Kittycat Couture is the dress-up game my inner child (and my actual child) needed

As a kid, I used to love making and playing with dress-up paper dolls. You know the ones: their clothes had folding tabs that helped them stay on the body, and you could mix and match accessories to your heart's content. My daughter seems to have inherited this hobby, so when I first saw Kittycat Couture, I knew exactly what I had to do. 

Kittycat Couture is a feline-themed dress-up game by Goblincat that takes all of the good bits from popular games of the genre like Love Nikki, then throws in some cats and a ton of charm.  If you've ever played a Nikki game and wished you could pay more attention to Momo's attire, then this is the game for you. 

Pokémon who?

Considering our apparently hereditary enjoyment of dress-up games, my daughter was the first person who came to mind when I saw Kittycat Couture for the first time. There was a huge part of me that wanted to dive right in, but I also knew that if I told her I'd played without her, I would never hear the end of it. 

And I was absolutely right.

Picture the scene: my six-year-old daughter enters the house after a night away and runs for the Switch to continue her game of Pokémon FireRed. Meanwhile, I'm loading up Kittycat Couture quietly in the background. Then she spots it…

I don't think I've ever known her to so willingly put the Switch back in its dock and jump into my lap to snatch control of the mouse. 

Money comes, money goes

Kittycat Couture is everything you're probably thinking it is. You meet a selection of cats with outfit requests, dress them the way they want, and earn currency to spend on new outfits or clothing items. As you can likely imagine, my daughter spent her buttons, sequins, and glass as quickly as she earned them. Have you ever tried to teach a six-year-old the value of money? It's not easy!

Still, your earnings don't just buy you new items to dress feline customers, although there is a very long list of clothing and accessories to purchase even in the demo. You can also use your earnings to unlock new shops, You can also use your earnings to unlock new shops, with four of the planned 11 available in the demo. One of those is the delightfully gothic Vampire Feast, which sells all manner of dark and eccentric pieces and made me very happy.

She had to tell me to stop spending her money there. Not my proudest moment, admittedly.

With all of your newly acquired items, you open up a whole new world of themed outfits for customers. Using items purchased from a particular shop also increases your reputation with that shop, unlocking even more outfits. However, perhaps most importantly, you can also use them to design your own avatar, which is what the majority of our mother-daughter gameplay time was dedicated to. 

Fashion week, here we come

I think I'd be in trouble if I wrote this article and didn't share some of my daughter's designs with you. She is extremely proud of them, and frankly, I'm proud of her… well, let's just call it “wild creativity” and leave it at that. 

I've collated some of her designs below, and if that doesn't win me some Best Mum Ever™ points, then I'm fighting a losing battle here. 

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The thing is, at least during our extensive experience with the Kittycat Couture demo so far, the customers are the least argumentative you could possibly imagine. One wanted a nice, simple outfit for their first day as a teacher, and my daughter dressed her up as a goth mermaid with added cottagecore accessories. The customer loved it! 

My daughter explained the logic behind her process as “maybe something that will make the kids laugh because then the kids won't be scared?” Honestly, if that's not a stroke of genius that only a six-year-old could provide, I don't know what is. 

I think I'd be pretty freaked out if my teacher for the year appeared with red wings and tentacles, but I'm old, so what would I know? 

Like mother, like daughter 

The fashion world is always moving forward, even when the fashion is for cats and designed by the questionable mind of a six-year-old with too much choice. I have to admit that I'm glad the demo of Kittycat Couture is so extensive, because I already know I'm going to have to give up control of my laptop so she can play a lot more.

And as much as it may sound like I'm complaining, I'm really not. I love that she has inherited a love for the same things I loved when I was her age. I also love that games such as Kittycat Couture allow us to play them together in a way that brings her into the indie gaming world, which has become increasingly important to me. We're bonding over a hobby that's not only withstood the test of time, but also been given a glorious upgrade in a virtual space. 

Plus, watching her expertly handle the mouse and figure out what button does what gives me hope that she will grow up fluent in the language of computers, which is hardly going to be a bad skill to have. Between her mouse handling and how easily she's already taken to typing, I reckon she'll be just fine, and the cats are helping to guide her technological education. 

Kittycat Couture is still in development, and my daughter and I are among the many fans excited to see what else is added before the full game is released. The demo is available to play right now on Steam, and it's definitely worth playing if you're looking for something cozy, creative, and relaxing. Just be prepared to lose control of your mouse if there happens to be a six-year-old nearby.