House House

How COVID Led To Big Walk, One of This Year’s Best Video Games

The development of the cooperative game Big Walk serves as a case study in how the social isolation of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed creative innovation within the Australian studio House House.

• Big Walk, developed by the five-person Australian studio House House, has sold over 2 million copies since its August 2026 release.
• The game's core mechanic is proximity-based voice chat, which forces players to communicate in unorthodox ways to solve puzzles and discourages the use of external voice platforms like Discord.
• Development of Big Walk spanned six years, driven by a commitment to a consistent original vision rather than scaling the studio's headcount beyond its five core members.