The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation. In the clip, robed followers charge on pig‑back while firing machine guns, culminating in a nightmarish vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What viewers didn’t see was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a simple suggestion by a team member’s child.
"His son asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that lets us scale weapons in minutes, so I built one in about half an hour. The kid was thrilled, and the gun stayed in the final build," Dietsch recalls. This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival game where players can recruit AI followers or friends to join a 1970s‑style cult. It also highlights the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a high‑fidelity experience to be assembled by a remarkably small crew.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, describes the team’s ambition as deliberately disruptive. "We told everyone, ‘We don’t need a hundred‑person studio; twelve people can handle this.’ Most people laughed and said it was impossible," he says. Yet the founders’ backgrounds in low‑budget indie filmmaking gave them confidence in punching far above their weight.
After 80 pitch meetings, they finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took a stake in Wolf Haus. The company’s leadership is steeped in Hollywood heritage. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who co‑founded Wolf Haus and 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 house founded by Chris Roberts before his transition to the Star Citizen universe.
Abbott later produced titles such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s experimentation with Unreal Engine.
"I discovered Unreal was free to download and started tinkering after watching countless YouTube tutorials," he explains. Though he had no formal training, Dietsch managed to create several small prototypes before committing to a larger vision: a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the duo presented it to Dooma, the studio that would later become a key partner.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, entered the gaming world after a career in film production and screenwriting. In the early 2000s 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, most notably the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million). After cashing out, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire.
Yet a call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into development. "I watched the demo Joe sent me and it blew my mind—so I left retirement and re‑joined the effort," Wendschuh says. Through Abbott’s network, the studio recruited Reid Schneider, former vice president at Warner Bros.
Games and now head of Raccoon Logic (the creators of Journey to the Savage Planet), as a strategic advisor. Schneider also brought in Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer. With this talent assembled, the next hurdle was financing, which proved difficult amid an industry downturn in the summer of 2023.
The team’s early pitches generated enthusiasm but no commitments. After partnering with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and re‑pitching in 2024, Wolf Haus finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Abbott 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. "Our agent Derek Douglas had represented me for twelve years and previously ran the video‑game department at William Morris," notes Wendschuh.
What truly distinguishes Join Us is the scale of its production relative to staff size. With just 13 full‑time employees, Wolf Haus set out to build a sprawling 6‑kilometre‑square map, 15,000 lines of voice‑over, and a suite of emergent systems. Dietsch emphasizes that the team deliberately designed tools to let a single developer create, debug, and iterate on any system.
"If a feature needs to scale across an open world, we must have a robust toolkit that prevents the project from collapsing under its own weight," he says. Consequently, a significant portion of the first development year was spent simultaneously designing gameplay concepts and engineering the underlying pipelines.
The funding structure also afforded the studio the luxury of time. Krafton and Lifelike’s equity stakes meant the game could be self‑funded for most of its development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing later on. "Our investors want the studio to increase enterprise value, so they support our tool‑building ethos," explains Wendschuh.
"Whenever we hit a technical roadblock, we create a bespoke tool to solve it. It may slow short‑term progress, but it enables a tiny team to achieve something that would otherwise require dozens of engineers." In an era where many developers lean on generative AI to accelerate asset creation, Wolf Haus deliberately eschews such shortcuts. "We don’t use generative AI for any creative work. The human touch is essential to our process," says Dietsch.
The team does employ AI‑powered services for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting, but not for art, design, or narrative. Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, actually required assurance that Wolf Haus would not rely on generative AI for core development, echoing similar statements from Neon Giant, another Krafton‑backed studio. Wendschuh underscores the ethical dimension: "AI threatens jobs for voice actors, artists, and other creatives.
We want to protect those livelihoods," he notes. Consequently, every line of dialogue in Join Us was recorded by human actors, and the entire map was hand‑crafted by the team. Dietsch reflects on the contrast between film and game creation.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, navigating studio approvals, casting, and location logistics. In game development, an inspiration can be prototyped within hours and instantly visualised in the engine. "That immediacy is exhilarating; you can take a concept from a morning thought to a playable test by lunchtime," he says. Wendschuh adds that while film production is heavily front‑loaded—requiring big names to secure financing—games have a lower barrier to entry.
"Anyone can pick up a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without star power or distribution, success is unlikely. In games, the gatekeepers are fewer, so a small indie can reach a massive audience without A‑list talent," he observes.
Both mediums, however, share a common creative drive: storytelling and experience design. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games. It came down to a coin toss and a Christmas camera," Dietsch laughs.
He learned programming on a TI‑83 calculator, bridging his love for both visual narrative and interactive systems. "Whether you’re crafting a film or a game, you’re delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience. The tools change, but the core purpose remains the same." In summary, Wolf Haus’s journey illustrates how a Hollywood‑infused pedigree, savvy tech development, and disciplined financing can empower a dozen‑person studio to produce an ambitious, high‑quality title without resorting to generative AI.
Join Us stands as a testament to the power of small, focused teams to disrupt conventional development models, proving that with the right tools, vision, and tenacity, size is no longer a barrier to creating expansive, immersive worlds.