Finding a truly family-friendly game that treads the fine balance between boring me to tears or completely taking over from my children because of the complexity is no mean feat, and has always been a challenge. I'm vehemently against Roblox and its system, rife with microtransactions and questionable safety, so our rotation has been mainly Lego games, Minecraft, and, of course, Palworld, until recently.
A few months ago, my son and I stumbled upon Wobbly Life on the Xbox store, and it immediately became our go-to co-op game. Free-roaming sandbox fun akin to a kids' GTA, goofy physics ala Human Fall Flat, and enough objective-based missions to keep both me and the kiddo engaged, all wrapped in a world that's safe to explore. In short, I crowned it the best kids' game on Xbox right now, and I'm just as hooked as my son.
We jumped into the game at the perfect moment, with the game coming into its fifth year of Early Access, it recently announced a full launch and a giant 1.0 Space Update dropping on September 18. This is also the date that Wobbly Life arrives on Xbox Game Pass. I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Thomas Dunn, the developer and founder behind RubberBandGames. He walked me through the journey of a tiny four-person team creating one of the most joyful family sandbox games to come to Xbox.
This interview has been paraphrased and lightly truncated in parts for readability.
Building a Universe with a tiny team
When you think about open-world games, a four-person team might not come to mind — but for Wobbly Life, that’s exactly how it started. “We’re four in the core development team,” Thomas explains. “I’m the programmer, Will is our artist, he’s done literally every single bit of 2D artwork, including in the Space Update, Alex handles audio and missions, I like to call him the humour in the game, and Mark built Wobbly Island.”
Recently, the team has grown slightly with team members to manage social media and community, and to handle business development and partnerships with platforms like Xbox and PlayStation. Yet, even with these additions, Thomas is involved in almost every aspect of the project. The Wobbly Life Discord has grown to over 29,000 members since launch, and moderating it has become a team effort with the developers staying connected to their players.
A game thats grown with its players
Over five years, Wobbly Life has seen itself grow alongside some of its youngest players. Thomas tells me about a YouTube channel called Dario Bros TV, run by three siblings with their dad’s support, who have been playing the game since Early Access. “We’ve literally watched them grow up with the game,” he says. “When we first noticed them, they had about 100 subscribers. Now they’ve grown to at least 60,000. It’s been so sweet to be part of their whole childhood.”
For parents, there’s enough depth and challenge to engage adults as well, and you'll often find yourself sucked into the challenges. My son loves delivering pizzas and completing missions, but I often find myself sneaking into solo sessions just to chase down artifacts or unlock vehicles he’s been asking about, like the elusive flying car that requires completing one of the museum collections.
“It’s funny,” Thomas admits, “the museum was designed for late-game players — people who’ve completed all the jobs and missions and are looking for more. Some collections are straightforward, but others involve RNG and require patience.” The reward, he notes, is deliberately difficult to earn. “We probably shouldn’t have added such a good reward because everyone wants it, but that’s the whole point. It’s meant to be a challenge.”
With the Space Update, fans will be giddy to know that there is also a Museum in space for us to complete. However, it has been adapted for a slightly more approachable experience. Collections now involve visiting set locations rather than complex, RNG-heavy treasure maps.
A new frontier, the Space Update!
The Space Update, which lands on September 18th, is the culmination of years of planning. The game will officially leave Early Access with a physical launch (which comes with some cool stickers, too).
“From the beginning, we placed ‘Coming Soon’ signs around Wobbly Island,” Thomas explains. “The rocket area was the last. After years of hard work, we are excited to finally deliver on our promise to get Wobbly Life to space.”
Players will now be able to explore the Wobbly Space Centre, complete astronaut training, earn a Space Licence, and pilot zero-gravity vehicles. The update includes new missions, jobs, and collectibles, essentially doubling the size of the game. “It’s kind of like Wobbly Life 2 in terms of scope,” Thomas says. “The amount of gameplay we’ve added is just significant — Karina [Community Manager] has already logged over 20 hours testing, and she hasn’t even explored everything.”
Even the physics-driven mechanic of the original game translates well to zero-G. Players can navigate spaceships, experiment with new vehicles, and uncover hidden Easter eggs while laughing at all the silly wobbly interactions that have made the game so beloved with young fans.
Mutliplayer and stability fixes on consoles
The multiplayer side of Wobbly Life remains one of its most popular features. “Arcade mode has so much potential,” Thomas says. “We’d love to add more mini-games and fan-favorite challenges, but the Space Update has been our focus. On Steam, players can use the Workshop to create custom game modes and maps, and they’ve done some incredible things.”
Split-screen multiplayer has posed stability challenges on consoles, particularly Xbox and Switch, but the 1.0 update includes a massive memory overhaul. “The game now unloads unused assets,” Thomas explains. “That should reduce crashes significantly. We totally sympathize with players losing artifacts mid-run. I’ve been there myself.”
Player housing and earning your way
One of the clever little mechanics in Wobbly Life is the player housing system, where completing jobs and missions earns you money to upgrade to nicer homes. “It’s a pretty fun element of the game, and even a little educational,” I mentioned to Thomas, asking if there were any plans to expand it with furniture, customization, or redecorating.
He explained, “We would love to add some form of customizability. However, due to the way the game deals with other online players — since multiple people can own the same house — this makes the whole ‘customize your house’ idea quite difficult and confusing to achieve.”
Even so, the current system remains satisfying, giving players tangible goals and a sense of progression. Kids learn the basics of earning, saving, and prioritizing upgrades, though in my case, my son blows all his money on pizza slices at the in-game cinema, and we've never managed to afford a mansion.
Wobbly Life beyond the launch
After nearly six years of nonstop development, Thomas is ecstatic to be delivering the Space Update to players before taking some time to regroup with family. “I started this project solo in 2019. Now we have a team of four, and I recently became a dad. I’d like to take a bit of downtime to spend time with my son before he grows up too fast,” he says.
For now, the focus remains on delivering a polished and expansive experience with the Space Update. Beyond that, Thomas is taking it one step at a time.
Quick fire questions from a five-year-old with a short attention span
I couldn't in good conscience get the opportunity to interview Thomas without getting him to answer questions from the audience that matter most. So I asked my son what he really wanted to know from the Wobbly Life team.
- Will there be space pets? Yes, a few, though pets take a lot of development work.
- Can I drive a space rover? Mostly spaceships, but a few ground vehicles exist.
- Can we get a helicopter with doors so my Mom stops dropping our artifacts in the sea? Thomas said they get this question A LOT. There will be some more suitable, enclosed vehicles, within the space update that now keep artifacts safe.
- Is Grandma in space? Not exactly, but players may encounter her in some way (basically... wait and see)
- More UFOs? Unlikely, though the original UF Egg remains a fun Easter egg.
We wish the Wobbly Life team an amazing launch (into the space update, geddit?)
What makes Wobbly Life special is the amazing sense of community that has been built over its years in early access. Thomas sums it up: “We built this from nothing. To have created an open world like this, with such a young audience, is just incredible. It’s been a delight to be part of everyone’s childhood.”
For parents seeking a safe, imaginative, and endlessly entertaining alternative to microtransaction-heavy games, Wobbly Life is a must-play on Xbox — and the Space Update makes it bigger and more ambitious than ever.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
