Dressmaker has been one of my favorite surprise success stories of the year, and it just got another helping of tools to express your creative flair. The comfy, crafts-centric indie game about designing dresses for all manner of clientele has won hearts and minds across the industry, proving once again that there’s plenty of desire for more creative experiences among the Steam playerbase. Its tiny team has been buoyed to keep building upon that experience, and today’s Dressmaker update brings quite a few improvements to the overall user experience, along with a handful of new content.
Dressmaker might have earned a 98%-positive rating from more than 10,000 user reviews to date, but that hasn’t stopped developer Cozy Lives from being bombarded by enthusiastic suggestions for improvements and new features. “We’ve been watching streams, enjoying your voice acting, and seeing your reactions to the game’s story, as well as feeling palpable game-designer pain,” creator Jonathan Hau-Yoon writes. As such, a large part of these new Dressmaker patch notes are dedicated to improvements to controls, the tutorial, and accessibility options.
Hau-Yoon acknowledges that some aspects of the menus, particularly when adjusting the fine details such as accessories and trim, are “a source of great frustration.” He jokes that he has “subjected the programmer (also me) to an extensive Clockwork Orange-like Twitch viewing session” to get a better idea of the pain points. There’s also an apology for the necessary evil that making some of these changes requires re-learning your workflow slightly, “but I think everyone should be able to agree it was necessary.”
There are some particularly handy features such as the ability to drag-rotate your mannequin while placing trim, and a smooth camera zoom instead of the stepped stages. There are also some additional camera controls; Cozy Lives is “still not happy” with these yet, however, and is “considering a more drastic rework of camera controls” down the line. Trim placement has been improved, with the newfound ability to lower it to negative heights. Selection logic should be smarter, and clicking on an accessory will hide the pins for all the others.
As for the new additions, there’s a chrysanthemum skirt with a “less poofy variant,” and a longer pencil skirt alternative. Fresh cotton design types and fabrics include ‘Autumnal Vine border print cotton,’ “Spring Vine border print cotton,’ and a simple ‘Taupe cotton.’ Then there’s Silver and Pastel-Pink lace, along with a selection of silks: Burning Forest, Golden Dawn, Lavender Field, and Snowflake Gradient. Finally, we have extra accessories: a silver clasp, a silver Narcissus chain, a silver Twin Souls chain, Black Dagger beaded trim, and Widow’s lace trim.
Can’t decide which components to use? Hit the new randomize button in the sketchbook. In the cutting room, several buttons have been moved around to improve clarity and convenience. There’s now a button to grab all panel pieces, and the scissors won’t discard fabric until you tell it to. “Sorry to that person who lost 5m of velvet from that misclick,” Cozy Lives remarks. “Sorry to everyone else for changing this.”
As for adjustments you might need to check old designs for, Cozy Lives has improved both the default tilt offset that was occurring on some trims, as well as the ‘fudging’ on color and fabric requirements for commissions. The developer says the new setup should enable small components to offer “a meaningful difference,” and that it “seems to conform much closer to most players’ intuitive expectations.” However, this might result in slight changes to the alignment or score of past creations. “Again, really sorry for this.”
The list of quality-of-life improvements just keeps going. Mannequin gears can now be adjusted in the sizing room using the mousewheel or arrowkeys. Using the last bit of an accessory or trim will remove its entry from your inventory. Trims should be less likely to break when “placed on certain bits of more complex geometry” such as sleeve cuffs, bows, and stays. Several clipping issues are fixed, the tutorial has been honed to reduce potential points of confusion, and a selection of control hints can now be found at the bottom of the screen, “especially for commonly misunderstood or unknown features.”
Dressmaker update 433 is out now, as of Wednesday, October 14. The added content will be unlocked as usual as you progress through the campaign. If you’ve already reached the point where you would have been granted access to something, it will now have been unlocked retroactively.