Hey, it's Pierre-Olivier Chartrand, Technical Director at Wolf Haus Games. 

I wanted to give a quick overview of our co-op multiplayer setup for Join Us.

We're huge fans of games like Valheim, State of Decay, Project Zomboid, and The Forest - so supporting multiplayer from day one was non-negotiable for us.

Riding farm animals at sunset is better with friends.

You get those moments like splitting up with your friends, one building the base, another scavenging for resources, and the last one spending more time on the wiki than actually playing.

An interesting design opportunity is that, since our game puts followers at the forefront, they receive a lot of love and are smarter and much more useful than your average NPC (see our post showcasing their system here!). This ensures that solo play stays meaningful and doesn’t turn into a grind.

Here be dragons.

From a technical standpoint, adding multiplayer fundamentally increases the complexity of the game code. In practice, it easily doubles it.

Here's a quick example that happens in our game:

Let's say you want the player to interact with a fireplace to light it up.

1.  The player walks near the fireplace.

2.  The interaction system detects proximity.

3.  A prompt appears: “E – Light Fire.”

4.  The player presses E.

5.  The fireplace sets its internal state to 'lit'.

6.  The particle system plays.

7.  The light component turns on.

8.  The interaction is disabled.

Fairly straightforward!

.....Now look at Multiplayer with 2 players:

1.  Player 2 connects to the server.

2.  The server sends the current state of the fireplace.

3.  Player 2 initializes the fireplace locally based on that state.

4.  Player 2 approaches the fireplace.

5.  The interaction system detects proximity locally.

6.  The prompt appears locally.

7.  Player 2 presses E.

8. The client performs a local check to see if the interaction is allowed.

9. The client sends a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) to the server requesting to light the fire.

10. The RPC arrives at the server after network latency.

11. The server validates the request:

-   Is the fireplace still unlit?

-   Is the player allowed to interact?

12. The server sets the authoritative fireplace state to lit.

13. The server marks the state for replication.

14. The replication system queues the update.

15. The server sends the updated state to all connected clients.

16. Player 1 receives the replicated update.

17. Player 2 receives the replicated update.

18. Both clients execute their replication logic.

19. Both clients spawn the particle effect.

20. Both clients enable the light component.

21. Both clients disable the interaction system on the fireplace.

...And that’s the ideal scenario.

Now add real-world conditions:

-   What if both players press E at nearly the same time?

-   What if a player joins while the fireplace is mid-transition?

-   What if the RPC packet is dropped?

-   What if the fireplace is destroyed while replication is in flight?

Testing and finding bugs can also become much more complex as you need at least two versions of the game running to test. Testing some timing dependent behaviors like blowing someone up while they are climbing into a vehicle might even require two or more humans.

Lighting up a local ranch can create friendships that last a lifetime.

Our Approach

To keep this manageable as a team of 10 crazy persons developers, we are launching with a listen server scheme. This essentially means 1 of the players will be the host. Their save file is authoritative, and they can start the session for others to join.
Anyone in the game can do what they want and are part of the cult on the same level as the host. They can enact teachings, build, fight, control followers. Some mechanics do require all players to approve or be there for them to activate, depending on their impact.

Players “profiles” are saved and their settings/last used follower/pinned missions/etc are restored when joining back a server.

What Comes Next?

Post-launch, one of our main priorities is completing our Dedicated Server implementation. This will allow players to host persistent worlds without needing a player actively running the game as host.

While this is already underway in parallel, we want to make sure it is stable, well-tested, and delivers the full benefits expected from a dedicated infrastructure. We are also working with external partners to support third-party hosting solutions for players who prefer that route.

It is also important for us to allow players to customize their experience, so a comprehensive server configuration system is something we keep in mind. We will absolutely enlist the community’s help in defining what is most important for everyone once we cross that road.

We’ve had an incredible time playing together internally, and we can’t wait to see the stories, chaos, and cult masterpieces everyone will be able to create once we launch.

Cheers,
Pierre-Olivier

Hello! This is Joe, the Creative Director. We're up and running in 2026 and making this cult game.

Follower management techniques! Baseball bat optional but strongly encouraged.

The last 2 weeks at the office have been all about adding TEACHINGS. Teachings are how you craft a customized cult ideology and shape your reality. Some new Teachings are:

• UFO worship/visitations.

• Ghosts of dead Followers return at night. If you upgrade to Poltergeists they can use guns because the only thing scarier than a ghost is a ghost with an automatic rifle.

• Spontaneous Human Combustion; people have a chance to burst into flames when damaged.

• Followers can carry seeds so that, over time, edible plants sprout where they die.

• The cult can eat worms... or people. Your call.

• Staring directly at the sun will regen health - and mess up your vision.

• Possessed farm animals defend your honor in combat.

• The cult can worship weather events.

And many more!

If you believe hard enough, you can manifest UFOs.

Ghost fight! Your dead Followers are back and they have unfinished business.

Out team is having fun with the small details; individually they probably don't make much difference, but there's a cumulative effect that helps the world feel alive.

Some of our favorites...

• Car radios play in 3D so if your friend drives past you can hear their station - and radios are persistent so if a portable radio at the gas station is tuned to the same station as your car, it's the same song at the same point when you get out of the car.

• If 4 friends are riding together in a car in co-op, only the 2 players in front can change the radio.

• Revolvers do not eject shells, because that's how revolvers work. BUT when you reload, we calculate the spent casings vs live rounds in the chamber, and the revolver dumps the correct amount of casings.

• When you climb up on rooftops, civilians yell to get down.

• Enemies can recognize when you're next to an explosive barrel and choose to shoot the barrel instead if they don't have a clear shot at you.

• Parked cars have car alarms when you bump them, but not on older vehicles.

• Thunder scares animals.

• Burns will char character's skin, sometimes permanently.

• The world gets wet when it rains.

• Civilians spawn less at night so towns feel believably empty.

The list goes on.

Not every detail makes the cut. I was updating our custom weather system and thought it would be cool if the sound of thunder came at a realistic interval after the lightning to account for the speed of sound. Turns out it just looks stupid and ruins the moment. Not everything needs to be immersive all the time.

Testing out our weather system and "wet-look" environments. Also driving a cool car.

Thank you for all the support and wishlists! It makes a BIG difference for the game. Having player support means we can spend less time begging people to check out our game and more time making it good.

Anyway, more to come!

From our cult to yours, looking forward to spreading the word of The Leader in 2026.