Wannabe designers and fashionistas will adore the technical stylings of Dressmaker, a cosy game inspired by the complicated art of real-life dressmaking.
You’re the new dressmaker in the town of Twilford, where a steady stream of customers with disposable incomes are ready to commission your creations. Design dresses, choose and cut fabrics, and sew to their exact requirements to become the best in the biz.
After sewing so hard I felt like I was working in a sweatshop, I have a newfound appreciation for the art of dressmaking. Dressmaker gives you a taste of what it’s like to be a seamstress — minus some of the more annoying IRL bits.
A Stitch In Time Saves Nine
The gameplay loop is simple enough. Customers commission dresses and you design them to meet their requirements. Some want a dress that’s cute, but not too cute. Romantic, but not too romantic. Oh, and it also needs to be warm and professional.
Aye, caramba!
As you complete commissions, you level up and unlock more styles, fabric, and accessories to become the Grandmaster of dressmaking.
Dressmaker does a surprisingly good job of capturing the technical side of dressmaking. Thankfully, developer Cozy Lives has also removed some of the genuinely painful aspects, such as being unable to sew certain fabrics together or use particular styles. My lace-loving heart thanks them.
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The sewing machine is hand-powered, but thankfully you can adjust the speed from tortoise to hare. You never need to change the thread, though, which is always red. Maybe that’ll be DLC. Who knows?
The difficulty ramps up quickly, too. You’ll need to think more strategically about which fabrics and accessories will satisfy your client. It’s easy to get carried away making something fabulous, only to realise you’ve completely ignored what they actually asked for. And boy, can these customers be fussy.
Harder Than It Seams
Fortunately, Dressmaker is pretty forgiving when you inevitably make a mistake. If you’re here for the creative process rather than the sewing, Sewing Assist lets you sew your fabric without manually turning it with your mouse. It was invaluable while I was speed-running dresses for this review.
You still need to pay attention to the wandering needle, though. Take corners too quickly and you can ruin your dress, and even with Sewing Assist, I occasionally found the fabric deviating from the line. It wasn’t a huge issue, but it pays to slow down when things get fiddly.
Thankfully, there’s a reset button for those of us with quick fingers, and you can unpick dresses with a simple click. Even better, if you accidentally cut the wrong pattern into your fabric, you can recycle it and restore the material, letting you have another crack at it rather than wasting precious fabric.
These little touches make Dressmaker much less punishing than actual dressmaking, which I suspect is exactly the point.
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I would’ve liked a way to remove all the cutting patterns at once, or take an entire dress off the mannequin rather than picking apart each panel individually. Alas, some things must remain realistic.
The scoring system also left me scratching my head. There were several occasions when I’d finish a dress only to discover I hadn’t satisfied a certain requirement and had to unpick and start again.
Each commission also comes with a budget, but I found this quickly became irrelevant. I could simply buy what I wanted, which removed much of the business-management element that could’ve made the game more interesting. I would’ve liked the budget to have a bit more bite, particularly as the difficulty increases.
Stitching Together A Story
While I initially thought Dressmaker’s story was fairly light, I eventually became invested enough to want to see it through. Much of that is thanks to the customers, who have some genuinely entertaining and sassy conversations. Your dialogue options are limited, but the character interactions give you something to look forward to between sewing sessions — and there’s even some decent character development. Who’d have thunk?
I churned out the 50 dresses required to finish the story in around 20 hours, but Dressmaker isn’t really a game I’d recommend bingeing. I would’ve liked more to break up the designing and sewing, although the character-themed music creates such a soothing atmosphere that hours can disappear while you quietly stitch away. There’s also more content beyond the story — a plus for those looking for more customer satisfaction. Or commiseration. I haven’t tried sabotaging anyone yet, but the option is there if you fancy becoming Twilford’s resident fashion villain.
Dressmaker is a charming and surprisingly technical cosy game that nails the satisfying parts of creating something from scratch. It could use a little more variety and stronger business mechanics, but if you’ve ever looked at a sewing machine and thought, “I wonder if I could make that?”, this might be the safer way to find out.
Dressmaker is out now on PC via Steam for $20.95.
Quest Daily scores Dressmaker:
7.5/10
A copy of Dressmaker was supplied to Quest Daily for this review.
