i do want to jump into the gameplay aspect of it which is essentially the third mode
37:45of any sort of life sim game right the interactions you have with other zoys the things that you do
37:50getting a job um can you walk us through a little bit about the gameplay
38:02you can move around using wasd
38:06or you could choose the more sims like route and just use your mouse
38:18and you could zoom out to see your surroundings
38:32or if you press tab you can just kind of
38:35see yours or in the shoulder view and really look through the eyes of your
38:40so i i noticed with the ui design here it's all very much similar to what we saw in the
38:45character creation
38:46can you talk a little bit about that reference that simplistic
39:17um design the choice that you made
39:20so yeah so our biggest strength is our realistic graphics so we wanted to tone down the ui
39:26so that it's more simple it's more classy we wanted the ui to be in the black background
39:31so it doesn't take away from the focus of the beautiful graphics
39:36yeah it definitely gives this very like apple feel right like i feel like i could see that in an
39:41apple store
39:42yes, yes, yes. Apple has a lot of interest in the game
39:47and in the game, it's also like Apple and other amazing IT services
39:52as well, how do you think it would be a better design
39:59yeah we really try to internalize Apple's philosophy as well and we looked to other more stylish
40:06IT services out there even outside of Apple and incorporate that into our game
40:12Samantha feels threatened right now what's what's happened with her
40:15is she making a new friend
40:22they have a very weird personality i think
40:30Samantha might not be the most sociable zoi out there
40:33she's being very belligerent she's like picking fights with other zois
40:37i actually wanted to ask you about this with the zoi interaction menu because it is noticeably different
40:43we just talked about the simplistic ui design for everything else can you talk a little bit about this choice
40:48because it does stand out a little bit more
40:51yeah, this is a very willing difference
40:55basically, the user's and player's and user's are very simple and
41:04a simple mood
41:23more calmer but for interactions it's zoi to zoi interactions and so we
41:24wanted everything to be more simpler and more calmer but for interactions it's zoi
41:35to ZOI interactions, and so we wanted the UIs for those two components to feel very different.
41:40We wanted the interactions between ZOIs to really stand out, and that is also embodied
41:45in the UI.
41:46To encourage players to also interact with each other, right?
41:49ZOI!
41:50Yes.
41:52We can see that the system and the person's relationship between the people and the person's
41:56relationship between the people and the person's relationship between the people.
42:01We tried to have that visual difference, like interacting with the system, and then
42:05interacting among ZOIs.
42:07Right.
42:07That makes a lot of sense.
42:15Now I'll try to send my ZOI to the beach, automatically.
42:23She's speedwalking.
42:29She's on a bus now.
42:30They're on their way to the beach.
42:32The reason why this loading is because the world is closed, and it's too far.
42:40so that it's so far, we need to be able to see it quickly.
42:48So it's very frustrating because it's trying to stop the world without loading.
42:52So if you have a lot of time, and if you go on and run up, we can attack on
42:56all the
42:56world without loading me.
42:58The reason we just saw that loading screen there is because if we just suddenly move
43:04to a new place, the game will have to load in all these objects, and so the game wouldn't
43:08look very good if we just jumped to that location immediately.
43:11So the game is open world, the world is open world, so if you walk slowly, you can kind
43:16of see that.
43:17You can see this whole city without loading screens, it's just that when you use transportation,
43:21you have to jump, and so that's why the loading screen comes out.
43:24Yeah, I think they call them rabbit holes, right?
43:26With live sim games, it's like when you go to work, or when you are taking the bus
43:30to move to a different place on the map, there's those moments where you have that loading,
43:34and I think, I mean, it honestly makes sense so that you're not just, if you want to stay
43:38in the realism of this game, you need to make sure that everything is loaded in.
43:43Is she in a port-a-potty right now?
43:46Okay, she needs to use the restroom.
43:49Yeah, she needed to go.
43:53Now her bathroom needs are satiated.
44:02Let's try flirting with this guy.
44:15And you can see Samantha's emotions, what she's feeling right now, right here.
44:28I have a question about the interactions, because some of them are very specific, and some kind of curious where
44:35the brainstorming and ideation came about all the different possible interactions you can have with another ZOI.
45:06Yeah, we've really tried to add a lot of conversational options, and we've really tried to add a lot of
45:11conversational options.
45:11And what stands out in your interaction with other ZOIs is that all information about the other ZOI that you're
45:18talking with is locked until you specifically ask about it.
45:22So it's almost kind of like a little side mission, side quest to unlock and understand the other ZOIs in
45:28your city.
45:43Yes, we try to stick to the realism here. Like when you meet a person in real life, you don't
45:48immediately know what their job is, what they like, or whether they're married. We try to keep that in the
45:52game as well.
45:54That's awesome. I want to wrap up this really quickly. Before we do, I want to show off the city
46:00features, because there's a lot of customization beyond your ZOI itself that you can do to essentially make the city
46:06how you want it to be.
46:18Yes, so we're moving into the city edit feature, and we see the tablet on screen right now.
46:30Yes, so we're moving into the city edit feature, and we see the tablet on screen right now.
