Wobbledogs

About
A 3D pet simulation where you raise your own personal hive of mutating dogs, physically simulated all the way down to their guts! Wobbledogs is a casual and chill sandbox for players of all ages who want to care for their very own virtual pets in a surprising, unique, and stress-free environment.
- Quote from the Wobbledogs website (with a little more added from the press kit.)

Wobbledogs is a game where you breed weird alien dogs and decorate the pens they inhabit. Here's two examples of strange dogs:

a yellow square wobble dog called corn
Corn, the Wobbledog.
a sleeping green Wobbledog called Kiwi
Kiwi the Wobbledog.

You can look inside the Wobbledog's gut to see what microorganisms are in there, these influence their appearances before their final adult mutations. The strength of that influence can be affected by other flora and petting their cocoons.

a petri dish of microorganisms inside a wobble dog
The UI and icons for Wobbledog gut flora

Wobbledogs vary greatly in size, pattern, colour and shape. Here's some examples of the weird and wonderful doggos.

a white wobble dog with wings and a long tail a lime green wobbledog a group of wobbledogs a spotted black wobbledog a small worried wobbledog a sleeping brown wobbledog a wobbledog playfully pulling another wobbledog's tail a wobbledog rearing up a black curly tailed wobbledog
Some Wobbledogs are mine, some photos are from the press kit.

Wobbledogs pupate and mutate throughout their lives, as seen below. Colour changes are common, as are small physical changes. Extra legs or wings are much rarer (the dog pictured has four wings, they just overlapped in some of the screenshots.

Pancake's life stages and changes

You can also customise the pens your wobble dogs live in with different wallpaper, floors, decorations, toys and plants. If you get your dogs to dig on different floors, they will dig up different toys!

a pen with three happy wobbledogs, it has grass and trees
A grassy pen with trees.

Plant seeds can be dug up by your dogs or given as rewards for achievements. They can be planted in holes your dogs dig or planted via the room-building menu. Putting objects on plants destroys them and they spread when planted.

a room with pizza carpet and hotdog walls, a short pink wobbledog stands in it
A pen with funky hotdog walls and a pizza carpet.

Toys come in two kinds, fixed object toys and mobile toys your dogs can pick up. Fixed object toys include a gravity machine, which is good for dogs who struggle to walk; a spinning dog tower that can be gripped and music-making objects like the record player which your dogs will dance to.

a space themed room with a black curly tailed wobbledog in it
A room with a moon themed floor, and space themed walls.

Tips

Tips to play game.

  • You can breed stored dogs.
  • Want quick and easy rare traits? Import dogs via dog codes.
  • Pet cocoons for a higher mutation rate.
  • Use a cheat code if you can't wait for more unfertilised dog eggs to be laid. Cheat codes do not stop you getting achievements.

Thoughts

Positive

This game is very, very fun. I've played 14+ hours after only having a few days. However, it does combine being a genetics sim game, dogs and decorating rooms which are my three favorite things.

There are lots of dog trait combos! This means lots of options to create fun-looking dogs that are unique. The dog codes are so fun to copy and find online, but I wish more people included a preview photo of the dog!

Dogs can't die of anything but old age, don't get hurt by being thrown around (although they don't always look happy about it) and inbreeding at worst just means you'll get very little genetic variation in puppies.

Negative

It would be nice if the dogs exhibited more behaviors without needing praise to do them. i.e. some dogs love digging or throwing objects naturally. The dogs can start to feel a little bland especially as their default lifespan is pretty short.

I'd like a way to vary how much force you 'grab' objects with. Sometimes I want to scoot a dog out of the way rather than throw them.

It'd be cool to have something like the Sonic Adventure 2 Chao garden games so you can do more with your dogs. You could even have an online feature like dog beauty contests with the prize being toys, seeds, wallpaper etc. However that would need moderation, and it's not like players can't organise this informally.

To be clear, I love this game and the fact I have so many thoughts on what I'd want different is because I care deeply about it.

Link

You can download the game on Steam here. It is also on the nintendo switch, but with more limited features.