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 pig‑back, firing machine guns, before the screen fades to a massive, Cthulhu‑like mass of tentacles. What didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake gun, a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a child’s off‑hand suggestion.
"One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new firearm in about thirty minutes, so I built a gun that literally shoots snakes. The kid went wild, and the weapon stayed in the game," Dietsch recalls. That anecdote captures the chaotic, sandbox‑style gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world survival experience where players can recruit followers—or other players in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has allowed a tiny team to punch well above its weight.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed it up succinctly: "We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone, ‘We don’t need a hundred‑person studio; twelve people can do this.’ Most people laughed, thinking it was impossible." The team’s confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where small budgets and lean crews are the norm. "We come from indie film, where you learn to stretch every dollar and wear many hats," Abbott explains.
After 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took a stake in the studio. The founders’ Hollywood connections run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who now co‑foundes Wolf Haus with him.
The two 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 originally founded by Chris Roberts before he turned his attention to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine.
"I discovered Unreal was free to download and started tinkering with it using YouTube tutorials," he says. Though he had no formal training, he managed to create a few small prototypes before deciding to tackle something bigger—a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the idea quickly gained momentum. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, brings a unique blend of film and tech experience.
He began as a producer and screenwriter in Hollywood before founding Sekretagent Productions, which supplied narrative work 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 sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million).
After that windfall he bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet, in classic Hollywood fashion, a call from his old roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into game development.
"I saw the demo Joe had built and it blew my mind, so I came out of retirement," Wendschuh says. Wendschuh then introduced the project to Reid Schneider, former VP at Warner Bros. Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet. Schneider joined as a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer.
By early 2023 the core team was in place, but securing financing proved challenging amid a broader industry downturn. The studio partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for representation and resumed pitching throughout 2024. Their persistence paid off when Lifelike Capital and Krafton agreed to a seed round, providing the capital needed to finish the game.
Wendschuh notes that CAA’s connections—such as representing titles like 007: First Light—were instrumental, as were the veteran gamers on the advisory board. What truly sets Join Us apart is the scale of its ambition relative to its size.
With just 13 full‑time staff members, Wolf Haus has built a high‑fidelity, open‑world title that spans a six‑kilometre‑square map, all handcrafted without procedural generation. "We entered the project knowing exactly what we wanted to achieve," Dietsch says, emphasizing the studio’s desire to keep a tight‑knit culture where every voice matters. To make such a large‑scale experience possible, the team invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset.
"Every system in the game had to be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. By building robust pipelines and reusable tools early, they prevented the project from collapsing under its own complexity as the world expanded.
This tool‑first approach also serves future projects, creating a reusable foundation for the studio. Funding from Krafton and Lifelike has allowed Wolf Haus to self‑finance development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing. "Our investors are equity partners, so they benefit when the studio’s enterprise value grows. That aligns them with our philosophy of building tools rather than cutting corners," Wendschuh adds.
The studio’s commitment to hand‑crafted content extends to voice work: Join Us features roughly 15,000 lines recorded by human actors, and the entire map was modeled by artists rather than generated by AI. When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not use it for creative development.
"We believe a game needs a human touch. Relying on AI to generate assets would undermine why we get up in the morning," Dietsch says.
Wendschuh concedes that they use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting, but not for any artistic decisions. Interestingly, Krafton—despite branding itself as an “AI‑first” company—insisted that Wolf Haus not employ generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio. The studio’s philosophy reflects a broader industry debate about AI’s impact on creative jobs.
"We respect the work of voice actors and artists, and we don’t want AI to replace them," Wendschuh states. The decision to keep everything handcrafted was a deliberate statement about the studio’s values, even as a modest indie. Dietsch also reflects on the differences between filmmaking and game development.
In film, a concept can take years to reach production, often requiring the approval of high‑profile talent and studios. "You write a script, wait three or five years, then hope someone greenlights it," he says. Game development, by contrast, offers immediacy: an idea can be prototyped in a morning, tested in the engine, and iterated upon instantly.
This rapid feedback loop is something he finds exhilarating. Wendschuh notes that movies are front‑loaded with intense, high‑stakes production phases, whereas games have fewer gatekeepers. "Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without big names or distribution, it’s hard to break through. A small game, however, can reach a global audience without needing an A‑list star," he explains.
Both founders agree that the core creative impulse—telling a story and delivering an experience—remains the same across mediums. "When I was six, I wanted to make either games or movies. It was a coin toss that landed on a camera for Christmas," Dietsch smiles. He learned programming on a TI‑83 calculator, and that early curiosity has guided his career.
"Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re crafting an experience, a narrative, and engaging the audience. The tools change, but the goal stays the same." Join Us is slated to launch later this year, promising players a bizarre, satirical dive into cult leadership, complete with snake‑shooting firearms, pig‑mounted cultists, and a world built entirely by human hands.
The project stands as a testament to what a small, motivated team can achieve when they combine Hollywood storytelling instincts, tech savvy, and a refusal to rely on generative AI shortcuts.