A fashion game where you're the ultimate Dressmaker has been "overrun" with love, earning 96% positive Steam reviews

Look at the Steam top sellers and you'll see the expected heavy hitters: new releases like Control Resonant and EA FC 27 sit alongside the likes of Warframe and Total War Warhammer, which just got fresh updates and expansions. Then you might spot Dressmaker, a bright and colorful indie game that's been poking its head up the charts since its release this week, even breaking into the top ten in some regions. Buoyed by love and attention, it's fully recouped its development costs in just its first day, and has now earned the 'overwhelmingly positive' Steam review marker with 96% positive ratings.

The pitch for Dressmaker is all about creativity and tactility: the feeling of gradually hand-crafting stunning pieces of clothing for the various needs of your town. Project lead Jonathan Hau-Yoon of Cozy Lives explains that the inspiration came from his partner Sabrina Becker, who taught him the value of clothes as "incredible feats of engineering and construction, full of creativity." By selecting various fabrics and materials, carefully cutting out the various pieces, and gradually stitching them together, you're able to build bespoke dresses from scratch to outfit the locals.

Hau-Yoon says he "wanted to make something that expressed that joyful creativity she was talking about, and where the goal wasn't to make as much money as possible, but to make the most beautiful dresses. Where it wasn't to scale the business and create a fashion empire, but to quietly make bespoke clothing for individual women. And where we would have a large cast of women of different shapes and sizes, different ages and personalities and a sense of community." The project was first released as a three-week prototype via itch.io in 2025, and now stands before us in its full glory on Steam.

It's a beautiful concept, and as someone who's poured a surprising number of hours into perfecting outfits in Infinity Nikki, I've come to find myself craving the level of nuanced adjustments and customization freedom promised by the sandbox of Dressmaker. Here you run every stitch; place each button, bow, and piece of trim. These creations are truly yours, starting out as simple sketches in your book and gradually coming to life on the sewing table. It's a glorious fusion of creativity, crafts, and charm.

"As a game developer, I think it's dangerous to love your game," Hau-Yoon writes. He notes that the more he fell in love with the idea of Dressmaker, the more he became "susceptible to all of the dangerous, blind optimism of a person in love." He cautions that such strong beliefs can sometimes lead to unfounded beliefs in a project "that cannot sustain you," and nods to indie studios who have fallen foul of such problems. "We typically only hear of the ones who have become successful, while countless other games fall into obscurity."

Fortunately for Cozy Lives, the tale of Dressmaker has a happy ending. "Imagine my relief when within 24 hours of the game's launch, we have hundreds of players leaving reviews saying it is also their dream game." Hau-Yoon says the team's Discord has been "overrun with new players posting their dresses (and asking for tech support)," while Twitch streamers and YouTubers have eagerly shared it with their audiences. "It turns out my optimism was right and I'm not (that) crazy."

Dressmaker is out now on Steam, priced at $14.99 / £13.60, with a 10% launch discount meaning you'll pay just $13.49 / £12.24 until Monday September 28. You can find it right here if you're ready to start crafting the dresses of your dreams.

Hau-Yoon confirms the team has "fully recouped our costs, which allows us to continue working on this project that [we] love with the knowledge that other people love it too." While the initial focus will be on post-release support and bug fixes, he reveals that Cozy Lives is planning "a chunkier update" or more for the future. This includes transparent fabrics that weren't looking quite right for launch, an online challenge mode where players can vote on their favorite designs, and proper controller support, along with plans to port the game to mobile devices and the Nintendo Switch.