Kicking off October and to add to the hype of the Costume Jam, I reached out to prominent independent developers in the world of dress-up games, to ask each a few questions about the genre and the part they've played in it. The very first response came from the artist and programmer behind Pastelkatto Games, previously known as Missangest Games. Pastelkatto's enchanting creations are celebrated for their boundless imagination, fantastical themes, and unwavering commitment to embracing diverse body types and abilities.
Some of Pastelkatto's classic Flash games are still playable on Candy's World; however, she is also on a mission to resurrect these gems, breathing new life into them by converting them to HTML5 so they can once again be made accessible directly on their website.
Enjoy this interview series as an exploration of the dress-up game genre as a whole and the unique role that each developer plays within it. Let's dive into the magic!
When and where did you get your start making dress-up games? How do those origins compare to how dress-up games are now?
Honestly I can't quite remember when I started, it must have been around 2011 when I started playing around with Adobe Flash. It started as fan art games just for fun but I ended up getting contacted by another dress up game developer that told me that I could start earning money from them and from there I started making them a little more seriously. I find that these days it's significantly harder to get into dress-up game development. Back then there was a lot of tutorials on deviantart that made it super easy for just about anyone to to them and thanks to that we had a wide variety of dress up games as far as both themes and art styles goes. While we have meiker and picrew to help people dabble into dress up game development, we still mostly have companies or a few indie devs making games and personally I quite miss the old passion projects.
What do you consider to be your specialty as a creator and curator of dress-up games?
I try my best to offer as many customization options as possible in my games. Sadly I've had to reduce the amount of options to be able to produce games faster, but I always try my best to provide big games with a higher replay value. I tend to value the same when I look for games to publish on my website, sometimes I will make exceptions if the art style looks really neat.
You’ve been at this for long enough that this is a full-time job. What does a typical work day look like for you?
Sadly at this point it no longer is. Revenues have been rough the past year and I'm currently studying full time instead and squeeze in game development whenever I have some time to spare. However back when it was my full time job I'd treat it as any other 9-5 job, starting in the morning and keep going at it until evening. I'd alternate between drawing the graphics, assembling the assets and writing code so I wouldn't sit and do the same thing for hours, I've found it helped me to stay focused for longer.
This may be a touchy question, but what relationship have you had with your player base or users?
I have some of my users hanging in my discord group where we chat like friends, otherwise it's mostly communication through the comment section on the website or feedback by email. I also offer some perks for my patreon supporters such as being able to submit themes and even individual items in the games, I love being able to involve supporters in the proccess! Admittedly when I started out I had a hard time taking criticism but these days I see it as the valuable feedback it can be.
Where do you think the genre is going in the future? What would you personally like to see more of?
That's a good question. Lately I've been thinking of the rise in AI. Will people start using AI to generate images instead of dress up games? Maybe some will, but it's quite a different experience than playing a dress up game so I hope that these games will stay strong. Looking back at the origins of dress up games which I believe would be the old school paper dolls, this concept has been around for a long time and simply evolves with the times. We simply have to be prepared to change with it just like we had to when flash went down and we all had to find alternative routes forward. As mentioned before, I love the passion projects. I love that meiker has made it easier for beginners to get into it and I hope to see more indie devs in the future providing unique experiences!
You've been hard at work reviving old games while making others with new themes. I absolutely love some of the recent niches you've filled, like Space Nobility and Space Western, and I'm so happy to see the superhero one back! Is there any revival or game topic in particular that you're really hoping to get done at some point?
I let my patrons submit and vote for the new game themes so it's largely thanks to them that I go for these themes! The last voting period there was actually a theme that came at a solid second place and I hope will be voted top in the future, it was cyberpunk! There's also a couple of games I've done a long time ago that I'd love to completely redo, like the ghost creator and demon creator!
The next interview will hopefully be released next weekend! Follow me to be notified of when I post!
-Theta