March was full of even more progress from our small team of hobbyists, and we're excited to show you some highlights of what we've been up to!
Read on to see how we're shaping Stuffy's world...
Shape Tool Featurette Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blfAG_bsGNs
In mid-late March, we shared the first video in our new promotional 'featurette' video collection. These are intended as short videos focused on specific game features, including level editor tools, gameplay, and customization.
This particular video covers the level editor's Shape Tool feature... A powerful tool that lets you create, move, or delete vertex nodes on a brushed Building Material. With it, you can reshape platforms for gameplay, scenery, or smooth surfaces such as slopes!
Key Art Update
Restitched? Refreshed! ...Check out our newest Key Art update, featuring the latest version of Stuffy's character model, better lighting, and their signature "Needle 'n Thread".
You can also check out the full post with more details, exclusive for trixel+ members: https://www.patreon.com/posts/restitched-2026-153905974
Restitched: Official Wardrobe Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoXH1_Vgt-k
The Restitched Wardrobe is a fully-fledged game mode, offering tons of customization fun!
Style your Stuffy with head-to-toe cosmetics across various categories, then decorate them with loads of stampable graphics!
In the Wardrobe, you can also choose your own menu colors, emotes, and publish, browse, or download custom outfits from an integrated Steam Workshop menu... Sharing is caring!
Steam Achievements
We've been setting up some back-end achievement data on Steam! We have loads of ideas for them, and our coder Josh has already started implementing a couple to work in-game while Halston designs the icons and adds more back-end listings and code strings.
You can see a preview of them here:
Joints Refactor
Now that Linus has prototyped a very handy Joints system, it's time to revisit it and get it up to par with our other game systems. It's important for all features (especially core gameplay ones like these) to follow the project's specific coding standards and patterns.
With advice from our Lead Coder, Raphael, we have a better idea of how to refactor the Joints system. If you're interested in the technical details, check out the snippet of their discussion here:
Multiplayer Lobby/Party Support
Don't let the title fool you! We're still not quite there with working online multiplayer yet. However, we've been setting up the menus and general framework to support its continued development later this year.
Jake has updated the main menu to include a semi-functional 'Party' section. This area shows its own set of options for creating a party, matchmaking, inviting, managing players, etc.
It does, in fact, create a Steam lobby ID to invite friends to!
Connecting an extra input will also spawn a local player into the Party slot. When multiplayer is set up on a game-wide level, those players should also appear here when in your session.
Not quite related to the party menu, but we've also discovered that local co-op support already works in the Story Map mode. This is because the story map is technically a modified version of a traditional level!
Main Cursor Refactor
The primary select cursor in the level editor has continued its refactoring thanks to Raphael's coding! It now supports cleaner code, separate scripts for subclasses, and improved object manipulation and transaction tracking.
This means it's now more stable, easier to maintain, and paves the way for future work in this area. The reason behind this refactor was driven by the need for logic selection.
The code for calculating multi-select rotation and scaling has also been fixed, so the rotation of multiple objects will now create a new pivot point and bounding box based on the average center of all objects in the group.
Stamp Snipper Tool
Rather than drawing around Stamps yourself by dragging nodes, we've been prototyping a new tool to cut out the graphics. We call it the "Stamp Snipper"!
As we expected, it's been riddled with headaches. We originally tried this once before, many years ago, and to no avail. Luckily, Restitched is a very different game today, so now it's mostly possible!
This tool still has lots of quirks. For instance, some Stamps don't cut out at all, or they leave tiny fragments instead. We notice the issue most often with transparency, thin lines, and complex graphics.
Regardless of edge case issues, this is still a useful tool to speed up creation! We hope to see it refined and in the final game. <3
Skipping Custom Craftbook Icons
We use a photography tool to spawn and capture icons for each Craftbook asset within certain categories. However, some Building Materials use custom shaders that don't play nicely with the photography tool. An easy solution to this is to assign a custom image for that asset, then have our photography tool skip it when generating and importing icons.
Stamp Limit UI
During playtesting, one of the most requested 'quality of life' features was to have a Stamp limit indicator in the Wardrobe. Players felt the Stamp limit pop-up could be a bit of a jumpscare at times!
Now, you should be able to plan designs a bit easier by looking at the Stamp Limit bar.
This piece of UI only appears when you're:
Placing a Stamp on any Cosmetic
Hovering a Cosmetic with the Stamp Cursor tool active
Hovering a Cosmetic with the Wash Tool active
Publish and Save Effects
A neat feature we edited into the Wardrobe trailer was a camera flash when saving outfits, and a spinning flare effect when in the Publish menu.
We liked it so much that we added them to the game itself as a bit of UI polish!
Cosmetics
Honey Bottle Lid + Skin
Halston and Issac had a cute idea to make Stuffy into a bottle of honey, just like the bear-shaped ones you see in the supermarket!
Gameplay Objects
Rocket Thruster
Originally using a basic placeholder model to test out the scripting and gameplay, the Rocket Thruster object now has a proper model thanks to our artist, Santiago.
The thruster also propels things away when they're in its blast radius!
TNT Explosive
From concept to model to in-game! This is intended to become a primary explosive type in the game, detonated by slashing or input. Concept by Daniel and model by Santiago.
Props/Ornaments
Scissors and Keypad
In addition to updating the Ornament placement code, we've also imported new assets that are ornament-only. Here are a couple of them:
Joints Visuals
More work has gone into setting up standard Joint visuals, including models and their rotation effects.
