The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator where robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash machine‑gun fire, and culminate in a showdown with colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What didn’t make the cut, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—was the now‑infamous snake gun.
"One of the developers’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new weapon in about thirty minutes, so I built it on the fly. The kid went wild, and the gun stuck around in the final build," Dietsch recounts. This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title where players can amass followers—or invite friends in co‑op—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire.
The game’s development philosophy mirrors the studio’s broader ambition: to be disruptors who prove that a high‑fidelity, large‑scale experience can emerge from a remarkably small crew. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed it up: "We told ourselves we didn’t need a hundred‑person staff; twelve was enough.
Everyone else laughed, but we were determined to prove it was possible." Their confidence stemmed from a background in indie filmmaking, where small budgets often force creators to punch well above their weight. After 80 pitches, the team finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. The founding trio brings deep Hollywood connections to the table.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—and the two later co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie features Happy Hunting and Manifest West. Abbott is the son of veteran makeup artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production company founded by Chris Roberts before his Star Citizen venture.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine. "I discovered Unreal was free to download and started tinkering with it using YouTube tutorials," he explains.
Although he had no formal training, he managed to assemble a few modest games before deciding to tackle something larger. The concept of a doomsday cult simulator appealed to him because it fused his love for survival mechanics, grindhouse cinema, and the narrative depth of film into a single intellectual property. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming he would eventually hit a technical wall. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and passed it along to Dooma Wendschuh, the studio’s chief financial officer and narrative director.
Wendschuh’s résumé spans film production, screenwriting, and video‑game writing—he contributed narrative work to titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins through his company Sekretagent Productions. He later founded several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis formulation firm Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million. After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire. Yet, in classic Hollywood fashion, an unexpected call from his old roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry.
"I watched the demo Joe sent me, and it blew my mind. It convinced me to come out of retirement," Wendschuh says. He introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros. Games VP now heading Raccoon Logic, and Schneider recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer.
With the core team in place, the next hurdle was financing—a challenge amplified by the industry downturn of 2023. Initial pitches generated enthusiasm but little cash. The studio eventually partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for representation, returned to the pitch circuit in 2024, and secured a seed round from Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh credits CAA’s influence and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand for helping close the deal. Despite the high aspirations, Join Us remains a product of a lean operation: just 13 full‑time staff members.
The studio deliberately cultivated a small‑team culture where every employee can influence creative decisions. To make such an ambitious title feasible with limited manpower, Wolf Haus invested heavily in bespoke tooling early in development.
"Any system we build must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch notes. The first year was spent simultaneously designing gameplay concepts and constructing the underlying tools that would keep the open‑world map from collapsing under its own complexity.
The equity funding model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools. "Krafton and Lifelike’s investment essentially self‑funded the game," says Wendschuh.
While a modest amount of project finance is now being allocated for marketing, the core development budget came entirely from the equity partners. This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s ethos of building reusable tools rather than cutting corners. When asked about generative AI—a hot topic in game development—Dietsch gave a clear answer: the studio does not use it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential.
Relying on AI would defeat the purpose of why we love making games," he says. Wendschuh adds that the only AI tools they employ are mundane productivity assistants for scheduling and email, not for art, design, or narrative.
Interestingly, Krafton, which has publicly positioned itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring similar stances taken by other Krafton‑owned studios. The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and audio. The six‑kilometre‑square map was built manually, and all 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors—an effort the team deemed vital, even for an indie‑scale project.
Dietsch also reflects on the contrast between filmmaking and game development. In film, an idea can take years to materialize, subject to the approval of studios, directors, and actors.
In games, a concept can be prototyped within hours and tested directly in the engine, offering immediate feedback and creative freedom. Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, requiring star talent to secure financing, whereas games face fewer gatekeepers, allowing smaller teams to reach audiences without A‑list names. Both mediums, however, share a core purpose: to deliver an experience, tell a story, and engage an audience.
Dietsch’s childhood fascination with both cameras and calculators set the stage for a career that straddles both worlds. "Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re crafting an experience for someone else," he says, underscoring the timeless nature of storytelling across platforms.