Hii, just wanted to start off saying I love this game, and even as a person who isn't knowledgeable on dressmaking irl, this game makes me feel like I don't need to know too much background info but also not too kidded down that it's as simple as simply tapping a button. Gameplay-wise, this game is amazing and especially when it reaches the right audience I believe it'll go really well. Throughout playing the game, I had some ideas of features that I think could really help smooth out some corners to make the gameplay just a bit nicer and add quality:
- In the sketchbook, it would be nice to edit simply the sketch of previous dresses (not the dresses themselves), for example, I made a dress but didn't realize I had a button randomly placed on the dress that didn't go on the final dress but in the sketchbook, it's now presumably permanently on the sketch of the old dress. At least being able to adjust/move things around a bit or put things like those accessories away would be nice, though I do like the feature itself how it seems like a record book as well of your past dress and the fact you can see how you planned things out before creating the dress.
- The previous note brings me to this second thought that I believe is more like a bug but could be fixed with a feature; being able to scale the accessories on the sketchbook. The button is wayyyy larger than it needs to be on the sketchbook and although when actually adding the accessories on the dress, they are all uniformly sized, trying to map out buttons in the sketchbook leads me to having to do it with my imagination since a single button can cover up the whole torso of the mannequin.
- When making dresses, at least personally, I try to also design around the character I'm making the dress for. Even if we don't see the model wearing the dress in the end, it would be nice to keep the character's icon/portrait readily available in case wanting to work around that (maybe this could lead into a future feature of making full character models and showcasing them in the dress when it's completed, but I also understand how hefty of a feature that could be and only really seeing that happening way further down the road, just food for thought for now.)
- Maybe this defeats the purpose of the more realistic approach to making dresses, but a feature I considered would be allowing the colored pencil used in the sketchbook to use fabrics instead of flat colors (though I did enjoy having to make workarounds to get colors to match as close as possible to what I had envisioned as opposed to just cheesing it and copy/pasting from my sketchbook) but maybe a feature similar to this would be a nice work-around.
- It's a bit tedious to have to go back and forth from the sketchbook to the "fabric store" just so I can use the fabric on my sketchbook visualization. At least having a tab within the Fabrics section of the sketchbook that says something like "in-store" would be nice since more often than not, I plan to buy new fabrics to match a color from my sketchbook anyways. Tl;dr allowing samples of the fabrics in store to be displayed straight from the sketchbook like the ones already in inventory. (Edit: for fabrics and accessories, not just fabrics)
- I believe someone else already mentioned, but I agree, would be to have tabs in the shop that filter the fabrics by their tags in addition to their material. When looking at a specific fabric, clicking on a tag (if this feature gets implemented) should direct the played to that tag's...tab.
- Maybe in a tutorial or in the shop, show a sample of how much 1m is in game, probably with a sample image in the shop of the cutting station with a 1m ruler indicating how much will be bought. Maybe not exactly like this, but something like this could help.
- I don't know how important/useful it would be to include measurements on the specific pieces for cutting, but it could be a thing. More importantly, it would be nice if the name of the piece I'm working with stayed visible on the cutting board (so many look alike for me, at least, and it would be nice to see what I'm working with lol. Additional to that, as a person who doesn't know all the technical terms, maybe a mini preview of where some of those cutouts go on the final model would be nice at the cutting station to have a better visual of the specific piece being worked on.
- Something that's not too important, but at the cutting station, maybe a side bar that pops out with TAB or something of the sort to be able to more easily get through fabrics owned (imagine owning like 80 different fabrics and having to flip to each one just to get the one your looking for. With a short list it's not much a problem, but with larger numbers, it'll get real tedious and fast. This side bar should also include the sample image of the fabric because honestly, I'm not gonna be able to differentiate between Lupine Pink Linen and Tulip Pink Cotton off the top of my head. Images help a tonnn.
- Additional content that I just thought of right now would be capes, cloaks, and hoods. More food for thought.
- Sewing is so fun in this game. One thing that it could really benefit from though is a zoom feature. Maybe with the mouse wheel for those using the mouse, likely another keybind for those using the arrow keys. I am pretty blind so it could be me, but the arrowed lines are difficult for me to follow because of how small they are but I don't think they should increase in a size. A simple perspective zoom could be of help.
- More additional content to consider: different kinds of sewing machines. I don't know how varied it can get, but I don't doubt that there are some sewing machines that have interesting and unique features that help get the job done.
- Finally, maybe some in-game money can be used for decoration of the shop, it would be cool and interesting to see different designs, maybe even for equipment too like the scissors or the mannequin, or even the little kitty. There are a lotta options for this idea that can go a long way.
Enough of my yapping, these are just the majority of the things that came across my mind while playing your amazing game. It's insane and cool how interesting of a game this is. My personal opinions: I love the art style and game design. I think it's very smart of the use of 2-D and 3-D where the game sees fit. I honestly cannot wait to see what you do with this in the future and absolutely rooting for you guys and will recommend this to my friends. Oml, what if you could make little pet clothes for the cat. T^T I'm gonna end this message now before more ideas spew out of my mind. This game is amazing, so sorry for the loooong read, and I have no doubts you guys will pop off with this game.