Bad tools, bad repairs, great fun: Inside Low-Budget Repairs

Most simulator games want you to become incredibly good at your chosen profession. Low-Budget Repairs has a much funnier idea: what if being a questionable handyman was the entire point?

Low-Budget Repairs arrived with plenty of attention behind it. The game had already passed an impressive 1.2 million Steam wishlists before launch, suggesting that a huge number of players were ready to embrace its deliberately messy approach to home renovation.

Cutting corners is basically the job

Set in a fictional version of 1990s Poland, Low-Budget Repairs puts you in the shoes of a handyman taking on jobs around the town of Kopytko. Your goal is still to repair homes and complete contracts, but doing everything perfectly is definitely not the priority.

Players can paint and plaster walls, lay tiles, install doors and windows, assemble furniture, work with electrical systems and tackle other renovation jobs. However, the game constantly encourages you to find cheaper and occasionally ridiculous solutions.

You can dilute paint with water to make it last longer, use low-quality tools and generally approach every job with the attitude of someone trying to finish before the customer looks too closely. Even moving furniture can turn into comedy, with physics-based interactions making simple tasks much less predictable.

There is a little House Flipper DNA in the basic idea of renovating properties, but Low-Budget Repairs goes in a very different direction. Instead of chasing beautifully finished interiors, much of the fun comes from seeing just how questionable your craftsmanship can become while still getting the job done.

Beyond standard renovation work, the game also includes unusual missions, a pawn shop, vehicles, equipment progression, collectibles and plenty of strange situations involving the people of the town.

The repairs are messy, and so is the launch

Unfortunately, not every rough edge is intentional.

Low-Budget Repairs launched to Mixed reviews on Steam, with players reporting technical problems including optimization issues, quest bugs, save problems, physics glitches and situations where missions could become impossible to complete.

The developers have been moving quickly, though. Several updates arrived within the first few days, fixing progression problems, object interactions, tile placement, crashes, loading issues and other bugs. Optimization and physics improvements are also continuing.

That makes Low-Budget Repairs a slightly ironic experience right now: a game about doing bad repairs that could still use a few repairs of its own.

Still, the core idea is wonderfully silly, and 1.2 million wishlists show that plenty of players were interested in becoming the worst handyman in town.

If you want to start cutting corners yourself, use our price comparison tool to find the best prices for Low-Budget Repairs and see how cheaply you can begin your questionable renovation career.