3 Months of Restoration — The Journey So Far
It’s been three busy (and incredibly rewarding) months since I began development on Restoration Simulator, a PC game about finding discarded, damaged items and restoring them piece by piece. The idea is simple — take forgotten objects, clean them, repair them, and bring them back to life — but making it all work in Unity has been anything but simple!
Finding My Footing
The journey started when I was watching yet another Restoration video on YouTube of someone sandblasting and repainting an old vintage toy, and I thought, ''This should be a game". I had just finished work on my last commercial project, and with the games industry experiencing massive layoffs worldwide, I thought that it was as good a time as ever to start my own solo project. I picked up the How to Market a Game course and began taking serious notes on how to build not just a game, but an audience. Around the same time, I started exploring funding opportunities and working on an application — including a prototype video and a full pitch deck.
To show off what Restoration Simulator could be, I built the first playable prototype in Unity. I initially tried using the Opsive Character Controller but found it too restrictive and difficult to use for the hands-on, tactile feel I wanted. So I decided to create my own custom Kinnematic Controller, blending features from Unity’s Third Person Controller and the Kinematic Character Controller. That flexibility would prove essential for the game’s unique interaction system. By the end of the month, I’d submitted my grant application, designed a logo for my new studio, Cerberus Bytes, launched a website, and even created a few pieces of merch to celebrate the milestone.
Building the Core Interactions
With the groundwork set, I turned to the heart of the game — the interactions. I wanted players to be able to pick up, examine, and take apart every item they find. Using the First Person Exploration Kit as a base, I began heavily refactoring its systems. The challenge? The kit was designed for simple one-component interactions, but Restoration Simulator requires multiple components per object — for example, a screw that can first be unscrewed, then picked up, then reattached later. The solution came through a major refactor. I introduced an Interaction Manager and a consistent interface system that lets each component handle its own state. This removed layers of clunky switch statements and made the whole system cleaner, more modular, and easier to expand.
Screws, Parts, and Progress
Once the core system was stable, I moved on to the details — literally. Screws became the first test of the assembly and disassembly system. Players could now unscrew screws holding objects together, watch them neatly align on the workbench, and (of course) lose them if they weren’t careful.
The HUD system also got an upgrade to handle contextual tooltips like “Press A to interact” or “You need two hands for this”, improving player feedback.
Then came tools. Screws could only be removed with a screwdriver — the right tool for the right job. Try to do it by hand, and you’ll get a little wiggle animation as feedback. I also added a secondary action for tightening screws back into place, and refactored the input system to work with Unity’s New Input System, maintaining backwards compatibility with the original FPE kit through a custom Input Adapter.
A More Immersive World
With systems coming together, I started adding polish. The highlight system was rebuilt to make sure objects only became interactable when they should — for instance, screws only highlight when you’re holding a screwdriver. I implemented part dependencies, so you need to remove screws before you can lift off a panel.
Around this time, it was Melbourne International Games Week, including GCAP, the AGDA Awards, and PAX Australia. It was incredible to meet other indie devs at PAX and see the industry’s energy in person. The previous project I worked on, Nyiyaparli Widi, was nominated for two AGDA awards — a nice morale boost amid long days of debugging screw logic!
Wrapping Up the First Chapter
Most recently, I created the first fully-restorable object — an old CRT TV. You can pick it up, examine it, remove its screws, take off the panels, and drop parts naturally onto the ground if you’re too far from the workbench. I also fixed a bunch of bugs (like items clipping through walls) and improved the feel of interacting with the world.
The first three months have been all about building solid foundations — systems, tools, and workflows — that will support everything to come. The road ahead involves expanding the types of items, introducing cleaning and repair mechanics, and refining the feel of every interaction.
There’s a lot more to build, but I’m thrilled with how far Restoration Simulator has come already. Stay tuned, sign up for the mailing list! — next update, I’ll be sharing progress on the repair tools, the new object cleaning system, and maybe even a peek at some shiny restored treasures.