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Fashion game

Fashion, also known as Dress-up, is a subgenre of simulation games focused on clothing, accessories, and other aspects of fashion. Players can design and customize outfits for their character, often portrayed using an electronic paper doll, using clothing that they have acquired.

Fashion games are traditionally marketed to the demographic of young girls. As a result, they have historically been given little coverage in gaming media. However, many games within the genre have experienced financial success and earned praise for their quality and mechanics.

Gameplay
At their most basic, fashion games allow players to dress their player character using various pieces of clothing, accessories, and props. This is often done using a paper doll interface, where a basic character model is overlaid with sprites representing the different items. Some games allow for free placement of items, while others may have predefined locations for specific clothing categories (such as shoes or pants). In some games, particularly ones featuring 3D character models, the character may be posed or animated in the outfit.

Emphasis is often placed on creativity, and players are encouraged to share their work with others. In some games, facilities within the program allow players to directly share their creations with others on the platform, while other games may only allow sharing through a third-party service (such as social media).

The manner of acquiring clothing can differ greatly between fashion games. In basic games, particularly browser based ones, the player may be given immediate access to all items from the beginning. However, in other games the player may only have access to a subset of the game's clothing items and must unlock additional items through gameplay. The gameplay to unlock items often blends aspects of other game genres, such as role-playing or business simulation, and a single game may feature multiple means of acquiring items.

While not present in all games, many offer the opportunity to customize individual items with different colors or patterns. The available customizations may be limited to certain items, or they may be available for all items to various degrees. Additionally, the level of control given to the player may be limited to only one or two color options for a given piece or it may allow the player to select any color from a wide palette.

Fashion gameplay in other genres
Gameplay elements of fashion games may be used in other genres as well. One of the most notable examples is the use of a paper doll interface for equipment in role-playing video games. The paper dolls in these games may be very diagrammatic, showing only icons for pieces of equipment in different item slots, or they may be more visually representative of the character, with the items being shown directly on the character. Additionally, games may or may not show the equipment on the character during gameplay.

Character customization interfaces also have similarities to fashion games, especially when they allow the player to select different items of clothing that their character may wear.

Massively multiplayer games often exhibit fashion as an emergent gameplay element, which can receive direct support from developers over time. For example, World of Warcraft allows players to equip items on their character that provide a mechanical advantage, but also appear as visible items on the players avatar. Some players would select equipment based on aesthetics, as opposed to mechanical advantage, especially for the purpose of roleplay. Blizzard eventually supported this sort of gameplay with the introduction of transmogrification, which let players change the appearance of an item such that the item would maintain its gameplay benefits while having the appearance of a different item the player had acquired. World of Warcraft later introduced the Trial of Style as a bi-annual in-game event, where players would directly compete to design outfits according to a theme.

History
Dress-up games first appeared in the early 1980's with the advent of home game consoles and personal computers. Strawberry Shortcake Musical Match-Ups, released in 1983 for the Atari 2600, may be considered an early precursor to the genre. In this game, characters from the show Strawberry Shortcake are scrambled such that their head, body, and legs can be freely swapped. The player is tasked with arranging the appropriate body parts together before time runs out. However, the player may also choose to freely assemble parts from different characters to create their own original designs.

The first clear example of a dress-up game was Barbie for the Commodore 64, released in 1984. In this game, Barbie receives phone calls from Ken inviting her to different activities, she then goes to various stores where the player can select and recolor items appropriate for the activity. This was the first video game to feature Barbie, who would continue to be pivotal in the game genre going forward.

Barbie Fashion Designer, released in 1996, has been cited as the first commercially successful fashion game. The game allowed players to design outfits for Barbie, including selecting patterns and colors for each piece of clothing. Notably, the game also allowed players to print their creations onto fabric paper, with instructions on how to cut and shape them to be used as clothes on Barbie dolls. The game was a great commercial success, selling over 600,000 copies. This success was partly credited to the game's marketing, being sold in stores with toys as opposed to electronics.

Barbie Fashion Pack Games and Rugrats Totally Angelica both started with limited wardrobes, with additional items being given out as rewards for completing mini-games.

Dress-up games were a popular genre for browser based games, which started to rise in popularity in the early-to-mid 2000's. [Find examples]

My Fashion Designer Fashion Designer Style Icon

Fashion games released on the Nintendo DS line of consoles included several additions to the formula. Notably, games like Style Savvy placed the player in the role of fashion designer, and added business simulation aspects which also functioned as a means of unlocking new clothing. Other games, such as Ubisoft's My Fashion Designer utilized the touchscreen for tailoring mini-games, where the player could cut and sew clothes from different fabrics.

girl focused Imagine series of games included several fashion games, such as Imagine: Fashion Designer, released in 2007.

[Social network games]

[Mobile games]

Criticism
Fashion games have been the subject of scrutiny, for the content, the influence it can have on developing children, and a perceived lack of quality in the games themselves.

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