Dress To Impress, a game on Roblox with 2.2 billion visits and over 300,000 active players daily, has seen a steep rise in player numbers ever since its virality on TikTok. The game works like this: players get a theme, and are supposed to make an outfit matching the theme within five and a half minutes. After that, each player rates each other out of five stars, with the players winning the most stars placing first, second, and third on the podium. What at first seems to be quite a daunting task turns into competitive fun, where everyone battles to see who can make a better Ronald McDonald or Wendy when the theme is “Fast Food Mascot.”
But what got this game to its prime? The answer lies in a plethora of factors contributing to its steady player uptick; the first being the character design aspect of the game. In comparison to other games on Roblox, Dress to Impress has a unique game design, with 3D patterns and shapes, as well as realistic body movements and various clothing styles. For example, if the theme was “Winter,” a player could pick out a sweater and apply a 3D cable knit pattern to it. The amount of freehand customization that is at one’s hands during the game is endless.
Nat Van Roodselaar, senior at Monte Vista who plays the game at least once a week with friends, claims that, “I think it became popular because TikTok focuses a lot on fashion [trends] and style, and puts a big emphasis on individuality but also trends so [the game] allows people to show off their creativity in regards to that.”
Gigi, the 17-year-old developer of the game, has confirmed that the game is inspired by 2000s fashion and supermodels as well as Y2K trends, as seen in the clothing as well as the models’ body shape. When asked whether the return to 2000s and Y2K fashion in recent years has contributed to its popularity on TikTok, Roodselaar agreed, saying, “Definitely, and I also think it’s true vice versa; TikTok fashion is very popular on Dress to Impress because of this 2000s theme, they tie into one another. TikTok popularized Y2K and thus popularized Dress to Impress.”
The second factor contributing to an increase in players is the amount of competition and favoritism that occurs in the voting aspect of the game. Many friends play the game with each other on the same server, allowing for a biased voting system, where more than half of those on the server are guaranteed five stars. In order to “break the system,” many players have to come up with unique and creative ideas for their outfits, such as Te Fiti from Moana for the Earth theme, or Princess Leia for Sci-Fi.
“It’s strange but I think that the very young user base and social media ties make it so competitive that it actually takes away from the competition aspect,” Van Roodselaar said. “At this point, I play it for the sake of creation not competition.”
Another factor is the boost and ratings it’s received ever since players started streaming and making TikToks about the game. One search on TikTok of “DTI” brings you to various videos referring to the game such as outfit layering hacks, users complaining about the rigged voting system, and hidden codes to unlock free outfits.
Many players, like van Roodselaar and even myself have noticed that the competition aspect of the game has been taken away because of the voting system.
“I think for many people, they still aim to win, and it helps them push themselves to create more, but also on a more practical level, they know it’s not super likely [to win] because of the sheer amount of bias.” van Roodselaar said. On TikTok, it’s become a trend for users to give people a 2-star rating if they like the outfit because they themselves want to win.
The influx of the younger generation playing the game as well has greatly contributed to the unfair voting systems. Reya Kuchhal, senior at Monte Vista who claims she plays the game whenever she’s in the mood to argue with little kids, agrees that there has been a great influx in Gen Alpha players especially, but has a more optimistic view of it: “I think the kids are what are adding to the game since they bring in fresh new perspectives on their interpretations of the theme.”
To add to the competition angle, there are ranks according to how many stars you have, such as “New Model” for 0-49 stars, and with the highest rank being “Top Model” with 25,000+ stars. Many try to play often to get 3000+ stars to play in professional servers, which allow for less rigged voting and more competition, where you play with other users who have the same amount of stars or more than and are likely skilled players. Another aspect of Dress to Impress that adds to the competition are those who have reached VIP status. The VIP status adds an exclusive closet that you have access to for $10, which differentiates the VIP players from the non-VIP players. From flowy, more trendy dresses and skirts to boots and scarves of every kind in the VIP section, non-VIP players find themselves scrambling through the regular closet to try and outdo the several hundred outfits VIP players have access to.
But what the real question is, will Dress To Impress stay popular? Will it become a classic household game such as Minecraft or Fortnite? Kuchhal brought in an interesting point, “I think Dress To Impress is here to stay but there’s definitely going to be a game that releases in the future that will be similar but better and improved.” Van Roodselaar somewhat agrees, “I think the frenzy will die down for sure, but the upcoming Halloween update will boost it back up a bit like with the Charli XCX Brat update.” Van Roodselaar referenced the Brat update that the game had where users got multiple new outfits and hairstyles resembling XCX’s fashion, and the background music changed to the Brat album. The game has also recently won multiple nominations and accolades at the Roblox Awards, with the Roblox CEO deeming it the “most innovative game of its time” as it won the Innovative Award.
