The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator where robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash machine‑gun fire, and ultimately confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One detail that didn’t make the public cut was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—originated from a simple suggestion by a team member’s child.
"His son asked, ‘What if there’s a gun that shoots snakes?’" Dietsch recalls. "Because we had a modular weapon system, I could prototype it in roughly thirty minutes.
The kid went nuts, and the snake gun stayed in the final build." That anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, player‑driven design philosophy of Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival game that lets you recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. It also highlights the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a tiny crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a far larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed it up succinctly: "We wanted to be disruptors.
We told everyone we could build this game with twelve people, and they laughed." The team’s confidence stems from a background in low‑budget, high‑impact filmmaking. "We come from indie cinema and we’re used to punching way above our weight," Abbott says. After 80 pitches, the studio finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving them the runway to continue development without external pressure to cut corners. ### Hollywood Roots and Film‑Industry Experience Wolf Haus’s leadership is steeped in Hollywood heritage.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—who later co‑founded the studio. Together they co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie features Happy Hunting and Manifest West. Abbott, meanwhile, is the son of veteran makeup artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production company originally founded by Chris Roberts before his shift to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. These connections gave the founders a unique perspective on storytelling and production pipelines, but they also taught them how to stretch limited resources. "In film you learn to do a lot with a little," Abbott notes, and that lesson proved invaluable when they turned to video games. ### From Unreal Engine Experiments to a Full‑Blown Cult Simulator Dietsch’s journey into game development began with a simple curiosity: the Unreal Engine was free to download, and he wanted to see what he could create without a massive budget.
He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a handful of tiny prototypes, and eventually settled on a concept that combined survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics—a doomsday cult simulator. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showing it to Abbott, who then introduced it to Dooma, a production partner. The demo impressed Dooma’s chief financial officer and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, who had previously written for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Wendschuh’s own career spanned film production, cannabis‑industry entrepreneurship (selling a formulation company for C$430 million), and even a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island before a call from his old Hollywood roommate pulled him back into game development.
Wendschuh’s network brought additional expertise to the project. He recruited Reid Schneider—former Warner Bros.
Games VP and now head of Raccoon Logic—and Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as strategic advisor and chief technology officer respectively. With this talent pool in place, Wolf Haus could begin the arduous task of securing financing during an industry downturn. ### Funding the Dream in a Downturn The studio started pitching in the summer of 2023, a period marked by reduced investor appetite for risky projects. Initial reactions were positive—"this looks cool"—but the market was tight.
After partnering with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles and refining their pitch, Wolf Haus secured a seed round from Lifelike Capital and Krafton in 2024. Abbott credits CAA’s representation (which also handles titles like 007: First Light) and the credibility of veteran advisors for opening doors that would otherwise have remained closed. ### Building a Game with a Handful of Developers Join Us is being built by just 13 full‑time staff members.
The team deliberately kept the roster small to preserve a collaborative culture where every voice matters. Dietsch explains that early‑stage development focused heavily on tool creation: "If a system can’t be scaled and debugged by a single person, the whole project collapses. We invested a huge portion of the first year in building a robust toolkit that lets us iterate quickly and keep the open world stable." This tool‑centric approach also aligns with the equity‑funded model.
Krafton and Lifelike’s investment is used directly to finance development, allowing the studio to self‑fund the game while occasionally tapping external project finance for marketing. Because the investors own equity, they are motivated to support long‑term value creation, which includes funding the time‑intensive process of building custom tools. ### A Deliberate Rejection of Generative AI When small‑team game development is discussed, generative AI often enters the conversation as a potential shortcut.
Wolf Haus, however, has taken a firm stance against using AI for creative work. Dietsch says, "We believe a human touch is essential. Turning the creative process over to an AI would defeat the purpose of why we love making games." Wendschuh adds that the studio only uses generative AI for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Even Krafton, which publicly branded itself as an "AI‑first" company, insisted that Wolf Haus avoid AI in the creative pipeline, fearing it could dilute artistic integrity and jeopardize jobs for voice actors and artists. Consequently, the six‑kilometer‑square map in Join Us is handcrafted, and all 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human talent.
### Film vs. Game Development: Speed and Accessibility Dietsch reflects on the contrast between his film background and game development. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, casting, and massive budgets before a director ever sees the finished product. In games, the feedback loop is immediate: "You can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, and see it in action within hours.
That immediacy is exhilarating." Wendschuh notes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with intense pre‑production phases to secure A‑list directors and actors before a studio greenlights a project. By contrast, the game industry has far fewer gatekeepers; a small indie can reach a global audience without celebrity names, making the odds of success considerably higher. ### A Shared Creative Impulse Both founders trace their passion back to childhood. Dietsch recalls wanting to make either movies or games at age six, a decision that ultimately hinged on receiving a camera for Christmas.
He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, blending technical curiosity with storytelling ambition. "Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience," he says. That shared impulse drives Join Us, a game that melds survival mechanics, dark humor, and cult‑themed narrative into a single, player‑driven world.
In summary, Wolf Haus’s journey illustrates how a handful of Hollywood‑savvy creators can leverage deep industry connections, disciplined tool development, and a clear philosophical stance against AI to craft an ambitious open‑world title. Their story challenges the notion that massive budgets and large teams are prerequisites for high‑quality games, showing instead that vision, ingenuity, and a tight‑knit team can produce something truly disruptive.