The trailer for Join Us first caught many eyes during the Xbox Showcase in June, presenting a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator where robed followers ride pig‑back while wielding machine guns, culminating in a showdown with colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One quirky element that didn’t make the final cut of the showcase was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that shoots serpents. According to Joe Dietsch, the chief executive officer and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, the idea sprang from a child’s imagination.
"One of our team member’s son asked, ‘Can there be a snake gun?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool for firearms, so within half an hour I built a snake‑shooting weapon. It blew his mind and it stayed in the game," he recounts. That anecdote perfectly captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit of Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can amass followers—or invite friends in co‑op—to form a 1970s‑style cult.
It also illustrates why the studio’s development philosophy leans heavily on custom tooling and a lean, tech‑savvy crew. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: "We set out to be disruptors, to prove that a dozen people could deliver a large‑scale, high‑fidelity title. Everyone told us it was impossible, but we were determined to show otherwise." The team’s confidence stems from a history of achieving big results on modest budgets.
Many of them cut their teeth in independent film, where resource constraints are the norm. "We’re used to punching well above our weight," Abbott says. After a marathon of roughly 80 pitch meetings, the studio finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of actor‑director Mel Gibson—and together they 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, a production company founded by Chris Roberts before his shift to the Star Citizen universe. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments with Unreal Engine. "Unreal Engine was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a massive barrier to creating my own," he explains. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually settled on a concept that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics—a doomsday cult simulator. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the idea quickly gained momentum.
The studio’s narrative director and chief financial officer, Dooma Wendschuh, also brings a rich background in both film and gaming. He began as a producer and screenwriter before founding Sekretagent Productions, which supplied writing talent for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. In the 2010s he launched several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which later sold for roughly C$430 million (about $330 million USD).
After cashing out, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, planning a quiet retirement. Yet a call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the industry.
"When I saw the demo Joe had built, it blew my mind and convinced me to come out of retirement," he says. Wendschuh recruited veteran game executive Reid Schneider—formerly a vice‑president at Warner Bros.
Games and now head of Raccoon Logic—to act as a strategic advisor. Schneider, in turn, brought on Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer. With this core in place, the studio turned its focus to financing. Pitching began in the summer of 2023, a period marked by a broader industry downturn.
Despite the challenging climate, the team persisted, eventually signing with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles and securing seed investment from Lifelike Capital and Krafton in 2024. The partnership with CAA proved pivotal. "Having an agent like Derek Douglas, who’s known me for over a decade and previously led the video‑game department at William Morris, opened doors that would have otherwise stayed closed," Wendschuh notes.
This network, combined with the expertise of Schneider and Chartrand, helped the studio convince investors of its vision. What truly sets Join Us apart is the way it’s being built. Wolf Haus operates with just 13 full‑time staff members, each of whom wears multiple hats.
Dietsch emphasizes that the team wanted a collaborative environment where every voice mattered and everyone could directly influence the creative direction. To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible with a small crew, the studio invested heavily in internal tools from day one. "Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsin explains. "We spent the first year simultaneously designing gameplay and constructing the tooling infrastructure that would let us expand without the project collapsing under its own weight." The equity‑funded model gave Wolf Haus the runway needed to perfect these tools.
Krafton and Lifelike’s capital financed the entire development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing. "Because our investors hold equity, they’re motivated to see the studio’s enterprise value grow, which aligns perfectly with our tool‑building ethos," says Wendschuh. "Whenever we encounter a problem we can’t solve, we build a custom tool.
It may slow us down in the short term, but it enables us to achieve results that would be impossible for a tiny team otherwise." In an era where many studios tout generative‑AI shortcuts, Wolf Haus deliberately steers clear of such technologies for creative work. "We don’t use generative AI in the game’s development because we believe a human touch is essential," Dietsch states. "We have a few subscriptions for mundane tasks like calendar management, but nothing that influences art, design, or narrative." Even Krafton, which has publicly positioned itself as an “AI‑first” company, insisted that Wolf Haus refrain from using generative AI in its creative pipeline. This mirrors the stance of other Krafton‑owned studios such as Neon Giant, which also denied employing AI for core development.
The studio’s commitment to handcrafted content is evident in the scale of the game world and its audio. The six‑kilometer‑square map is entirely hand‑modeled, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by human actors—a remarkable feat for an indie‑scale project. "We wanted every element to feel authentic, even if we’re a small team," says Dietsch. Dietsch also reflects on the contrast between filmmaking and game development.
In film, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent. In games, however, an idea can be prototyped within hours, allowing immediate iteration. "You can have a concept in the morning, drop it into the engine, and see it in action the same day," he says, highlighting the immediacy that fuels his passion for interactive media. Wendschuh adds that while movies are front‑loaded with pre‑production hurdles—securing A‑list directors, actors, and studio backing—games face fewer gatekeepers.
"Anyone can develop a game without needing a famous actor or director, which dramatically lowers the barrier to entry and increases the odds of success," he notes. Both founders agree that, regardless of medium, the core goal remains the same: to craft an experience that tells a story, engages the audience, and leaves a lasting impression. "Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re delivering an experience and a narrative. The tools may differ, but the creative impulse is identical," Dietsch concludes.