Multiplayer with Up to Ten Players: How to Start Together on the Island

One lobby, one island, up to ten people

The process is short to explain: open a lobby, invite friends, explore the island together. More than ten people will not fit. You get in through the same game page as solo play. For the browser you need a free account, made with an email address or through Google, no download required.

After signing up, everyone picks a username and builds their character. Co-op itself is tied to a package: without a purchase the game only runs for five minutes of active testing, and opening the lobby needs Online + Offline or Add Online bought afterward.

TipAnyone seeing the island for the first time will get lost. Send one person ahead who already knows the dock, and the rest of the group falls into place on their own.

What you need for co-op: Online + Offline or the Add Online upgrade

The purchase page offers two routes to co-op. If you own nothing yet, buy Online + Offline straight away for 15.99 euros: Story Mode, the free-roam world, the download for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and the co-op lobby for up to ten people all come bundled in. If you already own Offline at 9.99 euros, add co-op on its own instead, Add Online costs 10.00 euros, 19.99 euros together. There is no standalone co-op-only package anymore.

Both routes describe the same lobby: online, up to ten people, phone and story progress shared. The only difference is price, depending on whether you buy both up front or top up later. Once you own Offline, the purchase page only offers you the Add Online upgrade, not the whole bundle.

Payment happens right on the page through Stripe, with card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other methods offered there, PayPal is not switched on yet. The license key arrives right after purchase, there is no subscription and nothing gets shipped. If someone changes their mind, they have fourteen days from purchase to withdraw, even after the download, through the Cancel Contract button under /widerruf. Everything about payment methods, guest checkout, and cancellation is covered in Packages and Prices.

Co-op with up to ten players: what you share

The most noticeable difference from solo play is how saving works. In co-op your save does not sit with you, it lives online with the Island server. Playing alone, it stays in your browser or on your device, and it is never synced across multiple devices.

The phone comes along for this too. Messages, quests, and marked locations are the same for everyone in co-op. If one person drops a pin on the lookout point, the others see it on their own map. That makes coordinating quick: marking a spot beats any spoken directions.

Then there are the voices. The island's characters speak live while you are out exploring, and you can respond with a key press or through your microphone. The browser asks for permission the first time. If you do not grant it, you just keep playing with the keyboard.

TipSet two separate goals at the start, say the dock and the island village. Ten people standing in one spot see far less of the island than two groups of five.

What is still a work in progress in co-op

Island grows every week, and it shows. Purchases unlock straight through your account: a window right on the game page, and once you have paid, play picks up where your free test paused. Only a guest checkout leaves you typing the license key in by hand, on the download page.

Also expect an old save to stop working after an update. If you are planning one long shared campaign, plan for several short evenings instead.

The game does not support gamepads, only keyboard and mouse are tested. And the Unity build, the actual main project, has not been released yet. What you play today with nine friends is the browser prototype.

TipThe team does not give a date for a finished version. What is currently being built is listed with names and timestamps on the Current Work page.

Getting ready for your first evening with ten people

You do not need much, but a few minutes of prep save you the usual fumbling around in the first ten minutes.

• Everyone sets up a free account first, email or Google, no install needed for the browser.
• Co-op needs Online + Offline or Add Online, without it the lobby will not open.
• Want the app for Windows, macOS, or Linux instead: it only downloads after purchase, unlocked through your account or your license key.
• Set up your username and character in your account beforehand.
• Run through the controls together: W, A, S, D to move, mouse to look around, Shift to run, M for the map, P for the phone, T to talk, Esc for the menu.
• Grant microphone access if you want to answer the characters with your own voice.

When solo play is still worth it

Story Mode belongs to the Offline package, and it is the part of the game that gives you a direction: a new job, an island where something is off between the ordinary quests. What has been built of it so far is covered in Story Mode.

In co-op that thread disappears, but instead you get the island as an open space: the dock, the island village, the training grounds, Shelter Cave, the lookout point, and the rest of the locations on the phone map. Anyone who has walked the area alone beforehand leads the rest of the group much more calmly. The starting point for that is covered in Survive the First Night.