The trailer for Join Us first caught many eyes during the Xbox Showcase in June, unveiling a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator where robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash machine‑gun fire, and eventually confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One quirky element that didn’t make the final cut of the teaser was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—originated from a spontaneous idea by a team member’s child. "His son asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’" Dietsch recalls.
"Because we had a modular gun system, I could prototype it in roughly thirty minutes. The kid went wild, and the weapon stayed in the game." That anecdote perfectly illustrates the kind of chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit AI followers or friends to join a retro‑styled 1970s cult. It also shines a light on the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has enabled a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity title 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.
We told everyone, ‘We don’t need a hundred people; twelve is enough.’ Most people laughed, but we proved them wrong." The team’s confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to punch well above their budgetary weight. After 80 pitch meetings, Wolf Haus finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving the studio the financial runway needed to bring their vision to life. ### Hollywood Roots and Film‑Industry Experience Wolf Haus’s leadership team is steeped in Hollywood pedigree. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University in California alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—who later co‑founded Wolf Haus and 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 the Star Citizen universe. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx.
These connections gave the founders a deep understanding of storytelling, production pipelines, and the art of doing more with less. ### From Unreal Engine Curiosity to a Full‑Scale Game Dietsch’s journey into game development began with a simple observation: Unreal Engine was free to download. "I’d loved games for as long as I’d watched movies, but creating something felt out of reach," he says. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually gravitated toward a concept that blended survival mechanics with grind‑house cinema—a doomsday cult simulator.
He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the duo decided to take it to Dooma, a production partner that helped shape the early vision. ### Building a Team Around Narrative and Technology The studio’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, started his career as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services 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 C$430 million. After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into game development. Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh recruited former Warner Bros.
Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and brought in Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer. ### Funding in a Downturn Pitching began in summer 2023, a period marked by a broader industry slowdown. Despite the challenging climate, the team’s unique blend of film expertise, tech know‑how, and a compelling demo attracted interest. After signing with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and refining their pitch throughout 2024, they closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Abbott notes that CAA’s representation—also handling titles like 007: First Light—combined with the credibility of veterans like Schneider and Chartrand, helped unlock the capital needed to sustain development. ### A Tiny Crew with Big Ambitions Join Us is being built by just 13 full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional: "We wanted a studio where everyone has a voice, everyone touches the creative process, and the game feels like a product of a tightly knit group." To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible, the team invested heavily in internal tooling from day one. "Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains.
The first year of development was therefore split between designing gameplay concepts and constructing the pipelines that would allow those concepts to scale across a six‑kilometre‑square map without collapsing under their own weight. ### Equity Funding and Tool‑Centric Development The equity stakes held by Krafton and Lifelike have allowed Wolf Haus to self‑fund the entire development process. While a modest amount of project finance is being allocated for marketing, the core development budget comes directly from the investors.
This arrangement aligns the investors’ interests with the studio’s long‑term value creation, encouraging the team to build reusable tools rather than relying on shortcuts. "Whenever we encounter a problem we don’t know how to solve, we build a tool for it," says Wendschuh.
"It may slow us down in the short term, but it enables a small team to deliver a AAA‑level experience." ### A Deliberate Choice to Avoid Generative AI When many studios tout AI‑assisted pipelines, Wolf Haus takes a different stance. "We don’t use generative AI for any creative work," Dietsch states plainly.
"Our process relies on a human touch; handing the creative decisions over to an algorithm would defeat the purpose of why we love making games." Wendschuh adds that the studio does use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting, but not for art, design, or narrative. Interestingly, Krafton—an "AI‑first" company—explicitly required that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline as a condition of their investment, mirroring similar policies at other Krafton‑owned studios such as Neon Giant. ### Hand‑Crafted World and Voice Work The six‑kilometre‑square island in Join Us is entirely handcrafted, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by human actors.
Dietsch stresses that preserving a fully human‑driven experience was a non‑negotiable goal, even for an indie studio with limited resources. This commitment extends to the game’s aesthetic, which draws heavily on grind‑house cinema and 1970s cult film tropes, giving the title a distinctive, gritty charm. ### Film vs. Game Development: Speed and Gatekeepers Dietsch reflects on the differences between his film background and game development.
In film, a concept can take years to secure financing, talent, and distribution before it ever sees the light of day. In contrast, a game idea can be prototyped within hours and tested instantly in the engine. "You can have an idea this morning, drop it into Unreal by noon, and see it in action," he says. This immediacy, combined with far fewer gatekeepers—no need for A‑list actors or directors—makes game development an appealing arena for creators seeking creative control.
### The Bigger Picture Both film and games share a core purpose: to craft experiences that tell stories and engage audiences. For Dietsch, the choice between the two mediums was almost a coin toss in his childhood, influenced by whether he received a camera or a programming calculator for Christmas.
Over the years, his love for both has converged in Join Us, a project that marries cinematic storytelling with interactive gameplay, all built by a lean, Hollywood‑savvy team that refuses to lean on generative AI. The result is a bold, chaotic, and meticulously crafted cult simulator that proves a small, determined crew can still make a massive splash in today’s gaming landscape.