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 preview, robed cultists ride pig‑mounted platforms, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates with a massive, Cthulhu‑like tentacle monster looming on the horizon. What the audience didn’t see 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 imagination. “One of our team members’ son asked, “What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?” He wanted to see it in the game.
Because our internal toolset lets us prototype weapons in a matter of minutes, I whipped up a functional snake gun in roughly half an hour. The kid was thrilled, and the weapon stayed in the final build.
That anecdote captures the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has enabled a small crew to craft a high‑fidelity experience that would normally require a much larger staff.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: “We wanted to be disruptors. Everyone told us a twelve‑person team couldn’t deliver a AAA‑level game.
We proved them wrong.” The team’s confidence stems from a history of doing big things on shoestring budgets. Many of the founders cut their teeth on independent films, learning how to punch well above their weight.
After 80 pitches, they finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. The founding trio carries deep Hollywood pedigree. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University in California, where he met Louie Gibson—son of actor‑director Mel Gibson—who later co‑founded Wolf Haus. 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 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 experimentation with Unreal Engine. “Unreal Engine is free to download, and I was fascinated by how inaccessible game development felt despite my lifelong love of games and movies,” he explains.
He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, eventually building a few modest prototypes before deciding to tackle something larger. The concept that kept resurfacing was a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics—a hybrid of his two passions. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming it would eventually hit a technical wall. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and took it to Dooma, a partner studio.
Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had begun his career as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into games in the early 2000s, contributing writing to titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he founded several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million. After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire. Yet, in classic Hollywood fashion, an unexpected call from his old roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into development.
“I was ready for a quiet life, but when I saw Joe’s demo it blew my mind and convinced me to come out of retirement,” he recalls. Wendschuh then introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros.
Games VP now heading 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, as chief technology officer. With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was financing—particularly challenging during the industry downturn of 2023.
Initial pitches generated enthusiasm but little commitment. After partnering with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, the studio resumed pitching in 2024 and eventually closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits CAA’s representation, noting that their agent Derek Douglas had previously represented him during his twelve‑year game‑development career and had headed the video‑game department at William Morris. Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us remains a lean operation with just thirteen full‑time staff members.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional: “We wanted a setting where everyone has a voice, everyone touches the creative process, and the game feels like the product of a tight‑knit group.” To make a large‑scale open world feasible for such a compact team, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. “Any system we build must be scalable and debuggable by a single developer,” Dietsch explains.
“We spent a significant portion of the first year iterating on the game concept while simultaneously constructing the tools that would allow us to expand it without the project collapsing under its own weight.” The funding structure also gave the studio breathing room to perfect these tools. Krafton and Lifelike Capital provided equity investment that covered development costs, allowing the team to self‑fund the game.
While a modest amount of project finance is now being used for marketing, the core development was entirely financed by the equity partners. Both Dietsch and Wendschuh stress that this equity model aligns investor incentives with the studio’s long‑term value creation, encouraging the building of reusable tools rather than cutting corners. When asked about the role of 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 assets would defeat the purpose of why we love making games.” Wendschuh adds that the team only uses AI for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting. Krafton, despite branding itself as an “AI‑first” company, explicitly discouraged Wolf Haus from employing generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant.
The team is also committed to preserving jobs for voice actors and artists. All 15,000 voice lines in Join Us were recorded by human talent, and the six‑kilometre‑square map was handcrafted, not procedurally generated by AI. Dietsch reflects on the differences between film and game creation.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring approvals, casting, and studio greenlights. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours, allowing immediate iteration.
“You can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly. That immediacy is exhilarating,” he says.
Wendschuh notes that filmmaking is heavily front‑loaded, with intense pre‑production phases that depend on securing a handful of high‑profile talent. While anyone can shoot a backyard movie, achieving commercial success without star power or distribution is rare. Game development, however, has fewer gatekeepers; a small team can reach a broad audience without needing A‑list names. Both founders agree that, regardless of medium, the core goal remains the same: to craft an experience, tell a story, and engage an audience.
Dietsch recalls his childhood fascination with both movies and games, saying the choice between the two was essentially a coin toss, shaped by the tools he had at the time. Today, that same passion drives Wolf Haus to deliver a wildly original cult simulator built by a dozen creators, proving that size isn’t the only factor in making a game that stands out.