Polishing Generated Icons
We've gone into our photography code and scenes to update them with better visuals. Now, captured icons will apply screen-based processing effects like Ambient Occlusion (AO), anti-aliasing, and Global Illumination. We've also added and adjusted the lighting settings.
These changes were simple, but have given Cosmetic and Building Material icons a fresh new look with better shading/lighting and clearer details!
Emote Icons
Our artist Daniel has been exploring the look of emote icons. We want these to be illustrated examples of what the animation represents.
Music Icons
Our artist, Carter, has been working on more thumbnail designs for our growing library of music tracks! These are simple illustrations to represent each music asset.
Needle 'n Thread Indicator
The pop-up indicators for threadable objects have been improved, both visually and programmatically! It now smoothly slides around the screen to its new anchor position, but also sticks to the screen edges when the threadable object isn't in view.
The two types of threadable objects include grapple (standard) and hookshot. Here are their updated icons:
Workshop Publishing Ban
We've fixed the Workshop publishing error messages. Now, banned players will see a message stating the reason for a failed upload.
Workshop bans allow us to keep the community safer by restricting bad actors!
Workshop Menu Polishing
The in-game Workshop menu has been slightly adjusted. It's now better organized behind the scenes, but also has extra effects like a scrolling chevron border.
We've also removed the 'Back' button and all nested pages. Instead, an extra pop-up menu will appear when selecting a Workshop listing. Before, this would take you to a new screen within the same window.
OLD:
NEW:
You'll also notice we've highlighted the primary Workshop action players would most want to use. In this case, it's the 'Download' button! By using a secondary color, we can draw attention to the option we consider the most important and improve muscle memory when using the Workshop UI.
Footstep Particles
Now Stuffy can support footstep particles while running, and with support for different particle types depending on the surface type you're running on.
Needle Impact Particles
The needle's impact will now spawn particles that react to surfaces when landing. These vary by object type. Metal will spawn sparks, but rock will spawn pebbles, for instance.
Improved N&T Swinging
Swinging with the Needle 'n Thread is now a bit more fluid. We've improved the tuning of it, as well as some of its visuals. More work is still needed, but it's feeling quite fun!!
Player Death Particles
As we continue to polish the game, we've also focused on adding particle support for different lethal types. If Stuffy dies of a certain death style, we'll now spawn matching particles around them. For example, a burning effect for fire or a plasma orb for electricity.
We still plan/hope to improve the effects further, including special dissolve types on Stuffy themself.
Stuffy Movement Refactoring Progress
As mentioned in previous Recapped posts, we've been on a months-long journey to refactor and improve Stuffy's gameplay and movement feel. This is an effort led by coder/lead artist DeRose!
Player controllers are extremely important for any game, so we've been referencing other platformers and brainstorming improvements based on feedback within the team.
Linus (a team coder and former game speedrunner) weighed in with a full document of his feedback on movement feel and progress. This has been especially helpful, as it gives us a better idea of what everyone expects the game to feel like and which bugs to squash!
Taking this feedback to heart, DeRose promptly updated the physics feel by letting Stuffy keep momentum when being flung around the level (we consider this a bug, as it wasn't intentional behavior anyway)!
We've also increased the default jump height, started to add 'coyote time' for jumping off platforms, improved slope handling again (still work to be done), and more...
i think this is whats causing that slope bug to happen might just shrink the ground detector cast
this kinda shows what i mean abt the slope behavior being tricky to have certain angles just not be traversable. on one side it goes up fine, on the other side its like it becomes glass
fixed [stuffy not sticking to moving surfaces]. we had the calculation alright, but forgot to factor it into the [new] movement code
You can bunny hop again but without the edge case of building more speed
You can choose to either resist or go with external forces, theres no more overriding
Unity naturally handles all falling and velocity through physics, with reactive Stuffy animations
Needle Impact Sounds
The needle now plays specific pitch-varying sound effects when attached to different surface types.
Needle + Swinging Reaction Sounds
Subtle wind sounds will now play, with a pitch varying based on your velocity while in the swinging state. There's also a needle throw and retract sound. On top of that, we've also added a creak when swinging to your max limits and a reeling sound when using the hookshot!
Music Descriptions
We're working with the team musician to add descriptions for each music track in the Craftbook!
Laughing Emote
Brennan has drafted a laughing emote for Stuffy! This is still undergoing feedback and tweaking, but it's turning out nicely!
Hookshot Animation Blending
DeRose has improved the directional blending of Stuffy's mid-air hookshot pose. This means you'll now follow the movement direction more accurately, rather than only snapping between up/down and left/right.
In this clip, you'll also see some other improvements to the standard grapple behavior aside from hookshotting:
Enemy/Creature Concept: Robo-Stuffy
We've been shifting our style away from special critter models (like the Spider), and more toward variations of the Stuffy rig/model. This is easier for us to make, quicker to get working, and makes more sense for the story and gameplay situations we're planning!
Our concept artist, Ari, has created a couple of concept sheets for this idea. Here's one of them!
Swinging Animation Bug
When in the swinging state from a standard grapple object (after hookshotting on a different object type), Stuffy would try to snap to the hookshot animation positions. It created a pretty funny effect!
Thanks for joining us as we look back on March's development highlights! There's still a lot we weren't able to fit into the post, like various fixes and changes, feature discussions, and so forth.
We hope you've enjoyed another glimpse into development! See you next time!
Don't forget to join our Discord server! It's where all things Restitched are happening!