The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator. In the clip, robed followers charge on pig‑back while brandishing machine guns, and the sequence culminates with a monstrous, Cthulhu‑like mass of tentacles.
One detail that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that originated from a casual suggestion by a developer’s child. Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounts the moment: “My teammate’s son asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a modular gun‑creation tool, so within about thirty minutes I built a prototype that actually fired snakes. He was blown away, and we kept it in the game.” That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us.
The title is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit AI followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style cult. The gameplay is deliberately over‑the‑top, encouraging players to experiment with bizarre weapons, absurd rituals, and sprawling, hand‑crafted environments. What makes the project truly remarkable is the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has allowed a small, tightly‑knit team to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: “We wanted to be disruptors.
We told everyone we could build this game with a dozen people, and they laughed. But we’ve spent our careers punching far above our weight, so we knew it was possible.” The team’s background is steeped in indie filmmaking, a discipline that teaches creators to stretch limited resources into compelling narratives. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—who later co‑founded Wolf Haus.
Together they co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie features Happy Hunting and Manifest West. Abbott, the son of veteran Hollywood makeup artist Larry Abbott, helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production company started by Chris Roberts before his transition to the Star Citizen universe, and later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us was born when Dietsch began tinkering with Unreal Engine after discovering that the software could be downloaded for free. “I’d loved games for as long as I’d watched movies, but the barrier to actually building something felt huge,” he explains. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, crafted a few modest prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday‑cult simulation that merged his love of grindhouse cinema with survival‑game mechanics. The initial proof‑of‑concept was rough but promising, and when he showed it to Abbott, the latter immediately took it to Dooma, a partner studio that helped shape the vision.
The financial side of the venture was anything but smooth. Wolf Haus pitched the concept roughly 80 times before securing equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital. Their CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had a uniquely varied career: after producing and writing for film, he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. He later built a cannabis‑formulation company, Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million.
After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood‑hill roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the game industry, and he soon recruited former Warner Bros. Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and Ubisoft veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. Securing funding during an industry downturn proved challenging.
After initial outreach in the summer of 2023, the team enlisted the representation of Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and returned to pitching in 2024. Their persistence paid off when Lifelike Capital and Krafton closed the seed round, providing the capital needed to continue development without compromising creative control. Wolf Haus’s development approach centers on building robust, scalable tools that allow a single developer to iterate quickly across a massive open world. Dietsch explains, “If a system exists in the game, it must be debuggable and extensible by one person.
We invested heavily in a custom toolkit during the first year, essentially building the game while simultaneously building the tools that make the game possible.” This philosophy extends to future projects, as the studio intends to reuse the same toolset for subsequent titles. Funding from Krafton and Lifelike has been structured as equity, meaning the investors share in the studio’s eventual enterprise value.
This arrangement encourages the studio to prioritize long‑term tool development over short‑term shortcuts. “Whenever we encounter a problem we can’t solve, we build a tool to address it,” says Dietsch.
“It may slow us down momentarily, but it enables us to achieve a level of quality that would be impossible with a tiny team otherwise.” In an era where many studios tout generative‑AI pipelines, Wolf Haus deliberately avoids AI for any creative aspect of Join Us. “We believe a game needs a human touch,” Dietsch asserts. “We use AI only for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting. The art, design, writing, and voice work are all handcrafted.” This stance aligns with Krafton’s own investment criteria; the Korean publisher, despite branding itself as an “AI‑first” company, required assurance that Wolf Haus would not rely on generative AI for core creative production.
The result is a six‑kilometre‑square map built entirely by hand and roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by professional actors. The transition from film to games offers Dietsch a different kind of immediacy.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring greenlights, casting, and massive logistical coordination. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours, allowing developers to see their vision in real time. “You can have an idea at breakfast and test it in the engine by lunch,” he says, highlighting the rapid feedback loop that fuels his enthusiasm.
Wendschuh adds that while film production is heavily front‑loaded—requiring star talent and studio approval before any shooting begins—game development has far fewer gatekeepers. “Anyone can make a game with a modest budget, whereas a movie without A‑list talent or a distribution deal rarely finds an audience,” he notes.
This democratization is one of the reasons Wolf Haus feels confident in pursuing ambitious, niche concepts like a cult‑simulator. Both founders trace their creative passions back to childhood.
Dietsch recalls wanting to make either movies or games at the age of six, a decision that ultimately hinged on a Christmas camera. He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, laying the groundwork for a career that now bridges two storytelling mediums. “Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re trying to give someone an experience, tell a story, and engage them,” he reflects.
That shared purpose underpins Join Us, a game that blends cinematic absurdity with interactive freedom, all crafted by a team that refuses to rely on generative AI and proves that a dozen dedicated creators can build something truly large‑scale.