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 zip around on pigs, unleash machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates in a shot of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What didn’t make the final edit was the infamous snake gun, a quirky weapon that, according to Wolf Haus Games’ CEO and creative director Joe Dietsch, was born from a child’s off‑hand suggestion. "One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What if there was a snake‑shooter?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool for weapons, so within half an hour I built a gun that fires snakes.
The kid went nuts, and we kept it in the game," Dietsch recounts. This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit AI followers or friends into a 1970s‑style cult. It also illustrates why the studio leans heavily on custom technology: with a tiny roster of developers, they needed tools that could stretch a modest budget into a high‑fidelity title.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up the team’s philosophy: "We wanted to be disruptors. Everyone told us a twelve‑person team couldn’t deliver a game of this scope.
We proved them wrong." Their confidence stems from a history of punching far above their weight in the indie film world. "We come from indie cinema, where you learn to do a lot with very little," Abbott says.
After 80 pitches, the studio finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving the project the financial backing it needed while allowing the developers to retain creative control. The founding trio’s Hollywood pedigree runs deep.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—and the two later 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 company founded by Chris Roberts before his transition to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. This blend of cinematic know‑how and entrepreneurial grit set the tone for Wolf Haus’s approach to game development. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s idle experiments in Unreal Engine. "Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games, but the barrier to actually making one felt huge.
I started watching YouTube tutorials and tinkering," he explains. After a few modest prototypes, the idea of a doomsday cult simulator kept resurfacing because it merged his love for survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, ran it by Abbott, and the concept quickly attracted the attention of Dooma, a production partner.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, brings a hybrid background of film and tech. He began as a screenwriter and producer before founding Sekretagent Productions, which supplied narrative work 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 firm Ebbu, which sold for roughly 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 industry.
Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh helped recruit former Warner Bros. Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and brought in Ubisoft veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. Funding proved challenging amid a market downturn. The team began pitching in summer 2023, receiving mixed reactions but ultimately signing with CAA in Los Angeles.
Their persistence paid off in 2024 when Lifelike Capital and Krafton closed a seed round. Wendschuh notes that CAA’s representation, which also covers titles like 007: First Light, and the presence of seasoned veterans such as Schneider and Chartrand, were instrumental in gaining investor confidence. Despite the high ambitions, the studio remains lean—13 full‑time staff members.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional: "Everyone has a voice, everyone touches the creative, and the game feels like it was made by a tight‑knit group." To make this possible, the first year of development was split between ideation and building a robust toolset. "Any system we create must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," he says.
By investing heavily in in‑house tools, the team ensures that as features proliferate across the open world, the project doesn’t collapse under its own weight. The equity funding model also grants the studio flexibility. Krafton and Lifelike’s capital has been used to self‑finance the game, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing. This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s long‑term value creation, encouraging the continued development of custom tools even when they slow short‑term progress.
When asked about generative AI, Dietsch gives a clear answer: the studio does not rely on it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential.
Using AI to generate core content would defeat the purpose of why we love making games," he says. Wendschuh adds that while they may use AI for administrative tasks like calendar management, it never touches the artistic side.
Interestingly, Krafton—positioned as an "AI‑first" company—explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio. The commitment to handcrafted content is evident throughout Join Us.
The six‑kilometre‑square map is entirely hand‑built, and the game boasts 15,000 voice lines recorded by real actors—no synthetic voices. Dietsch stresses that this level of manual effort is crucial, even for a modest indie title, because it preserves the authenticity and emotional resonance he values. Comparing his film background to game development, Dietsch highlights the immediacy of the latter. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the coordination of high‑profile talent.
In games, an idea can be prototyped in a single morning, placed directly into the engine, and instantly experienced. Wendschuh notes that while film production is front‑loaded with expensive talent and gatekeepers, the game industry offers a lower barrier to entry: "You don’t need an A‑list actor or director to make a successful game." Both mediums, however, share a common creative drive: storytelling and immersive experience. Dietsch reflects that his childhood fascination with both movies and video games set him on a path where the distinction between the two is merely a matter of tools, not intent. "Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re trying to give someone an experience, tell a story, and engage them," he concludes.