4 Great Textiles Craft Video Games

I am a lover of crafts, a purveyor of craft tools and technique and a collector of craft materials. For years I taught Textiles and Fashion Design as I wanted to share and grow my passion. In addition to my adoration for crafts I also love video games, especially games that allow me to create and craft using textile techniques, I’m particularly fond of simulation games.

In crafting in games I enjoy the process; the step by step journey I must go on in order to create something bring me great joy. The textiles nerd in me is particularly attracted to games where there is a recognisable abstraction of actual real life techniques. There are many games I am yet to play and after I have played them this list may change.

So here are 4 great textile related games some for their conceptualisation, their print making, their information resource inclusion or technical exploration.

(I would love to hear recommendations)

4. Creativas™ Fashion Design Game (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch + printer)

Sometime conceptualising an idea can be very helpful and in the early days when my drawing skill were still developing or when I needed to prototype a range of ideas quickly to compare them games like this one were amazingly useful. This game takes lots of concepts from those older dress up games but put a modern twist on it and include an aspect of hand drawing and colouring which I feel is important. Knowing how to do things by hand before doing them digitally provide a sense of freedom from the limitations that computer programs can put upon a designer. Although you are confined to colour within the lines there is a great sense of freedom and a lack of judgement; you are the designer and your style is valid and fantastic

This game I think is a good way of fostering and encouraging a fostered interest in fashion it doesn’t really explore materials but it deeply explored pattern, prints and visualisation of garments on a body. This video by GamePlayBox summarise the concept and the required equipment of this game.

3. Animal Crossing (DS)

Another games that allowed you to conceptualise ideas. Though you were confined to a square and the use of pixels the colours and designs you wished to use were up to you. I enjoyed to manipulate the perception of the clothing by using skin tone shapes to represent cut outs and neck lines. They have since updated this element of the game to make it look 3D as you are creating clothes but it was this original version that I really enjoyed the most as it taught you about considering the translation from 2D to 3D without being able to see the end product until you were finished which is a part of fashion design.

Though this was a small aspect of the game for me it was all about making the the limitations work for me. I also very much liked the feature of being able to sell your fashions and see your neighbours wearing them. You could get quite detailed as this video from ACWW Ayako tries to shows.

2.TOWNSHIP (Android)

In the Android game Township there is a textiles factory that you can place within the town that you are creating and managing. If you enjoy simulation games like modern Simcity then I recommend checking it out.

The textiles factory is only a small part of this game but it is interesting to me as it not only explores a small range of different textiles that can be harvested from the textiles factory but also defines in images and text the fibre sources.This video, by TownshipDotCom give an overview of the of the textile factory at 1:08–1:54.

1. Stardew Valley (PS4/Windows)

If you enjoyed the first Harvest Moons and have not had a chance to play this game yet then I highly recommend that you give it a go when you have to time.

The part about this game that particularly gave me a craft joy was the making of the fabric. You have to get the raw material, the animal fleece, by shearing the appropriate animals, sheep or rabbits, and put it in the to make fabric. Though the process is simplified it heralds to the techniques and is a beautiful representation of the technique within the game. I also like that after the fabric is made though you can sell it it also has other uses such as a building material and as a resource for sewing using a sewing machine.

This game is already one of my favourites but these features just add to it and build my respect and adoration for this game even higher. This video by HodgePodge gives a really lovely overview of the sewing machine within the game.