Controls on Mobile, Tablet, and Keyboard: Every Key in Epstein Island Game

Move, look, menu: what you need right away

You move with W, A, S, D, and the arrow keys do the same thing. You look around with the mouse by dragging while holding the button down. Shift switches to running, Esc opens the menu. That gets you everywhere on the island, from the dock to the lookout point.

Two keys are worth memorizing beyond that, since the game leans on them constantly: M pulls up the map, P brings up the phone. Keyboard and mouse are the tested setup, everything else is a bonus.

T lets you talk to the characters you run into out there, like Nikolai behind the bamboo bar. They answer with voice while you keep playing, so the screen stays in motion. You pick your response afterward, either with a key press or, if you prefer, through your microphone.

TipIf the frame on the game page feels too small, open the game in full window through the link right next to it. Nothing changes for the controls, but you get a much better view.

Controls on mobile and tablet: on-screen arrows, swipe to look around

On a device without a keyboard, the game lays arrow buttons directly over the screen. That is how you move. To look around you swipe across the open part of the screen, the way you would in a maps app.

This setup is deliberately kept minimal and covers what you need for exploring: walk there, look around, look at something. Anything tied to a letter key in the desktop game has no dedicated button on a touch device.

A gamepad will not help you on a tablet either, it is not supported. If you have a tablet with a keyboard attached, though, you play exactly like on a computer, including M for the map and P for the phone.

You play the same page as on a computer either way, since the game runs in the browser on both. What else applies to browser versus the app is covered in Play in the Browser or Download.

TipTurn your device sideways. The game frame uses the width, and the on-screen arrows end up further from the screen edge.

The full key layout

This is the layout listed under Controls on the homepage, the keys that apply everywhere:

• W, A, S, D or arrow keys: move
• Drag mouse: look around
• Shift: run
• M: map
• P: phone
• 1 through 5: select weapon
• T: talk
• Esc: menu

Vehicles, fishing, shooting: keys for specific situations

The moment you do something specific, extra keys come into play. In the compact car and the pickup truck, you get in and out with E, drive with W and S, and steer with A and D. The coastal boat and jet ski use the same layout, just on water.

While fishing, E does all the work: press it once to cast at a fishing spot, and press it again when you get a bite to reel the fish in. Timing that moment right is half the catch.

At the training grounds you shoot with F and reload with R. Q opens the gear wheel for switching weapons, or if you prefer speed, use the number keys 1 through 5. And for the most unusual trip in the game, launching the Starship: E to board and launch, C for the cabins, L to fly back.

TipThere is no dedicated flight control. The Boeing 787 belongs to the story, you cannot fly it yourself right now.

Using the phone in the game

The phone is not a submenu, it is a device with its own screen that you bring up with P and tap like a normal phone. At the start it has sixty percent battery. It carries seventeen apps, including Messages, Map, Island, Quests, Contacts, Supplies, Weapons, Camera, Status, and a Flashlight.

You can also open the map directly with M, skipping the phone entirely. For everything else you go through the apps, and the Island app stays locked until you have read the note called One Bar of Signal. What sits inside the individual apps is covered in The Phone in the Game.

What the controls cannot do yet

Gamepads are not supported, neither in the browser nor in the desktop app. It is listed explicitly among what is still missing, without a date attached.

There is no key remapping either, the layout stays as it is listed above. What you can change, though, is how your character sounds: a short recording through your microphone is enough, and after that it speaks the responses you pick with that voice. If you would rather not, you keep answering with key presses. How the recording, storage, and deletion work is covered in Your Character and Voice.

And an honest note to close on: Island is a prototype at version 0.12.0, and the controls keep growing along with it. If a key sits somewhere different after an update, check the Controls section on the homepage, it always shows the current state.