Big Walk looks like the sort of game you could poke around in alone, wandering the Australian bushland and solving the occasional puzzle at your own pace. It is not built that way. The game is designed from the ground up for cooperative multiplayer, and its puzzles, tools, and character interactions all assume more than one person is present.
Quick answer: There is no single-player mode. You can start a session by yourself and walk around a small part of the world, but you will hit challenges that require another player and cannot progress past them. You need at least two people for a real playthrough, with support for up to 12.
Player counts and platforms for Big Walk
Big Walk supports two to 12 players. There is no officially recommended group size. A smaller group produces a focused co-op experience, while sessions closer to the 12-player cap turn into a louder, more chaotic hangout. Two people are enough to complete the game normally.
| Detail | Big Walk |
|---|---|
| Minimum players | Two |
| Maximum players | 12 |
| Single-player mode | No |
| Online matchmaking | No |
| Crossplay | Yes |
| Couch co-op / split screen | No |
| Platforms | Windows and Mac (Steam, Mac App Store), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2 |
Because there is no shared-screen option, everyone playing together needs their own copy of the game and a device to run it on, plus a way to play out of sight of one another. Even two people in the same house have to be in separate rooms.
What a single player can and cannot do
The host can enter a session without waiting for anyone else to connect, so a lone player is free to look around, get a feel for the controls, and reach the immediately available space. That is where solo play stops being useful. You will not get far, because many interactions expect a second character to be there. Even changing your color at the early paint station requires another player to hold the brush and paint you.
Starting alone is worth doing for setup tasks such as these:
- Check graphics and performance settings.
- Adjust field of view or a motion-reduction overlay if you get motion sick.
- Rebind controls under Settings > Rebinding.
- Find your Join Code before inviting the group.
- Confirm your microphone or text chat is working.
What it will not let you do is bypass the multiplayer requirement and finish the adventure alone. The accessibility menu includes a challenge-skip option, but that exists for puzzles that may be inaccessible due to hearing, speech, reading, reaction-time, or fine-motor needs. It does not convert the rest of the game into a solo campaign or remove every interaction that needs a partner.
How group size changes the world
Each time a host starts a session, they pick a two-player, three-player, or four-or-more-player version of the world. Some elements change to fit that choice. On puzzles that use buttons, for example, the number of buttons can match the number of players, so the game always gives you exactly enough people to solve what is in front of you. The puzzles themselves scale only up to four players.
Treat the setting as the minimum number of people who will take part, not the maximum. A four-friend group where only two will be around for most of the run should pick the two-player world, since more people can still join later. This matters because Big Walk is meant to be played across multiple sessions, and real groups rarely have everyone online at once. Choosing a lower version keeps the game playable when part of the group misses a night.
You can invite up to 11 friends, but the puzzles never scale beyond four, so larger parties need a plan. Groups can split into smaller teams that each match the host’s chosen player count, take turns on puzzles, race to solve them first, or simply hang out and invent their own games in the scenery. A smaller party can scout ahead, but it cannot solve a puzzle until the correct number of players arrives.
No matchmaking, so bring your own group
There is no random matchmaking of any kind. Big Walk is a long-form cooperative game built to be played with the same people over several sessions, so it does not throw strangers together. That is the single most important thing for anyone buying it alone. Without a solo mode and without a queue to find teammates, you are expected to arrive with someone already willing to play.
You can still meet people through outside communities and swap Join Codes, but the game itself will not find a partner for you.
How to host and join
The host owns the save and progress is saved automatically. When the host leaves, the session ends and everyone else disconnects. To continue where you left off, the same host has to start the game again, so give hosting duties to whoever is most likely to be around. Crossplay does not change this, and one person always keeps the save.
Communication rules you cannot skip
Big Walk runs on in-game voice and text chat, and the two carry the same intentional limits. Your messages, spoken or typed, fade with distance and are blocked by things like soundproof glass, and both work with items such as walkie-talkies. You can complete the whole game with text alone and miss nothing, so a microphone is optional.
Talking to other players through Discord, a console party, or any outside service is discouraged. The game will not disconnect or punish you, but several puzzles are built around moments where players are not supposed to hear each other. Using unrestricted external chat quietly removes the challenge and can make parts of the game stop making sense. For the same reason, playing in the same physical room does not work, since you would hear each other outside voice chat.
Should a solo buyer get Big Walk?
If you can line up at least one other person on any supported platform, crossplay makes it easy to get a session going, and two players are enough to see the whole hand-crafted adventure through its beginning, middle, and end. If you have nobody to play with and are hoping to work through it alone, this is not the game for that. There is no solo campaign, no matchmaking, and no way to remove the interactions that require a second pair of hands. Line up a group first, then take the walk together.
