Big Walk Launches Aug 4: House House’s Co-op Follow-Up to Untitled Goose Game
Big Walk, the new cooperative adventure from Melbourne’s House House, launches on August 4 for PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, with the studio’s publisher Panic confirming it will also land day one in the PlayStation Plus Essential library. The game is the first major project from the team behind 2019’s viral hit Untitled Goose Game, and it swaps solo chaos for a slower, talk-it-out multiplayer experience built for groups of two to twelve players.
From a Chaotic Goose to a Cooperative “Walker-Talker”
Big Walk comes from the Melbourne-based independent studio House House, creators of Untitled Goose Game (2019). Where that earlier title was about causing mischief as a single, obnoxious bird, Big Walk asks players to work together instead of against each other or the world around them.
According to Big Walk’s own press kit, Big Walk is a cooperative multiplayer adventure about teamwork and talking, sending players out with friends through a wide-open world full of challenges, puzzles, and discoveries. Steam’s storefront listing echoes that framing, describing it as “a cooperative online walker-talker from the creators of Untitled Goose Game” where players “hang out and get lost with close friends in a big world.”
The project was first revealed publicly at a major industry showcase before receiving a full gameplay reveal roughly a year and a half later. The game was first announced during The Game Awards 2023 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, while an official gameplay trailer was later released during the Day of the Devs showcase.
Price, Platforms and a Day-One PlayStation Plus Slot
House House has confirmed via its own Steam community post that Big Walk will cost $19.99 USD but with a launch discount of 25% for the first couple of weeks. That discounted window gives new players an incentive to jump in with friends right at launch rather than waiting.
Crossplay is also part of the package: the developer noted that players buying on PC will also be able to play with friends via crossplay on the Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5 consoles. Xbox owners will have to sit this one out for now, as coverage from GameRant indicates the console is not among the launch platforms.
For subscribers, there’s an added incentive. Reporting on the PlayStation Store listing notes the game will be available as a day-one title for PlayStation Plus Essential subscribers, making it accessible to a massive audience the moment it goes live, while it is confirmed as a day-one title for PlayStation Plus Essential. That’s a notably generous move for a fresh indie release rather than a Game Pass-style back-catalogue addition, and it should meaningfully widen the pool of people looking for a group on launch day, including here in Australia and New Zealand.
Up to 12 Players, No Enemies, No Leaderboards
Big Walk’s official press kit lists the number of players as 2–12, and the studio has been explicit that scale changes how the game plays. In a hands-on preview published by Game Informer, the outlet detailed three “modes” that groups can play in — two-player, three-player, and four-or-more, up to a maximum of 12 players — with puzzles altered depending on player count, such as a crane sitting at a lower height for duos than for larger groups.
House House designer Stuart Gillespie-Cook told Game Informer that stripping away easy communication is deliberate, explaining that “once you have this rich way to communicate with each other, taking away limited aspects of that and making you use the others is actually a really good way to get you thinking creatively.” The idea is that forcing players to improvise new ways of signalling intent to each other becomes its own kind of gameplay.
That focus on shared experience over competition runs through the whole design. Game Informer’s preview summed up the approach as being about carrying forward the interactivity and playfulness expected from the makers of Untitled Goose Game while understanding the desire for a collaborative game — not just about shared achievements and challenges, but about the virtual third space players can share together.
An Australian Bushland Setting, Built Near Home
For an Australian and New Zealand audience, Big Walk carries an extra layer of local relevance beyond House House’s Melbourne base. Wikipedia’s entry on the game notes the environment was inspired by Wilsons Promontory National Park in Victoria, Australia, giving the game’s wandering, bush-trail world a distinctly local flavour even as it heads to a global audience.
The soundtrack leans into that sense of place as well, with music built to feel like part of the environment rather than a separate score. According to the same entry, the soundtrack is being developed in collaboration with artists Sam Gill and Luke Neher under the name AKSFX, and is intended to be diegetic to the game world, conveyed through objects such as speakers.
Early Impressions Ahead of the August 4 Launch
With no critic review scores yet logged on aggregators as of publication, the loudest signals so far come from outlets that got early looks at the game following its Day of the Devs reveal. Wikipedia’s sourcing notes that several publications identified Big Walk as one of the best games of the showcase, with Eurogamer’s Matt Wales praising the concept as “wonderfully distinctive”. Destructoid’s Adam Newell was similarly upbeat, with the same entry noting he stated the puzzles seemed “wonderful” and “feels like a game where no two play sessions are the same.”
Game Informer’s own preview came away just as enthusiastic about the social experience on offer, calling it “easily become one of my most anticipated releases” ahead of launch. Whether that enthusiasm translates into full reviews matching those early impressions will become clear once Big Walk actually goes live for players worldwide on August 4.
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