The buzz around Join Us first erupted when its trailer appeared in the Xbox Showcase back in June. The clip offered a tongue‑in‑cheek glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator, complete with robed disciples riding pigs, wielding machine guns, and culminating in a nightmarish vision of Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What didn’t make the final cut was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—originated 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 under thirty minutes, so I built a gun that actually fires snakes.
The kid was ecstatic, and the weapon stuck around in the final build," Dietsch recalls with a grin. That anecdote perfectly captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us.
The game is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends into co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. Yet beyond the wacky gameplay lies a disciplined, technology‑first philosophy that has allowed a tiny studio to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a far larger crew. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, sums up the ambition: "We set out to be disruptors.
Everyone told us a twelve‑person team couldn’t deliver a game of this scale. We proved them wrong." The founders lean heavily on their Hollywood pedigree. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson and fellow Wolf Haus co‑founder—and the two co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie features Happy Hunting and Manifest West. Abbott, meanwhile, is the son of renowned makeup artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production company founded by Chris Roberts before his shift to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a personal experiment in Unreal Engine. "I discovered Unreal was free to download and thought, why not give it a try? I learned everything from YouTube tutorials," Dietsch explains.
Despite lacking formal game‑dev experience, he built a few modest prototypes before committing to a larger vision: a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He crafted a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the concept quickly gained momentum.
The studio’s financial architect, Dooma Wendschuh, entered the picture after a varied career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game narrative work. In the early 2000s he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing writing services for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he built and sold a cannabis‑formulation company, Ebbu, for roughly C$430 million. After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from old friend Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry.
Wendschuh was immediately impressed by Dietsch’s demo and agreed to join the venture. To strengthen the leadership team, Wolf Haus recruited Reid Schneider—former vice‑president at Warner Bros.
Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet—as a strategic advisor. Schneider, in turn, brought on Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer. Securing capital proved to be the next major hurdle. The team began pitching in the summer of 2023, a period marked by a broader industry downturn.
While the concept consistently garnered praise, the timing made investors cautious. After initial outreach, Wolf Haus signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles and intensified its pitch efforts throughout 2024.
Ultimately, they closed a seed round with equity stakes taken by Kraft on and Lifelike Capital. Wendschuh believes CAA’s representation—alongside the involvement of seasoned game veterans—was pivotal.
"My longtime agent Derek Douglas, who once led the video‑game department at William Morris, helped open doors that would have otherwise stayed closed," he notes. What truly sets Join Us apart is the scale of its production relative to the size of the team.
With only thirteen full‑time staff members, Wolf Haus deliberately designed its workflow to keep everyone’s voice heard and to ensure each person could contribute creatively. To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on. "Any system we build has to be scalable and debuggable by a single developer," says Dietsch.
"We spent the first year simultaneously designing gameplay and engineering the tools that would let us expand those systems across a massive map without the project collapsing under its own weight." The funding structure reinforced this tool‑centric approach. Both Krafton and Lifelike provided equity financing that covered the entire development budget, allowing Wolf Haus to self‑fund the game without external pressure to cut corners.
"Our investors are aligned with our long‑term vision; they want the studio’s enterprise value to grow, so they encourage us to build robust tools even if it slows short‑term progress," Wendschuh explains. In an era where many studios tout generative AI as a shortcut, Wolf Haus deliberately steers clear of it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential to game making. Using AI to generate core content would defeat the purpose of why we love this work," Dietsch asserts.
Wendschuh adds that the only AI they employ is for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting. Even Krafton, which recently branded itself as an "AI‑first" company, insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in its creative pipeline. This mirrors the stance of Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio that publicly rejected the parent’s AI pivot.
The commitment to handcrafted content is evident throughout Join Us. The six‑kilometre‑square game world was manually built, and the title features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by real actors—no synthetic voices.
Dietsch highlights a key advantage of game development over film: immediacy. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring scripts, casting, financing, and countless approvals before a single frame is shot. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped in a matter of hours and instantly visualized within the engine. "You can have an idea at breakfast, drop it into Unreal, and see it on screen by lunch," he says, describing the exhilarating feedback loop that keeps his team motivated.
Wendschuh notes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with massive logistical challenges before any shooting begins. While anyone can technically shoot a backyard movie, breaking through without star power or studio backing is rare. By contrast, the video‑game market has fewer gatekeepers, making it easier for small teams to achieve commercial success without celebrity endorsements.
Both mediums, however, share a core creative impulse: storytelling and immersive experience. "Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re trying to give people a story and an emotional journey," Dietsch reflects.
"My love for both started when I was six, flipping a coin between a camera and a game console. I learned programming on a TI‑83, and that curiosity has guided my career ever since." In summary, Wolf Haus’s Join Us exemplifies how a small, tightly knit team—armed with Hollywood know‑how, savvy business experience, and a dedication to building its own tools—can deliver a sprawling, high‑quality game without relying on generative AI.
Their story underscores the power of interdisciplinary talent, strategic financing, and a willingness to defy conventional expectations in the ever‑evolving landscape of interactive entertainment.