The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. In the clip, robed followers charge on pig‑mounted steeds, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates in a nightmarish vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One element that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake gun, a feature that Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—explains was born from a child’s off‑hand suggestion.
“My team member’s son asked, ‘What would a snake‑gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool, so within half an hour I built a weapon that actually fires snakes. He was thrilled, and the gun stayed in the game,” Dietsch recalls.
That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us. The title is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can amass followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style cult. The gameplay is deliberately unhinged, encouraging experimentation and absurdity. Yet the underlying development philosophy is anything but haphazard.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, says the studio set out to be “disruptors” from day one. “We told everyone we could build a high‑fidelity, large‑scale title with just twelve people. Most people laughed and called it impossible,” he says. Their confidence stems from a history of doing big things on shoestring budgets, a habit forged in the indie‑film world where they learned to “punch above their weight.” After 80 pitches, the team finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital.
The founders’ Hollywood connections run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who later co‑founded Wolf Haus and co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie films Happy Hunting and Manifest West. Abbott is the son of veteran makeup artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, a production company started by Chris Roberts before he moved on to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx.
These cinematic roots influence the game’s aesthetic, blending grindhouse horror with survival mechanics. Join Us originated when Dietsch began tinkering with Unreal Engine after discovering it was free to download. “I’d been a gamer my whole life, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge.
I started watching YouTube tutorials and experimenting,” he says. Without any formal training, he produced a few small prototypes before committing to a larger vision: a doomsday cult simulator that fuses survival gameplay with the stylized excess of grindhouse cinema. He built a proof‑of‑concept, hit what he expected would be a technical wall, and presented the demo to Abbott, who then introduced it to Dooma.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, entered the picture after a career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game writing. He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he launched several tech ventures, including the 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‑hillroommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry.
Wendschuh was impressed by Dietsch’s demo, prompting him to bring in Reid Schneider—former Warner Bros. Games VP—and Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, an ex‑Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as strategic advisor and CTO respectively. Securing financing proved challenging amid an industry downturn. The team began pitching in the summer of 2023, initially receiving praise but little commitment.
After enlisting CAA as their agency and re‑pitching in 2024, they finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits the CAA connection—whose roster includes titles like 007: First Light—and the presence of seasoned veterans such as Schneider and Chartrand for opening doors. What truly sets Join Us apart is how it is being built: a full‑scale, high‑detail open world developed by just 13 full‑time staff. Dietsch emphasizes that the team entered the project with a clear understanding of scope while preserving a small‑team culture where every voice matters.
Early in development they invested heavily in custom tooling. “If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch explains.
“We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across a massive map without the project collapsing under its own weight.” This tooling‑first approach consumed much of the first year, allowing the studio to iterate on gameplay concepts while simultaneously constructing the infrastructure needed to support them. The equity funding from Kraftor and Lifelike provided the runway to perfect these tools. “The money they invested funds the entire development,” says Wendschuh.
“We’re now only using a small amount of project finance for marketing. The game itself is self‑funded through their equity stakes.” This model incentivizes the investors to see the studio increase in enterprise value, which aligns with Wolf Haus’s ethos of building reusable tools rather than cutting corners. When asked about generative AI, the team’s stance is unequivocal: they do not employ it for creative work.
“We believe a human touch is essential for game development,” Dietsch says. “Using an AI to replace our creative decisions would defeat the purpose of why we get up every morning.” Wendschuh adds that while they may use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management, it never touches the artistic side of production. Interestingly, Krafton—positioning itself as an “AI‑first” company—specifically required that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring similar statements from Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. All voice work in Join Us is performed by human actors, and the six‑kilometre‑square map is handcrafted.
Dietsch stresses that this commitment to hand‑crafted content is a point of pride for a studio of their size. He also notes a key advantage of game development over film: immediacy.
“In film, an idea can take years to materialize, needing approvals and big‑name talent. In games, I can prototype a concept in the morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly.
That speed is exhilarating.” Wendschuh agrees, observing that traditional Hollywood projects are front‑loaded with high‑stakes negotiations for A‑list talent, whereas games have fewer gatekeepers, allowing smaller teams to achieve success without star power. Both mediums, however, share a common creative impulse: storytelling and experience design. Dietsch reflects that his childhood fascination with both movies and games eventually converged into a career that blurs the line between the two.
Whether crafting a cult‑themed sandbox or directing a low‑budget feature, the goal remains the same—to immerse an audience in a compelling narrative and give them a memorable experience.