Launching Gravelgrandpas: a game built with my kids

September 28, 2026

I had a lot of fun building a game with my kids in Fable 5.1 last night. We made Gravelgrandpas, a 3D platformer about escaping a pack of angry retired gravel riders. It is now live at gravelgrandpas.axb.no. 🚲💨

Escape the grandpas

You are out on your carbon road bike when a group of retired gravel riders decides you are going too fast for the group ride. Your job is to stay ahead of them along a ridge road, jumping gaps, crossing bridges and avoiding whatever turns up in your path.

That includes oncoming Fiat Pandas and falling hammers. You can jump over the cars, land on their roofs, and drop nails to make life more difficult for the pack behind you. Sensible cycling advice this is not.

There is a solo mode and a two-player co-op mode, plus separate world leaderboards if you want to see how far you can get compared with everyone else. In co-op, one rider getting caught does not end the run for the other, but fall too far behind the leader and the grandpas will swallow you up.

Building it together

The part that surprised me most was how much the kids enjoyed iterating on the game. Coming up with a ridiculous premise was fun, but so was trying features, changing things and seeing their wild ideas turn into something we could actually play.

Using Fable 5.1, we could work on those ideas together and bring them into “semi” reality. A pack of retired gravel riders chasing a road cyclist is already a fairly silly starting point. Add Fiat Pandas and nails, and you have a good evening’s entertainment before you have even finished making the game.

For me, that was the best part of the project: making something together where the kids could help shape what happened next. The game gave us something to try, laugh at and improve together.

Have a go

You can play directly in your browser:

  • Player 1: W to jump, S to tuck, and left Shift to drop nails.
  • Player 2: Up arrow to jump, down arrow to tuck, and right Shift or Enter to drop nails.
  • On a phone: turn it to landscape and use the touch controls.

Hold jump for more height, or tap again in the air for up to five consecutive jumps. Either set of keyboard controls works in solo mode; use a keyboard for two-player co-op.

Play Gravelgrandpas and see how long you can keep the grandpas off your wheel.