Squeaky Beach in Wilsons Promontory National Park, the place Big Walk's island is modelled on. No free image of the game itself exists; its art is House House's. Photo Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Wilsons Promontory National Park (AU), Squeaky Beach -- 2019 -- 172208” / CC BY-SA 4.0.
Big Walk
What it took directly
- statedBig Walk's island took from Wilsons Promontory National Park, the southernmost point of mainland Australia"The island is inspired by the natural landscape of the southernmost point of mainland Australia, Wilsons Promontory National Park." Jake Strasser of House House, in a statement at the game's reveal (Rock Paper Shotgun, December 2023)
- documentedBig Walk took from games played online with international friends during Covid lockdowns; that group tested the first version"how Big Walk began: during Covid lockdowns, when they started playing games online with international friends. This group was the first to test a very early version of Big Walk." Alexandra Neill, The Guardian (August 2026), reporting the House House team's account
- statedBig Walk took from the lockdown play group credited as Sunday Night Games: Marie Foulston, Ricky Haggett, Dick Hogg, Pat Ashe and other game-maker friends"So there’s Marie Foulston, who’s a curator and game maker now. Ricky Haggett and Dick Hogg and Pat Ashe, who are all part of Hollow Ponds." Jake Strasser, to Rebekah Valentine, Kotaku (August 18, 2026)
- statedBig Walk took from the Roblox games Scuba Diving at Quill Lake and Somewhere, Wales"Scuba Diving at Quill Lake. Somewhere, Wales was a big one." Stuart Gillespie-Cook, to Rebekah Valentine, Kotaku (August 18, 2026); Nico Disseldorp calls them “our big-influence Roblox games”
- statedBig Walk took from its first test: a group walk from one side of an empty map to the other"One of the first things we did was just go on a walk, from one side of this map to the other" Nico Disseldorp, to Alexandra Neill, The Guardian (August 2026)
- documentedBig Walk's landscape took from lidar scans of Wilsons Promontory"Using lidar scans that provided a 3D map of the national park, the team produced an unusually naturalistic space" Francisco Dominguez, ABC News (August 18, 2026)
- documentedBig Walk's sound took from Squeaky Beach, recorded by a sound designer pounding the sand with their fists"That included a sound designer pounding Squeaky Beach with their fists to record its unmistakable sounds." Francisco Dominguez, ABC News (August 18, 2026)
What it learned to do
- documentedBig Walk's voice chat learned from sound designer Em Halberstadt and audio programmer Nicholas Zhang, brought on at Halberstadt's suggestion"A turning point for House House came when sound designer Em Halberstadt suggested they bring on audio programmer Nicholas Zhang." Alexandra Neill, The Guardian (August 2026)
- documentedBig Walk's plant life learned from Victoria's Ecological Vegetation Class system, used by Kalonica Quigley and Jake Strasser to model and place 80-100 native plants"The team's 3D artist, Kalonica Quigley, rectified that gap by developing 3D models for 80-100 native plants, which Strasser faithfully placed in the virtual landscape according to Victoria's Ecological Vegetation Class" Francisco Dominguez, ABC News (August 18, 2026)
- statedBig Walk's puzzles learned from the communication games people play on camping trips without much equipment"you might play if you go camping when you don’t have much equipment, that are just about communicating with each other" Nico Disseldorp, to Alexandra Neill, The Guardian (August 2026)
The tradition it sits in
- documentedBig Walk's puzzle design comes from charades and Pictionary"Charades and Pictionary were unusual inspirations for a game that specialises in creating communication gaps to inspire both teamwork and guesswork." ABC News (Francisco Dominguez, August 18, 2026), in a caption to House House's images
- statedBig Walk comes from a long lineage of strange co-op games"There’s such a strong lineage of strange co-op games that these things are building on." Nico Disseldorp, to Rebekah Valentine, Kotaku (August 18, 2026)
- statedBig Walk comes from House House's earlier games, Push Me Pull You (2016) and Untitled Goose Game (2019)"Founded in 2014, House House is a videogame company from Melbourne, Australia, known for Push Me Pull You (2016) and Untitled Goose Game (2019). Big Walk continues their string of surprising, funny, and friendly games" House House, the Big Walk press kit
- inferredBig Walk comes from the same lockdown-era online play as Lethal Company and Peak: a shared ancestor, not a copy"With development starting during lockdown, the meetings the team had in-game were their only way to stay connected. Other, faster teams were working on similar ideas, too." inferred — ABC reports Big Walk began in lockdown while faster teams worked on similar ideas, and Gillespie-Cook told Kotaku he assumes there was common influence; nobody names a single source
- inferredBig Walk's hang-out-first design comes from the video-game party scene of Wild Rumpus, where its first players came from"Because I guess they’re all Wild Rumpus people, right? They all used to run video game parties." inferred — Gillespie-Cook describes the Sunday Night Games friends as Wild Rumpus people who ran video game parties; he does not say the parties shaped the game
Where the whole form comes from
- statedBig Walk comes from seeing a horse in the clouds and pointing it out to a friend"the game of seeing a horse in the clouds and pointing at it to your friend but we codify and gamify it." Stuart Gillespie-Cook, to Francisco Dominguez, ABC News (August 18, 2026)
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