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| What Happened to All the Old Dress Up Game Websites? |
Feeling nostalgic? Let's rewind from Flash glory days to today's treasures.
Flash Shutdown - The Great Disappearance
Most classic dress up sites (Rinmaru Games, CartoonDollEmporium, DressUpWho, Roiworld) vanished when Adobe killed Flash support at the end of 2020. Thousands of browser‑based games simply vanished overnight, even though some are still playable via emulators or preservation tools like Flashpoint.
Rinmaru Games
This beloved anime dress up sanctuary went dark after Flash died, but the creator didn't vanish. Rinmaru formed LarkyLabs where she publishes high quality visual novels. Rinmaru entrusted Doll Divine to be the official keeper of her old dress up games and you can play nearly all the Rinmaru Flash Games here
Stardoll
Stardoll began in 2004 as PaperDoll Heaven, a hobby project by Finnish artist Liisa Wrang who hand-drew digital paper dolls. It quickly gained popularity and was rebranded in 2005 as Stardoll under CEO Mattias Miksche. The company launched officially in 2006 and raised over $10 million in venture funding from Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital, scaling it into a major online fashion and social platform for teens. In 2009, Stardoll merged with teen social network Piczo, expanding its operations, and later partnered with Mattel to launch a “Stardoll by Barbie” doll line in 2011. By 2016, Miksche bought out investors and restructured the business as Glorious Games Group AB, launching spin-off mobile apps like Stardoll Stylista and Clique. Today, Stardoll is still online but operates in a low-maintenance state, requiring a downloadable launcher due to the end of Flash support; users report slow performance, minimal updates, and technical issues, though occasional fashion drops, such as a May 2025 Lookbook, suggest the platform is not entirely abandoned. Overall, Stardoll remains a nostalgic, semi-functional legacy platform with a small but dedicated user base, showing few signs of revitalization.
DressUpWho
DressUpWho was founded by Aaron Wong (yes, a dude!), likely around the late 2000s. The site became a popular hub for kids and teens, offering countless themed dress up and makeover games, spanning celebrity looks, anime styles, character creators, and more. A few years ago, Wong sold the website, but it’s remained active and continues to serve Flash-era and HTML5 games alike. While it doesn’t appear to have undergone major brand changes, ownership has shifted from a one-person passion project to a professionally maintained gaming portal that’s still going strong into the 2020s.
CartoonDollEmporium
Cartoon Doll Emporium, founded around 2005 by entrepreneur Evan Bailyn in New York, grew from a Craigslist-assembled art team into a massive kids’ fashion and social platform, reportedly attracting over 70 million visitors annually at its peak. The site featured forums, virtual currency, daily style contests, and even celebrity voiceovers. In 2009, after legal threats from the RIAA and rising costs for moderation and child safety compliance, Bailyn sold the site to a New York-based entertainment firm. While the final price wasn’t officially disclosed, industry chatter places the sale between $5-6 million, making it one of the most notable exits in the dress up game world. The platform continued for a few more years under new ownership, but eventually shut down in 2015. Today, CDE lives on only through archives, Flashpoint, and the fond memories of users who grew up with its virtual closets and sparkly aesthetic.
Roiworld
Roiworld was a hugely popular South Korean dress‑up and casual gaming site, drawing around 2.8 million monthly uniques and over 117 million page views by late 2008. Recognizing its potential, US cable‐network Lifetime Networks acquired Roiworld in late 2008 (alongside plans to expand the brand into a dedicated Lifetime Game Studio in Seoul and launch a U.S. version under fashiongames.mylifetime.com). Despite initial success in the U.S., the Korean version eventually required local IDs and the international site wound down under Lifetime's ownership. Today, most of the classic Roiworld flash games survive only through fan‑run archives and preservation efforts.
Missangest → PastelKatto
MissAngest was a small indie maker known for whimsical dress ups. She later rebranded to PastelKatto and has since moved on from games altogether, into art prints and illustration outside traditional dress up websites.
DressUpGames.com
Launched back in the Flash era, this domain still lives and breathes, now filled with modern HTML5 dress up content. The site is run by a single female developer based in Iceland! It's proof that the genre can evolve and survive beyond Flash.
Preserving the Past
Emulation tools like Flashpoint and Ruffle still let us play many forgotten gems. Even Reddit nostalgia communities are actively archiving old creator sites and “OGs” like DollzMania, GaiaOnline, TekTek, BannedStory, PoupéeGirl and MyScene.
Why Some Sites Linger
• Sites like Doll Divine and DressUpGames.com are run by female indie developers who genuinely LOVE the genre! We keep going because this is our passion in life
• Dress ups have been popular in some form for thousands of years, and this is unlikely to change any time soon
• Fan mail and shares from dedicated fans like YOU help keep us going! ^_^
In short: Flash died, but the genre didn't. Some big players rebuilt, others rebranded or moved on, and plenty of creators found new homes or audiences. Meanwhile, preservation tools made sure nostalgia lives on.
~OLa
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