Dressmaker

love the game so far! I can't wait to get more of it!! there's quite a few things about this game that i really like.  In the drafting stage I really like how to switch between individual design elements, as well as the overall look of the design of the drafting book. the cutting table was by far my favorite part of the process, laying down and rearranging the patterns as well as cutting them were really nice.  overall the game was pretty fun and I look forwards to playing more.

My thoughts of potential things to add/change:

Drafting: 

• ability to select individual panels -change colours and design of individual panels for more customization
• add option to add a waistband or belt 
• ability to design the back of the dress
• options to change length of dress
• some sort of rating of style for the dress - what is actually considered cute or elegant
• ability to selected colours based on available fabrics

Fabric Selection:

• having an image of dress design to the side so you don't have to flick between the drafting and the fabric to have to piece together what fabrics you want to buy
• needs a better inventory for how much fabric you already own

Cutting table

• easier UI for sorting through fabrics? - maybe the fabrics are on rolls to the side and you have to select the one you want? Clicking through each fabric to get to the one I want got real tiring real quick.

Sewing

• adding a seam ripper? for when you don't sew well or decide at last minute you want to change fabric. Sometimes i would regret my choices when i saw them together properly.
• Grading each line of sewing? i know some of my lines were so wonky but it didn't really feel like bad sewing had a negative effect on the outcome of the dress.
• better guide line for sewing? - it was actually really hard to define what would get me closest to 100%, some times it seemed like I had to sew in the middle of the guide, sometimes it felt like I had to sew left/right of the line.

I've discovered this game on instagram and it's a wonderful idea. The concept, graphismes and history is great. 

While I was playing the prototype, I will have enjoy having a library of the past dress I have designed. Also, at first I had difficulty using the sewing machine but after making a few dresses I manage to use it.

Saw this game in development on tiktok and am so glad I followed to see the progress!! I LOVE the concept of this game and so far I like the execution of it!!! I had a few notes I wrote down as I was playing that I thought might be useful for feedback!

• Having a visible menu button on screen would be tremendously useful (as a noob who didn't think to hit the escape button and struggle to save and quit lmao)
• LOVE love love love that you can pet the cat omg
• I'm surprised there isn't any "this is appropriate for work" or "this is daywear" type feedback on the initial design process. Don't get me wrong I love that there's some freedom there it was just surprising
• I struggled immensely with controlling the speed of the sewing machine... might just be a me thing since I struggle with that irl too, but maybe a bit more explanation in the tutorial would be helpful?
• If there is one thing I want to request/give feedback on is that please change the confetti sound or give the option to turn it off or something, the sudden shots ringing out had my adrenaline going for a minute there and that is not the vibe for this game

But yeah like I said I'm a huge fan and I'm excited to see how it develops from here!!!!! And I would live to jump on the bandwagon of sharing the sandbox/freestyle/wtv dresses I made but the files seem to be too large and I can't be bothered to go in and edit them... trust me, they're cool lmao

This was a game I never knew I needed!

I made an account just so I could let you know how much I love your game, as an aspiring seamstress this game ticks so many boxes for me. 

Drafting your pattern

I adore the drawing style you've used to draft patterns, it's exactly how I would plan out a pattern in real life. I wish there were more style options but I'm sure as the game progresses you'll be adding more.

Fabric and Pattern layout

Needing to budget and be careful with how much fabric you're using and planning out your pattern layout accordingly is incredibly realistic and honestly I have no notes other than please don't change this! 10/10 incredible LOVE LOVE LOVE this part of gameplay 

Assembling your creation on the Dress Form

While not the most realistic part of gameplay I did enjoy how simple it was to piece everything together. Pinning pieces to my dress form in real life is probably the most tedious part of dressmaking for me (so much so I tend to not do it and just wing it when I sew parts together and hope it fits me after lol) so I thoroughly enjoyed how quick and easy it was to do in game. Perhaps for the masochists out there you could create a harder mode that also means you have to add the pins in place too (but if you do please make that optional!) 

