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The viral indie game Dressmaker was created based on the sorrowful personal experience of the developer's wife, according to information from GamesPress. The project started as a passion collaboration between Jonathan Hau-Yoon and his wife Sabrina Becker, who is an artist and dressmaking enthusiast with a passion for fashion and costume creation.
Sabrina previously hoped to pursue a career as a professional costume designer, but her dream could not be realized due to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. This condition involves symptoms caused by weakness in the connective tissue supporting skin, bones, or joints, resulting from genetic mutations or abnormalities, which led her to stop pursuing her dream.
Driven by his desire for Sabrina to channel her talents through video games, Jonathan collaborated with her to develop the initial concepts and development for Dressmaker. Beginning as a small side project, it gained massive internet attention even before a prototype existed.
Jonathan subsequently brought the project to his team at Free Lives, partnering with Ruan Rothmann and Sara Laubscher to build a prototype within 3 weeks. The prototype rapidly accumulated internet traffic, recording 100 thousand downloads and inspiring players to share their own dress design creations, ultimately greenlighting the project under the Cozy Lives label.