46:38Lore-wise, this is you, kind of, previously you were your ZOI, but now you've jumped outside of your ZOI's
46:46body, and now you've assumed the role of the city manager.
46:49So you're looking at the weather, and you can see the world again.
46:57So I just changed the weather and made it snow, and if you go back to your game, you can
47:00notice that it immediately started to snow.
47:13You can change it back to sunny, and you can also edit the billboards that show up in your city,
47:18and just put whatever you want in there.
47:25Yeah, there's a lot of different features that I didn't even realize, honestly.
47:28I played, like, a bunch of hours on this, and there was constantly more and more things that I kept
47:33finding and unlocking.
47:34Like, you can choose what animals populate your city and how many.
47:38Like, you can have wild pandas running around, apparently.
47:42So it's just really incredible to be able to see all the different things that you can do that are
47:46really in your own control.
47:48Yes, and you can increase how high that population is, which is pretty awesome.
47:54Obviously, there's so much more, but I do want to make sure that we do have some time for questions
47:57from all of you as well as anyone who's watching on Twitch.
48:00So, any final thoughts while we wrap up this game demo?
48:23So, a lot of players are actually unaware of this, but you can actually kind of move around the UI,
48:28so you can customize the UI to fit your playstyle, kind of drag things around.
48:34I did not know that.
48:36I did not know that.
48:37That's very cool.
48:38I like it.
48:39It's like almost you're rearranging your, you know, smartphone, home screen, or something.
48:46That's right.
48:47The game-song that you can use to use to use to use to use to use to use to
48:55use to use to use to use to use to use to use.
49:00So, the game is all about choosing your life and living your own life.
49:06We wanted the UI to also reflect that so you can change things however you want it.
49:11I love it.
49:12Well, thank you so much for that game demo.
49:15Thank you for the conversation.
49:22Yes, I want to open up because I know we have a lot of students here who are interested in
49:26this, studying this, for any questions that you might have for June.
49:59Yes, so we did 3D captures of outfits, and we mostly used Marvelous and Clo.
50:11And we used 3D Max to optimize the outfits for the game.
50:18I think they're passing some mics around.
50:30Hi, I'm Jack.
50:32I'm an advertising and branding major.
50:34So, this seems like the perfect design tool for anyone trying to have their visions come to life as a
50:42company or as like the programmers.
50:44Do you guys encourage people to use this to help realize their creative visions that maybe it's harder to do
50:50in like physical space?
50:52What is this?
50:56What is this?
50:57What is this?
50:58How is this?
50:59What is this?
51:00Our game has given a creative insight to people and that is to be done by the game, and it
51:09will be done by the game, and it will be made by another development.
51:22So we wanted our game to really give creative insights to a lot of different people, we wanted those insights
51:28to circle back to the game and we wanted the game again to give other people creative inspiration, so we
51:34wanted to really build this kind of creative ecosystem, so maybe that plays into what you were mentioning.
51:41Alright, I saw one more hand in the front, this will be our last question.
51:50My name is Gavin Batcher, I'm an advertising major, and this is going to go alongside of the advertising space.
51:57How do you plan to get such a built community as Sims and that fan base over into the Enzoi
52:04market and kind of build your community up from scratch, really?
52:15How do you plan to get this real?
52:18How do you plan to get this real?
52:21How do you plan to get this real?
52:29How do you plan to get this real?
52:35Well, first of all, we have a really respect for Sims.
52:45We have a really respect for Sims.
52:46If there wasn't a game of Sims, Enzoi would have no choice.
52:49We have a lot of love for Sims from Sims.
52:54We have a lot of love for Sims.
52:59We have a lot of inspiration from Sims to our community.
53:01We are not able to get the Sims from our community.
53:02We have a lot of love for Sims.
53:03It's not the best to feel the Sims, and we feel the Sims from our community.
53:06We have a lot of love for real and real life simulation.
53:10I also feel the real life simulation.
53:12We have a lot of love for Sims.
53:18Yeah, so I really want to mention first that we really, really respect The Sims.
53:22If Sims did not exist, this game would not have come into existence, and we gained a
53:27lot of inspiration from The Sims.
53:28So rather than think of us taking away from their fan base, we really wanted to share
53:34the fan base.
53:35So instead of drawing people away from The Sims, we wanted to propose something new,
53:41like just a new type of life simulator, so that people would play The Sims and also play
53:46in Zoe.
53:50Well, thank you so much.
53:52This was such a wonderful conversation.
53:54Thank you again to SCAD for hosting it.
53:57Thank you, Chiyun.
53:58Thank you, Erica, and shout out to everyone watching on Twitch.
54:02It was such a great chat.
54:03We'll be around.
54:03If you have any more questions, we'll stick around.
54:05But yeah, I hope you have a great rest of your day.
54:13All right.
54:14Thank you so much, you guys.
54:15Thank you, Chiyun Yoon, Melissa Young, and Erica King.
54:19And thank you all for joining us.
54:21And please join us back here at the Museum of Art Theatre at 2 p.m. for Refinery29's
54:27Next in Fashion, Liberate the Silhouette with Willy Chavarria.
54:31See you there.
54:45Next in Fashion, I'll see you there.
54:54Bye.
54:56Bye.
54:57Bye.
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