Sewing your dress

Unfortunately this was the worst part of gameplay for me, not necessarily because it was bad, but more because I have a very sensitive (and old) mouse. I liked the mechanics of pushing forward and backwards to speed up and slow down, and I liked that the gauge on the sewing machine gave you an indicator of where you were on the line and when you needed to start turning the fabric, but I also found there was very little room for error. While this again falls under extremely realistic it was also quite frustrating when my mouse isn't the most functional and kept wanting to drift forwards while I'm trying to slow to turn the fabric. I think having an accessibility option to set the speed using either WASD, the directional arrows, or the mouse wheel would be a great idea, not just for the people like me with gammy mice but also for those who may struggle mobility wise in their hands. Honestly though I think if I had a better mouse I'd have enjoyed this aspect of gameplay a lot more as it was very fun to just go ham with the sewing!

The characters

Obviously with there being only two characters to serve there isn't much that I can add in this area, but I would like to give some feedback on all areas of the game. I think the two characters you meet were well fleshed out, I was able to gauge their personalities really well from just a few snippets of conversation and from their art style (which was also very well done btw). I really enjoyed the little article at the end that shows their personalities in a more direct way and also gives you an insight to what people thought about the dresses made, and it made me want to replay to see if I could get a different outcome for the snooty woman.

Overall I think this is a fantastic game and I can't wait to see how it progresses, it has plenty of replayability already but I'd love to see more storylines and characters

Things you could add

• as mentioned above I'd love to see more style options for drafting clothes, maybe the option to create suits, bags, and accessories like belts and suspenders (as an example) could also be added as the story progresses.
• different coloured threads and embroidery could be a really fun addition
• Buttons! Buckles! Zips! All the fastenings!
• I know you have a freeplay mode at the end, but I also think having a semi-freeplay where you create and make designs in your downtime to actually sell in the shop would be a really nice addition. You could set the price and have people come in to ask about having the clothes you make taken in/let out to fit them for an extra fee
• Speaking of clothes being taken in and let out, I think it could also be fun to have people bring in their own clothes to be altered or repaired, from just a quick re-hem to a full blown resize or patching up a hole. This could be toggled on/off as I'm sure this probably wouldn't be gameplay that everyone would enjoy but I certainly would!
• baby, toddler, child, and teenage clothes would all be super fun to make too, with varying amounts of fabric needed to suit the size of the person you're making for
• sewing machine maintenance. If your aim is for super realistic gameplay then I actually kind of feel like this is a must. You could have a small minigame where you have to clean your machine, replace the needles, and rethread (especially rethreading if you do end up doing different coloured threads). Again probably not everyone's cup of tea but I know I'd really enjoy it lol

This game is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! As someone who loves to sew, I've been looking for a game like this!! All the fun of sewing without any of the mess! I love the use of the older sewing machine and getting to pattern out the fabric. I played the game for a couple of hours and the only bug I saw was the green line that appears when sewing was like sharp bent in the other direction when sewing sleeves.  I would love to be able to unlock more patterns or even men's wear. I love the sewing mechanic; it was very easy to use and figure out. Also, the artwork and character design was so BEAUTIFUL!!!

I love so much your game INEED MOOORE

this was so fun! I had a wonderful evening annoying all my housemates by narrating the game every 5 minutes and forcing them to look at all the lovely dresses I designed for them. the sewing was maybe my favourite, purely because you let me go fast. speeding the fabric through there with no regard for quality was very enjoyable (I'm annoyed it didn't let me sew over my own hand but whatever (woulda been funny)) and is something i do myself, although its slightly more easier to control than the mouse ( just a me problem, couldn't be bothered to dig my mouse out so this was a touchpad moment).

Fun stuff to consider!

• thread colours! I don't know if its just red so its easier to see my terrible sewing but it'd be cool if you could change the thread, like trying to match the colour the best, and having to rethread or even service the machine. every seamstress is also mechanic.
• fastenings like buttons, zips, and hooks/eyes would be fun features to incorporate, lining them up and picking fun colours etc. 
• on the same line, different sewing techniques and embellishments. ie actually having to fold in pleats. hand sewing delicate areas could be interesting as well, or bead/embroidery work. 
• I just think it'd be really neat if little kids came in and you could make outfits for their teddy bears :) 

I had a great time!!!! thanks so much for making this!!! 

i made an account just to play this game and give feedback, you guys have such a great concept and playing the game was so much fun!

i really enjoyed the story mode of the game! the newspaper at the end made me laugh from how cute it was, but i had some notes as a costume maker and some bugs i noticed.

