Big Walk on Mac

Big Walk runs natively on Apple Silicon and is sold for macOS through two different storefronts: Steam and the Mac App Store. House House list them separately in the official FAQ, and there is one difference between them significant enough to decide your purchase.

The Mac App Store version does not support Game Center. In a game with no matchmaking and no server browser, that removes the entire friends-list path for getting into a session.

House House’s own wording on the limitation, twice: “the Mac App Store version of the game does not support Game Center, so you’ll have to use a Join Code,” and in the troubleshooting section, “The Mac App Store version Big Walk will not show a friend’s games list.”

Neither statement is a bug report. It is a permanent characteristic of that build.

Apple Silicon only — there is no Intel Mac configuration listed, and macOS 15 is the floor on both rows. 16 GB of RAM is required rather than recommended, which is 4 GB above the Windows minimum.

Mouse and keyboard both work, as do most game controllers.

Nothing breaks, but the joining ritual changes permanently. Every session:

1. The host starts the session first — as always, since their machine holds the save.
2. The host reads the join code from the corner of the host menu, or from Session Details in the in-game menu if play has already started.
3. Everyone else joins with that code, including players on Steam, PS5 and Switch 2.

Because a fresh code is generated every time the host starts, last week’s code will not work. Groups in this situation usually keep a group chat open purely to paste the code into — which is fine and does not violate House House’s rule against external voice chat, since that rule is about talking, not about logistics.

If you have not bought yet and this bothers you, the Steam version on macOS has no such limitation and covers Windows as well.

The published macOS specs are unusually flat: macOS 15 on both rows, 16 GB of RAM on both rows, and only the processor moves — M1 minimum, M3 recommended. There is no discrete GPU tier because Apple Silicon does not have one.

Two things follow. First, the RAM figure is the real gate: 16 GB is required rather than recommended, which is 4 GB above the Windows minimum and rules out base-configuration M1 and M2 machines with 8 GB. Second, because the difference between the two rows is generational rather than tiered, an M1 machine with enough memory is a valid target rather than a struggling one.

If frame rate is a problem, House House’s tuning order applies here as everywhere: lower Settings > Graphics > Render Scale first, then Quality, then raise Render Scale back up gradually. And if you are hosting, do that before the session rather than during it — a host running at a low frame rate causes network problems for the whole group.

If you have a free choice, buy on Steam. The reasons are concrete rather than preference:

• The friends list works. Steam friends see your active session automatically; the Mac App Store build shows no friends-games list at all.
• It covers Windows too. One purchase, both platforms — useful if you also game on a PC or expect to switch.
• Achievements are visible. The Steam version has 12 achievements with public global unlock rates; the Mac App Store version publishes none.
• The price is known. $14.99 during the launch discount, from a $19.99 base.

Buy on the Mac App Store if you prefer keeping purchases in Apple’s ecosystem and are content handing out a join code every session. Nothing about the game is worse there — crossplay, all the content, and every setting are identical. It is purely the joining ritual that changes.