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, wielding machine guns, before the screen fades to a massive, Cthulhu‑like mass of tentacles. One element that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that originated from a simple suggestion by a team member’s child.
Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounted the moment: “My colleague’s son asked if we could make a gun that shoots snakes. Because we had a modular weapon system, I whipped up a prototype in about thirty minutes. He was thrilled, and the snake gun stayed in the game.” That anecdote captures the chaotic, experimental spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title 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 mindset, which has enabled a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity experience that would normally require a much larger staff.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their philosophy: “We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could deliver a AAA‑quality game with just twelve people.
Most people laughed, but 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 in independent filmmaking, where resourcefulness is essential.
"We come from indie film backgrounds and we’re used to punching well above our weight," Abbott explained. After an arduous 80‑pitch marathon, the studio finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving Wolf Haus the financial runway to bring Join Us to life. Wolf Haus’s leadership team is steeped in Hollywood lineage. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director Mel Gibson, and the two later co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie features Happy Hunting and Manifest West.
Abbott is the son of renowned makeup artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production company founded by Chris Roberts before he turned his attention to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx.
This blend of cinematic experience and entrepreneurial grit informs the studio’s approach to game development. The seed of Join Us sprouted when Dietsch began tinkering with Unreal Engine, attracted by the fact that the engine could be downloaded for free.
"I’d loved games for as long as I’d watched movies, but the barrier to actually creating something seemed huge. I started learning Unreal from YouTube tutorials and built a few small prototypes," he said.
Though he had no formal training, Dietsch managed to create several modest games before deciding to tackle something larger—a doomsday cult simulator that fused his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept prototype and showed it to Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma, a partner studio. The concept resonated, and the project began to take shape. Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had previously worked as a producer and screenwriter in film before moving into games in the early 2000s, contributing writing to titles like 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 roughly C$430 million. After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire. Yet a chance call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the industry.
"I was ready to walk my dog on the beach, but Joe’s demo blew my mind and convinced me to come out of retirement," Wendschuh recalled. He then introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros.
Games VP now heading Raccoon Logic, who became a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer. Funding proved to be the next major hurdle. The team began pitching in the summer of 2023, a period marked by a downturn in the gaming market. Initial reactions were positive—"this looks cool"—but securing capital was tough.
After partnering with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) in Los Angeles and re‑pitching in 2024, Wolf Haus finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credited the CAA connection and the presence of veteran industry figures like Schneider and Chartrand for opening doors. Despite the high‑profile backing, the studio remains lean: only 13 full‑time employees are working on Join Us.
Dietsch emphasized that the small size is intentional, fostering an environment where every voice matters and each team member can influence the creative direction. To make such an ambitious project feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on. "Every system in the game needs to be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explained. "We built a robust toolkit so that as the world expands, the project doesn’t collapse under its own weight.
The first year was as much about creating those tools as it was about designing the game itself." The equity‑funded model gave Wolf Haus the breathing room to perfect these tools. "Krafton and Lifelike’s investment allowed us to self‑fund development," Wendschuh said.
"We’re now only using a modest amount of project finance for marketing. The investors are aligned with our ethos: they want us to build tools that solve problems, even if it slows development, because it enables a small team to deliver a large‑scale experience." When asked about the role of generative AI, Dietsch gave a clear answer: the studio does not employ 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," he said. Wendschuh added that the team only uses AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting. Interestingly, Krafton, which has branded itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a stance taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant.
The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and voice work. The six‑kilometre‑square map is entirely hand‑built, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors—a point of pride for a studio of this size. Dietsch reflected on the differences between film and games, noting that games offer immediate iteration.
"In film, you write a script, wait years, get green‑lit, and finally shoot. In games, you can have an idea this morning and see it in the engine by afternoon," he said.
Wendschuh echoed this sentiment, explaining that while film production is front‑loaded with high‑stakes negotiations for talent, game development faces fewer gatekeepers. "You don’t need an A‑list star or director to make a successful game," he argued, highlighting the democratizing potential of interactive media.
Both creators agree that storytelling is at the heart of their work, regardless of the medium. "When I was six, I wanted to make games or movies—it came down to a coin toss and a Christmas camera," Dietsch recalled. "Whether it’s a film or a game, you’re delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience. The tools have changed, but the core creative impulse remains the same."