adminBig Walk began as a way for the Melbourne-based House House team to spend time together during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020. What started as a small virtual meeting space gradually grew into a cooperative exploration game, taking six years to develop. Its creators, Nico Disseldorp and Stuart Gillespie-Cook, describe how experimentation, playtesting and a focus on social connection shaped the project.
Image credit: House House/Panic
Big Walk’s six-year development journey
The developers did not set out to work on Big Walk for six years. Disseldorp says the project felt manageable when they treated it as a small idea and began building. Gillespie-Cook initially expected development to take a few months, or perhaps about as long as Untitled Goose Game, which took three years. As the concept expanded, the team decided it was worth exploring in more depth.
Although the long development period could have made Early Access an option, the studio chose not to involve a public audience during production. Disseldorp felt the team already had a working creative process and worried that external feedback might affect the way they developed a deliberately quiet game. The open spaces and slower pace were central to the experience, so the developers wanted room to refine those elements on their own terms.
Practical detail: Big Walk is designed around communication and exploration, rather than constant action. Players looking for a fast-paced experience may want to consider that slower, more open-ended approach.
From virtual hangout to cooperative game
House House first imagined Big Walk as a place where its members could meet online while in-person gatherings were difficult. Gillespie-Cook recalls that large Zoom birthday parties could make conversation awkward because only one person could speak at a time. The team’s early idea was to create a shared space with proximity voice chat, allowing people to talk when they were near one another.
The first prototype took about a week to assemble. The developers found that spending time together in the virtual environment gave the project an emotional purpose, and they spent roughly two years experimenting before settling on the type of game they wanted to make.
Big Walk was revealed at The Game Awards in 2023. It is a first-person cooperative exploration game set in a virtual recreation of Wilson’s Promontory National Park. Players work together on puzzles, using proximity chat and movement to communicate. When players are separated, they may need to mime or use a whiteboard-style tool instead of simply talking.
Image credit: House House/Panic
Panic, which also published Untitled Goose Game, agreed to fund Big Walk around six months into development. The pitch was only one page long and included an image of the characters and a hill. At that early stage, the team knew the feeling it wanted to create but had not yet found a concise way to describe the game.
Big Walk and the rise of friendslop games
Big Walk is arriving amid growing interest in cooperative multiplayer games sometimes labelled “friendslop,” a term the developers do not particularly like. Lethal Company’s success in 2023 initially made Gillespie-Cook wonder whether House House had entered a crowded space. At the same time, it showed that players were willing to gather friends and organize group sessions for this kind of game.
Peak, released in 2025, added to that reassurance. Video Game Insights estimated that it had sold more than 18 million units at the time referenced in the article. The House House developers recognize that comparisons may be made because both Peak and Big Walk feature first-person multiplayer, proximity chat and physical movement.
Disseldorp sees Big Walk as a different kind of experience: a longer-form, open-world adventure rather than a short session built around a single premise. For players, the useful distinction is that Big Walk’s emphasis is on exploring a world and solving challenges together over time.
Designing puzzles for different group sizes
Proximity chat is not just for casual conversation; it also shapes the puzzles. In one relay-style challenge, a player has to pass a code to a teammate through a window that reduces their voice to a whisper. The next player then carries the information onward. The setup can create funny moments, but it also raised a design question: how can a puzzle work when the group has a different number of players?
House House developed three versions of its challenges: one for two players, one for three, and one for four or more. The team adjusted puzzles to fit each group while keeping the same overall feel. Disseldorp estimates that the developers reviewed around 200 hours of playtesting footage to find and refine solutions.
Image credit: House House/Panic
Group-play tip: The game’s puzzles account for different party sizes, but communication remains important. Players should stay aware of who has information and whether teammates are close enough to hear it.
Why House House took its time
Untitled Goose Game became a major success, selling more than 1 million copies within three months of release and winning DICE’s Game of the Year award. Even so, Disseldorp says the studio remains small and continues to make games focused on physical comedy and expressive characters, drawing inspiration from Mario 64.
Success gave House House more freedom to experiment without setting a strict deadline for its next project. The developers describe feeling proud of the work while also being nervous about how players will respond. For Gillespie-Cook, the time spent making Big Walk has already been meaningful, even as he hopes audiences enjoy it too.
Big Walk was scheduled to launch on Switch 2, PlayStation 5, PC and Mac on August 4, 2026. Its six-year development reflects the team’s decision to keep exploring the original idea rather than force it into a shorter production cycle. For anyone interested in cooperative adventures, Big Walk’s defining features are its shared exploration, proximity-based conversations and puzzles adapted for different group sizes.
