InZOI director and producer Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim marked the one-year anniversary of his weekly "Brainstorming with Kjun" developer diaries this week with a bumper edition. Alongside a reflective post about the milestone, Kjun shared a meaty preview of the upcoming celebrity system, outlined a major restructuring of how cities work, and confirmed several changes headed to the October update.
The celebrity system, currently expected in December 2026, got its most substantial showing yet. The developer diary video included work-in-progress footage of new buildings and lots (possibly housed in an entirely new city), concert and event stages, special effects for performances, microphone accessories, new outfits, dancing and performance animations, trophies, cameras, backdrops, new furniture including purses, and even L-shaped staircases. Kjun noted that the team recently tested these features with a small group of players and modders, then iterated based on their feedback. He also mentioned a structural change that makes it possible to create mods using MCP, promising more details next week.
Cities are getting a rethink
The bigger structural news is a planned overhaul of how InZOI handles its three cities: Dowon, Bliss Bay, and Cahaya. The team plans to remove City Immigration, the system introduced with last August's Cahaya DLC, and replace it with a new City Travel system. Under City Travel, Zois will be able to freely join parties and schedules with Zois from any city and move between cities more easily.
The reason for the switch? City Immigration's complexity "caused many errors," according to Kjun. The September patch had already loosened some of its constraints, and this change takes things further. When City Immigration is removed, any duplicate homes a player acquired through it will be automatically sold, with proceeds returned and the homes saved as presets. A dedicated multi-home ownership feature is planned for a later date, though no timeline was given.
This ties into a broader shift in how new content will be delivered. Rather than cramming new concepts into the existing three cities, the team intends to release new spaces primarily as new cities. Kjun used the example of a prison system: building one for every city would mean designing it to fit each city's theme without breaking it, which spreads resources thin. Instead, content will live where it fits best, and City Travel will let Zois from any city access it. An actor Zoi living in Dowon, for instance, could travel to whichever city has the film set for their job.
The team is also exploring the option of letting players place content-specific spaces in the city of their choice through lot editing, though Kjun cautioned that the scope may vary depending on the content type. He acknowledged the shift might be confusing and explicitly asked for player feedback before finalizing decisions.
October update and other changes
The nearer-term October update will focus on improving the premade families that populate each city. The team is refining NPC relationships, backstories, careers, and appearances so that starter characters are "fun to discover not just for their looks, but for their stories too."
On top of that, the development team showed before-and-after comparison shots of premade NPC Zois with updated appearances, and asked the community directly whether they prefer the new looks or the originals. A follow-up on this topic is expected in next week's Wednesday post from Kjun.
Prison and incarceration content, meanwhile, has been pushed back from its previously discussed slot. Kjun confirmed the delay is because "there are systems we need to overhaul first," pointing to the city restructuring work as a prerequisite. No new timeline was provided.
A year of showing up
Kjun's anniversary post itself offered a rare personal window into how the developer diary started. He revealed that someone else was originally assigned to manage the community channel, but circumstances put him in the role on short notice. He recalled sitting in his parked car in Incheon, replying to Discord messages one by one until he realized the pace was not sustainable, eventually settling into the twice-weekly rhythm he maintains today.
For players who have been following InZOI's development since the PS5 delay to the first half of 2027 and through the ongoing PC early access period, the developer diaries have become a consistent pulse check on the game's direction. The celebrity system in December represents the next major content milestone, and the city system overhaul signals a longer-term vision for how InZOI will grow.