One of the biggest talking points of InZOI has been its realistic art style. Launched last weekend, the game attracted 87,377 concurrent players on Steam in the first 24 hours. However, the art director has admitted that the game also suffered some shortcomings due to its realistic art style.
While InZOI is generally believed to be a worthy rival to The Sims, the art director Hyungjun ‘Kjun’ Kim said in an interview with PCGamesN that making the game realistic also meant that it was difficult to add humor in the game like The Sims. According to the director, some comical moments “didn’t quite fit with the grounded visuals”.
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“With such realistic graphics, we constantly questioned how far we should take that realism. At times, we wanted to incorporate comical or lighthearted elements, but they didn’t quite fit with the grounded visuals, which was a bit disappointing sometimes.”
One clear example of this drawback is how models in InZOI wear towels when taking their baths. According to Kim, this was necessary as using Sims-style pixelation was still overly suggestive due to the graphical fidelity.
“We actually tested this ourselves during development, so you can trust us on this,” Kim added.
While having InZOI characters take a wash with a towel was a simple fix, it takes away from the true-to-life depiction of everyday life that the game was supposed to project. Soon after the launch, the developer had to release a patch to fix a bug that allowed drivers to run over children. Despite the shortfalls, Kim believes graphics fidelity brings some advantages to InZOI.
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“The realistic graphics also have clear advantages,” he explains, “they enhance immersion in both building and character customization, and the detailed world design has even led to some interesting moments during development.”
“There were times when we looked at screenshots and had to double-check whether they were from the game or real-life photos. We believe this level of immersive graphics will resonate with players and, throughout development, we’ve felt both proud and excited to bring this world to life.”
Do you think InZOI developers are being too cautious which could hold back the game from reaching its true potential? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
