Dress Up games amr

[axlna]

honestly i believe that games for little girls are a lost art atp.
my little sister is almost 9 and absolutely loves fashion (srs she dresses up better than me, she is going places) she also loves dress up games, i used to play with her on my laptop the old early 2000-2010 ones, but since i moved out for uni, she now uses our other sisters phone to play. I saw one of those games and it was absolutely infested with adds, in game purchases, and frankly, it was completely soulless. I asked her to show me more of her apps and they were all the same kiddie cash grabs. Worst thing is almost all had the same 'influencer' style clothes, istg all games were 'top, crop top, skirt, shorts, jeans, hills' even my sis admitted that she doesn't like the clothes but cant find anything else. We looked together and yep. pretty much no app made for people that actually like little girls.
 
i am going on a cooking recipe intro again. ignore me.

I've talked a little with her and we are making a dress up app together (she tells me what she wants and i add)

so far we have:

• 3-4 different dolls to choose from (w names)
• hair salon! (wash hair and choose haircut)
• 3-4 different categories

now where i'd like some input. brainstorming categories, she said " normal, wedding, witch" and we are looking for a fourth.
also heres two dolls we made     (complete credit to her honestly. i just made the final illustration from her doodles)

[CATBYTE]

i love this so much!
dress-up games are a point of nostalgia for me as i ended up pretty tomboyish for a lot of my younger years, but there's something uniquely fun about those older dress-up games i used to stumble across that i couldn't resist. as i got older that feeling followed me with what i would call a less stricter definition of dress-up games, like customization in club penguin having that drawn out avatar with the clothes alongside your normal player model.

anyways this was about categories. xD
if you have a normal category, which i'm assuming is more modern/contemporary styles, how about a vintage one?
building off of that, if she has an interest in a particular time period or place in the world perhaps you could theme a category entirely off of it!

[bingus_baby]

Some categories I would like in dresses games!
Punk looks similar to 2000s Hot Topic rather than modern. (I love the plaid patterns and fun colors that niche brings.) Going off retro I think 70s would be good since there's fun colors and designs. Maybe look into J-fashion? 2000s dress games pulled from that a lot. Devil Inspired has lots of inspiration for that. Lastly, maybe mermaid or fairy inspired fashion! This game had a chokehold on me and was into fantasy dress.
And does your sister know about Picrew? It's mostly smaller scale stuff, but it keeps the dress up games dream alive! KiSS dolls are also worth getting into, but were generally for older, tech savvy audiences.
(As you can see, I used to LOVE dress up games. It's surprising I'm not more fashionable these days now that I can be.)

[rhenn]

This is such a cool idea!

I remember playing a lot of these types of games as a kid; I love customisation in games but one thing I think was cool was the ability to layer clothes of the same category. A lot of modern games seem to have one "slot" for tops/pants/necklaces etc but I always find it fun to layer a bunch together to create a unique look.

As for categories... maybe some for cold/hot weather? Like cozy sweaters and gloves and such. Also seconding J-fashion; there's a whole lot of subcultures so there's probably a lot of different things you could do looking into that.

[BlazingCobaltX]

Nice idea! I loooved dress-up games as a kid and it's sad that it's become a bit of an outdated thing. Somewhere last year someone on this forum posted a link to this pixel doll maker they made. Maybe this is fun for your sister?

[mostlypixels]

It's such a great project.

I used to be crazy about KiSS games (if you get into them, you might want to thoroughly vet them by trying to drag the panties off several times before you give them to your sister, because my tiny sibling sure gave me a stroke, back then, when they found out there was something to see under those).

I also liked avatar based websites like Gaia Online, Zantarni and such, and dress up sites with flash games.

As for them being cash grabs... Ads were already present, but not nearly as soul crushing as nowadays' "watch a 30 seconds video" phone ads (and I say this as someone who saw the advent of popup blockers and the waaaaalls of popups opening popups". And there were a lot of people wanting to make this hobby their wanted their main source of income, which meant many, many, many adds, because the ads were near worthless (I know that because I did it. Sorry).

I was also really into dolling, where artists make bases (pixel art bodies) you can draw the clothes on yourself!

 
Your dolls are beautiful. I love the clothing style. What kind of tech will you be using to make it, web/app side?

normal, wedding, witch" and we are looking for a fourth.

MAGICAL GIRL.

I am a grown adult with reasonable demands.

[grubbyfox]

oh man i would love it! i wasnt too into it as a teen because i felt so out of touch with them because most (imo back then) were too ultra feminine and "girlish", while i dressed like a burned out geek. Would love some very relaxed outfits, like relaxed jeans, plaid shirts, "cargo" jackets, ya know...grunge i guess? but not "hot" grunge, lol.

also what about like a little room behind them with objects/stuff to collect, and various food and drinks to give them?

i really like picrew for example, but i kinda miss actually doing something after making a character.

[J. Soda]

I loved those games as a kid! I think I really enjoyed dressing up for a certain event in the game, but not being pressured into a certain style that was "right." You're going out to a picnic, what do you wear? Or a ball, or a birthday party! Things like that. Also having accessories like hats that don't interfere too much with hairstyles unless it's unavoidable (like putting a hat on a mohawk).