The Indie Informer

Dressmaker, Grave Seasons, Infinity Nikki

For all the changes I’ve seen over the years, the video game industry is still a difficult space to exist in as a woman. When I was young — and I mean so young I didn’t even realize games were made by people, let alone that they had a deep undercurrent of gender politics — I loved games like Dressmaker. I grew up in a house full of girls. Being feminine and intelligent, being girly and consequential, didn’t become contradictory until much later in my life. The creativity inherent in stitching together art from pieces of cloth, of architecting an evening’s happiness from fabric, was celebrated. My mother was an excellent seamstress (who probably hoped I’d gain much more talent in the area). Even my father knew how to construct a fanciful creation with thread — mostly he used this around Halloween to fabricate pumpkin-headed doormen to scare the neighborhood. A few decades ago, the news of Dressmaker’s upcoming release would have dominated my everyday discussions.

Watching Dressmaker’s debut in the Wholesome Direct 2026, I was transported back to that time. And though I instantly clocked it as a game I’m looking forward to, I found little opportunity to express my interest when I arrived in LA for Summer Game Fest. The event was as lively and full of friends as ever, but domestic coziness tends not to feature in our critical chats about gaming trends. Whether that’s because of my learned reticence to dive into the subject or gaming’s long history of preferring other subject matter is a matter of debate.

It didn’t help that, seemingly, this year those friends skewed male more than ever. I’m not sure I would have even taken much notice of it — so common is it to find myself the only woman in the room — if not for my fellow Indie Council member, Janet Garcia, posting an illuminating message shining a light on it. There’s some practical reason for that: Games journalism has been decimated. Full-time jobs writing about games are rare, and those that do exist are often precarious at best. One side effect of this is many of my colleagues, especially female colleagues, have found themselves out of work.

Unconsciously, this environment places me back in the days when I wanted so much to be an accepted “real gamer.” I spent a lot of my adolescence proving my knowledge and skill, which required investing in “real games.” Gone were my childhood games, brushing exquisitely bedecked horses or matching the perfect shoes to a stylish, but not overworked, top. I only had eyes for savage action titles with dramatic stories, revenge arcs, and power fantasies. Not that there’s anything wrong with those — I still like ripping a minion apart with my bear hands well enough. The problem stems from worrying I wouldn’t be taken seriously — that the good opinion required to be invited to major gaming events or maintain a readership — if I placed both types of games on equal footing.

I have previously tackled, to some degree, how indies-as-counterculture created space to be both a real gamer and excited to tailor-make a stunning gown. I wrote a feature coming out of last year’s summer festivities for Game Informer centered around the perception and definition of cozy gaming. The idea sparked from several games at the event taking the cozy genre into a much darker place, especially Grave Seasons, which was a major star of last year’s Summer Game Fest. Grave Seasons developer Son M. and I chatted for much longer than the article demanded about femininity and gaming culture. We talked about how that intersection shaped cozy gaming’s past and future, and why both comforting and creepy themes in cozy gaming can be viewed as different sides to the same coin. Not nearly enough of it made it into the (already beefy) article. But it was a true joy to chat with someone who understood and related to so many of my lived experiences.

Not that like-minded means having to be identical. Long-time games journalist Giovanni Colantonio and I have our differences in taste (especially concerning a game full of secrets and a little fox). However, he wrote an insightful take on games made for the female gaze last year starring Infinity Nikki. Here is his introduction:

I recommend taking the time to read the entire article, which I’ve linked to above. When I first did, I was moved seeing the topic treated with such weight. I realized the feeling came from how unusual it is to see femininity celebrated in the hobby I love. Which brings me back to the mix of emotions I wrestled with on seeing Dressmaker.

Dressmaker looks amazing, and I want to be able to shout that out as much as I can about the resounding art of Bub — one of Summer Game Fests’ brightest demos. I want my readers, fellow journalists, and friends to be able to do that as well and not feel concerned their enthusiasm will be dismissed or that it might diminish their respectability. Whether or not that’s possible, I don’t know. But I’ll be looking forward to crafting showstopping garments come September.