Join Us continues to evolve as the developers refine its follower driven system and experiment with fresh ideas. Recent updates highlight how lighting, cult population behavior and supernatural teachings shape the game’s tone, while new details about followers have also been decrypted. So get the Kool Aid ready.

The team has been testing new compound layouts using the modular building tools and has introduced new decorations like torches to help shape a more atmospheric night environment. These updates tie into the game’s emphasis on the day and night cycle. Many of the teachings that guide cult behavior depend on the time of day, with nights offering increased strength and evenings marking natural rest periods. To keep the game playable at all hours, the developers have spent time adjusting moon brightness, shadow contrast, and other lighting elements, even adding a workaround to compensate for how dark Unreal Engine becomes when both the sun and the moon sit below the horizon.

Population systems are also being refined. Towns are now empty out at night instead of remaining crowded around the clock, a change meant to reflect the rural tone of Bedford County. Seasonal inspiration led to tests involving ghosts as well. One branch of teachings explores 1920s spiritualism, allowing players to summon the spirits of fallen followers. These ghosts offer little practical use at first but can eventually be upgraded into poltergeists capable of handling basic work around the compound. Another experimental teaching introduces UFO encounters that may appear at night and attack hostile groups.

The studio also outlined its broader approach to followers, who serve as the core resource in the game. There is no fixed player character. Anyone who joins the cult can be directly controlled, and each follower has their own personality, skills, and quirks. Progress continues even when a follower is not being piloted, which means players may return to a character to find new abilities or unexpected changes. The team describes the game as one where leaders influence rather than micromanage. Followers act according to the cult’s beliefs and rituals, which can lead to dramatically different behaviors between groups. A mellow commune and a violent, unhinged cult will not look or function the same. Cooperative play will aim to amplify that unpredictability when more players shape the world simultaneously.

Join Us is focusing on dynamic systems that keep its world reactive and strange in equal measure, and I think this is what makes the game amazing. I can’t wait to get my own cult started. Sneakers optional.