Bugs:

• during the pinning and sewing mini game i noticed that outside from the tutorial the game would skip over the shoulder seams when it comes to sewing
• i also noticed that when i was at the sewing machine, the hand would violently tremble unless i started to sew, after making two gowns this went away but it really confused me for a bit
• the grainline mechanic was a little off, sometimes i would have a pattern piece placed fully on the bias when it was supposed to be cut on the grain but it would tell me that it was fine, this mostly append with skirt panels
• the lighter blue velvet also had some weird black ink-splotch looking stains while in the sewing machine and pinned on the dress form, which really confused me. the velvet also didn't have a velvet texture but i assumed that this is because the game is still in testing and the velvet is not rendered

Suggestions:

• story wise unlocking different types of fabrics after each client didn't make much sense to me, after i saw that there is a reputation mechanic (leveling up from nobody to noteworthy) i thought that it would make more sense if more fabric is available the more people know about you, like if after each happy client your reputation status goes up and more fabric vendors who might be more exclusive open up their business to you. with later in game it being more and more difficult to get a better reputation and unlocking imported fabrics from around the world
• please add directional sewing! (sewing all seams from the top to bottom) its a real technique that is used by people in fine sewing!
• and adding hemming would make this game so much more realistic!
• maybe consider adding trim or embroidered and beaded applique to elevate a client's outfit
• although i love the idea of sabotaging a client's fancy outfit by making their gown in burlap, the burlap just felt a bit random to me since a seamstress wouldn't really have access to it, i think that muslin or calico would do the same job and a seamstress would have heaps of that lying around, but i still love the idea of giving a client a burlap sack to wear lol
• i was thinking that maybe while waiting for clients there could be some sort of mini game to spend time or help your skills along, like a sewing sample mini game where you focus on sewing curves and gathering fabric, or a sweeping threads or scraps from the floor mini game since that's often a task that doesn't get mentioned a lot
• i think a magazine (or some fashion plates depending on how historical you want to go) feature where clients can see different styles of clothing that they may want would be a good addition
• also agree with the person in the comments who recommended an ironing function, it could also be a fun feature where if you skip ironing your seams or fabric the quality rating won't go as high as it needs to be
• and please consider adding menswear! making custom suits or trousers would be such a fun mechanic!

the game was so good and i'm so excited to see what you guys do with it in the future, feel free to take or leave any suggestions!

IN LOVE WITH THE GAME!! I sew dresses in real life and run a sewing club in my school and putting the pattern pieces of the dress on the fabric is wonderfully done! Love this game!!

Glitches:

• While a pattern piece is being cut, the player is still able to move the fabric and it cuts the were the piece is moved, including if its off the fabric.
• Sometime when sewing a small part, like cuffs and the skirt to the bodest, if you complete it from like 95-100%, it will then go to like -173 if I remember correctly, then makes you restart.
• When sewing long skirt pieces, the skirt will clip through the wall and the pencils, but those are just visual glitches. 

Things I want to see:

• It was kinda annoying having to flip through all the fabric to go to the fabric you needed, It could get really difficult in late game to switch through every fabric to get the one you want.  So maybe a quicker way to pick the fabric you want to work with would be cool! 
• Through out the game it would be cool to like upgrade the sketchbook and with every upgrade you get more pattern pieces, or be able to color every pattern piece instead of coloring just the whole section. 
• Maybe a little minigame thing that would be cool is that you can display a dress the player makes in like a window, and random people in the street can come in asking to buy the dress!
• Maybe being able to sew embellishments, like hand sewing flowers, or embroidery ?

I got itch.io just to download the game! I've been following the development of this game through Instagram and I just love every bit of this game. I love the few moments we get with Prudence. I can't wait for more characters and explore their styles!

I absolutely love this, I was immediately interested and so far it is exactly as amazing as I thought it would be. 

I think it would be great to have more accessories like bows and ruffles to add onto the clothes, also male designs, but I am sure those are far in the future for now. The drafting, cutting and sewing is all very intuitive, love that you can mix up fabrics too, so fun.

