Ladies and just gentlemen. This is Gamer Tag Radio. All right, we're back here at Gamer Tag Radio. Now, I want to talk to this person right here because, you know, during the Xbox Game Showcase, there was a trailer that Pop does say, join us. I'm like, wait, join us. What is this? I need to know more about this game. So we have here, Joe, Joe, please introduce yourself and tell us what is it that you do at the studio. What's up?

Yeah. What is this? I need to know more about this game. So we have here, Joe, Joe, please introduce yourself and tell us what is it you do at the studio. What's up? Yeah, Joe Deach. I am the CEO and creative director over at Wolfhouse Games. Awesome, awesome. Well, welcome, welcome, man. Thank you. First of all, I have a feel, man, that finally you're now allowed to talk about the project you've been working on for a while now, man? It's been cool. I mean, I started this project as a solo dev game in 2021, I think. Everyone wants it to be a COVID project and they're like, oh, Joe's, it was Joe's COVID. It was, it was, nah, it was just sort of like, yeah, my background was originally in movies and TV commercials and then always played games, love the space, and one day I found out Unreal Engine was free. And then you start experimenting. Yeah. So we, yeah. Go ahead. No, learned, uh, learned off YouTube. Made terrible first attempts at games, like very, very bad. Uh, but then, you know, started to get a little better, found some people in the gaming industry, showed up to some people, started to build a little community in Montreal specifically around it. And the company kind of sprung up from that with join us. This game about building a doomsday call it is the kind of core IP that was that was anchoring all of us yeah so this idea came about

like from the get go or this is something while you were developing experimenting it popped up

eventually this idea i think i've always had a thing for cults i think it's just a very interesting

platform for storytelling you have this group of people it's kind of like a like a workplace comedy and it's just a very interesting platform for storytelling. You have this group of people.

It's kind of like a workplace comedy in this.

You know, these people together, like the office or something.

This is a group of people, like they're not a family, but they're kind of a family.

Why are they together?

Like, just as they like a place to start telling a story from, I think Colts are really interesting.

What was it about Colts that stood out to you, you know, throughout the years? I think it's such a, like, it's such a specific idea, right? As you get these, this group of people, they've come together, this belief. Like, why are they together? It's like this, it's this chosen family, but for kind of all the wrong reasons, you know, but they've been, it's still this, it's, this, like, social unit. Mm-hmm. Did you had, like, people or someone to tell you, like, more information about Colts? Because, you know, you don't know, you know everything about it, right? You know, that probably like the basics, but, you know, that helped you to add that in the game. you know, I think it's, I used to did a lot of research on it. It wrecked my YouTube recommendations for years. There was like years where the only thing YouTube would recommend me was videos about Charles Manson. Ooh. I finally gotten out of it. But, you know, to us, it was, it was, again, it's using Colts as a platform for storytelling.

I think part of like, you know, if you see Join Us, Join Us is, you know, a game where you're building a doomsday cult of your own. The end of the world is coming. So you have to get followers, build a compound, recruit people, play through the campaign, and eventually build the best cult you can to survive the end of the world. Right. But I think part of the, the charm of the game is that in a sense, it's, it's, like, we do know about cults, but it's kind of made by people. Like, the joke is kind of like, it's as if the developers didn't really know what they were talking about. Because it's a game where you also write a pig and shoot a flamethrower, but it's, it's played very straight. So it's like, just for like, yeah, is this what a cult is? Like, obviously not.

Yeah. also write a pig and shoot a flamethrower. But it's played very straight. So it's like, to us, we're like, yeah, is this what a cult is?

Like, obviously not.

Yeah, yeah.

So you're, so you play as the cult leader, right?

So from scratch, you have no one part of your cult is just you.

So how you managed to get all these people to start joining your cult?

Like is it based on certain things that you do or say or a mix of everything?

Well, in the story of the game, there is a cult leader above you.

Essentially, you start the game off in a pre-established cult and the cult leader kind of calls you before.

I'm just, hey, the world's going to end, as a cult leader might say, you have to go start a cult of your own.

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