Indie developer Cozy Lives (a spinoff of Free Lives) have released their cozy dressmaking game, Dressmaker, on Steam PC and Mac. The sim garnered over 400,000 wishlists from interested players, and, only a few hours after launch, has already amassed over 6,000 players — and growing.
Dressmaker doesn’t beat around the bush: this is a tailoring sim inspired by actual dressmaking. Players will choose fabric pieces, cut patterns, sew garments, and stitch pieces using their trusty sewing machine, before adding buttons, bows, and other accessories.
The game also features a full 35+ hours story, as players meet the needs of clients and customers. However, the focus is entirely on making dresses, not running a store or shop.
As the town’s resident professional, clients will need specific custom-made dresses that suit their tastes and fashions, as well as appropriate styles for different special events and venues. Players can also create custom pre-made designs and sell them in the shop window.
Successfully selling dresses adds to their reputation, and brings in more money, which is spent to purchase fancier fabrics, materials, and accessories.
As for the relatively attractive price of $14.99, the charming dev team had this to stay on a recent update post:
“If you’ve heard the whispers about pricing, this is very much on the lower end of speculation – so what’s the catch? Are there microtransactions? Ads? Data harvesting? Is it slop? The odious work of generative AI? You would be forgiven for being suspicious. Many a fashion- or girly-game has sung sweet, siren songs of cozy feel-good theming, hiding the spiny, little teeth of exploitative monetization and dark patterns. We don’t do that.
“Sadly, the dev team cares too much about petty things like ‘player satisfaction,’ ‘glowing reviews’ and ‘leaving a positive impact on the world’ than they do about much more tangible things like shares, stocks and the economy.
“But seriously, we really hope that everyone who wants to play Dressmaker can afford to, and for those who can’t we’re planning some giveaways on our social media accounts and with content creator friends who will be helping us promote the game in the weeks to come.