I would also love to see the finished dresses on the customers, or have fittings, that could be really interesting, it can be truly hard to fit a garment.

Overall, amazing execution so far, very educational as well and has amazing potential. 

I really enjoyed playing the prototype. At first I thought the sewing would become annoying, but now its zen-ing me out. The feeling reminds of Lake where its so soothing to just deliver mail. A simple manageable task that requires effort which makes me even more proud of my achievement. Obviousy I want more variations in patterns, as well as androgynous and men's outfits.

I think what would really bring this game home for me is how this is tied in with the characters and the narrative. Starting with seeing the character receive and wear their dress, twirl with a smile or shrug with a sigh as feedback for success instead of the stats. Maybe a little design session where clients describe what they have in mind, even if some are terrible designers. "It MUST have Onyx Silk!" But in my wildest dreams, behind the seams, I am Lady Whisteldown, secretly controlling and manipulating the entire society. I can comply requests or fail and therefor support certain missions. I can make dresses that make the wrong client trip, I can help them hide their pregnancy, I can chose the favorite colors of their admirers, flatter their figure, or ridicule them. For the prototype the newspaper updates are good, but seeing the characters at the event in their outfits that I made in a short narrative sequence, that would make my heart sing.

Can't wait to see how this project progresses. Congratulations to everyone involved, this concept is outstanding.

ive only just finished the prototype story part of the gamee but i can already say im hooked, this is the exact kind of cosy relaxing game ive been looking for, my only crtique is that i find it difficult to figurre out which stats aline with what patern pieces, like is the puff sleeves cute or simple, and thats the sewing feels a bit finicky, but other then that the game is delightful and i will deffinately be downloading the game when its finished!

Hello!

Im really enjoying the game so far!

An idea i have is to maybe add a book of sorts to look what type of cuts fit the desired outcome! 

Still having great fun with the game! I played some more after my last review and wanted to make a new post solely for bugs--

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Sometimes sewing seams puts the fabric on the wrong side and clips through the machine. I have been able to replicate it on a different dress with the same skirt (the 3-tiered skirt, number 6). It might be exclusive to the right side middle-tier seam of this skirt, but I have been able to replicate it several times. Not sure if sewing order affects this bug or not

Sewing works normally though; the bug is visual only.
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Sometimes (but maybe not always?), clicking out of the cutting table while arranging pieces and then into the sketchbook will show the pattern pieces below/around the sketchbook:

The same thing happens with the sewing machine:

But again, these are just visual bugs and don't cause any real game issues.

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One bug I haven't been able to replicate since it happened is related to above--while laying out pieces to cut and going back to look at different things (dress form, sketchbook, etc), returning to the cutting table caused the uncut pattern pieces to duplicate in the inventory every time, stacking. While experiencing the bug, I was able to drag the duplicated pieces onto the fabric and continue laying them all out (though I did not try cutting them), and then change screens/return to the cutting table to continue duplicating the piece.
I haven't been able to recreate it since then, as placing a piece + changing screens + returning now correctly removes the originally-placed one from its placement on the fabric after dragging it in from the inventory (or removes the image from the inventory immediately when you move the already-placed one, because it recognizes it being the same piece). When I was experiencing the bug before, I was able to continue placing more of the same pattern pieces without them disappearing from the fabric/inventory.
I know that when I originally experienced that bug, I had multiple pieces laid out across different fabrics at the time.

I will update this post if I encounter any more minor bugs, or if I find more details on replicating the last one.

Thank you!

Thank you for fixing the bug that prevented saving! I experienced the original bug, but the fix in the new version definitely works now.

I love the game overall!! I think it is super cute and unique.

