--- title: "To make a dressmaking game, Dressmaker had to choose what not to simulate" locale: "en" url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/dressmaker-craft-game-design-en" markdown_url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/dressmaker-craft-game-design-en.md" category: "craft" tags: ["dressmaking", "game design", "prototyping", "craft"] published_at: "2026-08-12T13:38:00.000Z" author: "Zoé Caron" translation: "https://irz.fr/fr/articles/dressmaker-couture-game-design-fr.md" --- # To make a dressmaking game, Dressmaker had to choose what not to simulate Dressmaker keeps fabric choice, patterns, cutting and assembly, then compresses the repetitive hours. It shows how to translate a craft without reproducing everything. If Dressmaker simulated sewing minute by minute, a play session might last longer than your desire to play it. Cut, pin, stitch a long straight seam, repeat. Real craft contains a lot of repetition. Sabrina Becker and Jonathan Hau-Yoon’s problem was therefore less about reproducing sewing than deciding **which parts of sewing actually make you feel that you are creating something**.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) Their answer keeps the decisions: fabric, patterns, cutting, assembly, decoration. It compresses the rest. ## Not a dress-up game The Steam page presents Dressmaker as a crafting game inspired by real dressmaking: choose fabric, cut patterns and sew the pieces together for the people who live around you.[2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4019220/Dressmaker/) Becker grew up sewing with her mother. In an interview with Creative Bloq, she explains that the project helped her reconnect with that practice after Ehlers-Danlos syndrome stopped her from pursuing costume work professionally.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) That experience matters to the design because it shifts where the reward sits. The pleasure is not only seeing a character wearing a nice dress at the end. It starts in the fabric shop, when different materials, shapes and styles become possible decisions.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) Dressmaker is trying to simulate the **creative decision** more than the real duration of the task. ## Compressing the tedium Hau-Yoon says their conversations about making clothes kept returning to the same reality: cutting and sewing take a huge amount of time even when the final result is satisfying.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) Professional simulation software can preserve that complexity because precision is the point. A game needs a loop you want to repeat. Dressmaker therefore keeps pattern-making, cutting and sewing as readable actions without pretending to become Marvelous Designer or a certified sewing course.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) The rendering follows the same philosophy. Fabrics do not all chase perfect photorealism. Hau-Yoon gives the example of sequins: if they need to read as shiny, the game exaggerates the sparkle so the property is immediately legible.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) It is translation, not duplication. ## The desired prototype Dressmaker also has a pleasantly sensible prototyping story. The project began as a very small side project: a cutting table, then a mannequin used to assemble pieces.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) Hau-Yoon posted a short TikTok video which, according to him, reached roughly half a million views before the game even had a name.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) Free Lives then helped the team spend three weeks building a prototype simple enough to release on itch.io.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) [3](https://elyaradine.itch.io/dressmaker) Again according to Hau-Yoon, the prototype reached 40,000 downloads in its first month and 100,000 after two months.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) Those are creator-reported numbers from the interview, not independently available analytics, but they explain why the team kept going. The method is more interesting than the number: put the central gesture in people’s hands quickly, then see whether they make things, share them and ask for more. ## Choosing the essential The same logic could apply to many crafts. A faithful tattoo game probably would not need to simulate eight hours of awkward posture and twenty minutes spent looking for the right cable. A pottery game does not need several real days of waiting between firings. The better question is: which decisions make the practice recognisable from the inside? Dressmaker answers with material, cutting, construction and decoration.[1](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy)[2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4019220/Dressmaker/) The rest can be shortened. That is not betraying reality. It is editing it. ## References 1. [Jim McCauley, entretien avec Sabrina Becker et Jonathan Hau-Yoon, Creative Bloq](https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/this-indie-game-is-turning-dressmaking-into-the-ultimate-creative-fantasy) 2. [Dressmaker, page Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4019220/Dressmaker/) 3. [Dressmaker, prototype itch.io](https://elyaradine.itch.io/dressmaker)