Dressmaker is all about childlike joy

Even as a child, one of my hyperfixations was fashion design; I used to tack up pictures from the JCPenney catalogue of the bridesmaid dresses to my wall, inspired by the pastel confections of tulle and satin. I spent hours drawing fancy shoes, dresses, and other chic outfits in sketchpads, fully believing that it would one day be my career. This naive certainty wore away as I reached adulthood; my passion for fashion boiled down into following certain runway collections every season and dressing my perfectly created video game characters in stylish outfits. That is why a long-stifled neuron activated when I first saw the game Dressmaker.

Dressmaker is a realistic (but not overly punishing) dressmaking shop simulator, one with a very cute origin story. It started as a passion project between developer Jonathan Hau-Yoon and his partner Sabrina Becker, an artist interested in dressmaking. Sabrina wanted to pursue costume design professionally but was unable to after she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which affected her hands. Eventually, Hau-Yoon put together a small team to develop a prototype, which rapidly gained a lot of downloads on Itch.io. This team eventually became Cozy Lives, which developed Dressmaker as a full game published by Free Lives. Released September 21, it has remained high on Steam’s top seller charts since.

Dressmaker is a masterpiece.

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— Rebecca McCarthy - Game Writing & Narrative 🔜 AdventureX (@rebeccamwrites.bsky.social) October 8, 2026 at 4:47 PM