• Sewing Machine Mechanic 
  I think the sewing machine mechanic is excellent as-is! I find it intuitive and I don't think the motion suggests that you are pushing the fabric as others have said; it feels very much like I am guiding the angle  and increasing the speed of the machine, imo. Though, I do actually wish it were possible to have a higher max speed (really just for the long straight seams on some of the skirts). A way to implement this could be max speed toggles; this is a feature my IRL (albeit computerized) machine has, but would also make sure that people who want to sew slower or who struggle with it don't have to have an increased max speed if they don't want to. An upgradable/swappable machine system would also work great for that, if you wanted to take the game in that direction.
• Idea to add: Ironing
  If you are interested in adding more simulation steps, ironing would be a great one to add. Making clothes is 20% sewing and 80% ironing in reality 😂 
• Idea to add: Custom Fabric Textures
  This may not be the direction you want to go in, but an option to upload our own images as textures for fabric could also be really fun.
• Missing Front/Back Designation for Side Pieces
  One potential oversight/note: not all of the design options have properly designated back vs. front labels on the pattern pieces, which makes it a tad more tedious to assemble on the dress form. The pencil skirt is one such example; there are "skirt front" and "skirt back" pieces, but side pieces are both "Skirt Left" and "Skirt Right" without a front/back designation.
• Grainlines
  I LOVE the touch of adding a quality detail tied to grainlines and needing to rotate the pieces to be on grain. This made perfect sense to me as someone that sews, but I think some of the other players didn't fully understand the distinction in the tutorial (since by default the pattern pieces are lined up with the cross grain, they may think that the pieces just need to be straight on the length or cross grain), so that may require further clarification.
• Idea to add: Pattern Matching (influence on garment quality)
  Since laying out the pattern pieces does actually affect how the print shows up (I think this is an excellent detail! I wouldn't have been surprised if cutting placement only affected wasted yardage and quality calculations, and then the texture were generically applied to the pieces after cutting), "pattern matching" could be a great addition to the game if there are plaid fabrics or larger prints! In real life, pattern matching is absolutely a sign of quality, but it does take significantly more fabric yardage to pull off. I think this would play well into the game. It could be something that isn't required, but could really increase the quality calculation of garments (if there is a way to program detection of pattern matching).

Thank you for the game! I hope my thoughts were helpful. I am very excited to see what happens with it in the future, and I want to keep supporting!!
I make both gaming and sewing content, and would love to help promote the game down the line or do some sort of video collab if you are interested. I really believe in what you have done here with the prototype; feel free to reach out! Congrats on releasing the prototype!!

I loved playing the prototype for this game. I had seen videos on instagram a couple weeks ago about it and was really excited for it and it did not disappoint. The use of the sewing machine was a bit difficult but after figuring it out it was easier to control it. Excited to see how this game grows.

I saw this game recently on instagram and was immediately interested! I'm a big fan of Tailor Tales and design games in general, so this was a blast to see. I love the art style and overall design of this, especially being able to rotate the dresses as you make them. The cutting and sewing make this feel more immersive, although (like a few others have said) the sewing machine doesn't feel very intuitive. I look forward to seeing where this goes next! 

我爱这款游戏，我是中国人，游戏里的缝纫机让我感到好亲切！游玩过程中我遇到了两个bug，一个是教程裁剪的时候调整完方向后没有跳出剪刀，一个是衣服全部缝完之后无法提交订单。

除此之外游戏真的很棒，希望之后完整版里可以增加多一点细节，比如设计草稿的时候希望可以标注出每个需要裁剪的部分，并且可以选择颜色，购买布料和裁剪布料的时候草稿可以显示在一边。以及虽然顾客的订单有属性的数值要求，但我完全不知道我的设计能否达到数值要求，只有等放到模特上的时候才知道效果不好不喜欢或者数值能不能达标，但这时候都只能重新裁剪，所以比较不方便，希望可以优化这一点。

最后，真的很期待这款游戏的完整版，希望一切顺利！

The game is insanely fun!! However i think that the sewing/quality meter is way to hard I wasn't able to easily grasp it enough to even make a proper quality piece since it was so hard. BUT overall it is still really fun and I would love to play it later when they come out with other features and things like that.

Such a cute game love it so much, especially as a seamstress and a gamer great work.

Cant wait to see more!

Such a sweet and amazing game, loved every moment and can't wait to see where you take this. 

I have only played the tutorial but it already LOVE this game. So cozy and very accurate to real life sewing!

looks exciting to see

This is so lovely! I've had my eye on giving it a go for a while now and finally did this evening and I'm in love! Everything about it is so charming and I love seeing the patterns come to life. Seriously well done!