Shantell and I made Makelle a dress-up game for her birthday. It is called Makelle’s Costume Closet, and there are quite a few interesting combinations to try. Making something for a niece is a good excuse to be a little silly.
The game itself is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Instead of drawing every outfit onto a canvas, I stack image layers for the character, clothes, hats, props, and background. The thumbnail pickers come from arrays, and clicking one changes the background image on the appropriate layer. Preloading the pictures helps keep outfit changes from waiting on a download.
There is even a special combination that turns into Super Jaron. Shantell’s artwork is what makes all the layers worth clicking through. The little Flash music player is separate from the dress-up part; the actual costume-changing game is running right in the page.