Revision 8

Overview

Canvastown is a new world being developed for inZOI as part of the 2026 strategic roadmap. Unlike the existing cities of Dowon, Bliss Bay, and Cahaya (each inspired by real-world urban or resort environments), Canvastown is designed as a compact, rural countryside setting with an emphasis on performance accessibility and community storytelling. It is built on a new internal engine called the Fate Engine, which KRAFTON is developing to lower the technical requirements needed to run inZOI and to eventually transfer those optimizations back to the existing cities.

Design Philosophy

Canvastown was announced as part of the "Beyond the Fundamentals" 2026 Roadmap revealed in early January 2026. It has its own dedicated development team separate from the team handling the core game's content updates, and KRAFTON has explicitly stated that this work will not take resources away from single-player development.

The primary goals for Canvastown are:

• Create a new residential environment with a calm, rural countryside feel that differs from the urban sprawl of existing cities.

• Reduce the hardware barrier for playing inZOI through engine optimizations that will eventually benefit all cities.

• Serve as the anchor world for the inZOI Online multiplayer platform.

• Act as the first proving ground for the Fate Engine scenario generation system.

The compact design is intentional. Director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim described Canvastown as "designed to be small but comfortable, running smoothly even on lower-spec hardware" while giving players space to build and customize their own city. This makes it suitable for both solo players who want a quieter environment and for online multiplayer, where server performance is critical.

Phased Release Timeline

Canvastown is being released in phases throughout 2026. Each phase builds on the previous one, with the Fate Engine integration coming first, followed by the actual world releases.

All dates are aspirational. KRAFTON has emphasized that timelines may shift based on development progress and community feedback.

Fate Engine Integration

Canvastown is the first world built around the Fate Engine, a system that randomly generates life scenarios for Zois. Rather than starting every household from the same blank slate, the Fate Engine assigns starting conditions (family structure, finances, housing, relationships) that create unique gameplay challenges. The compact scale of Canvastown makes it an ideal testing ground because the smaller world is easier to balance and optimize.

After Canvastown proves the concept, KRAFTON plans to expand Fate Engine support to all existing cities. Players will eventually be able to activate random life scenarios in Dowon, Bliss Bay, or Cahaya as well.

Online Multiplayer

Canvastown plays a central role in inZOI Online. Its compact size and performance optimizations make it the natural choice for the first multiplayer world. The online roadmap includes features like personal house customization saved to player accounts, the ability for visitors to enter and explore each other's homes, and eventually large-scale dedicated servers supporting hundreds of concurrent players.

Because Canvastown was designed from the start with multiplayer in mind, it avoids some of the performance bottlenecks that the larger cities would face with many simultaneous players.

Comparison to Existing Cities