The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator where robed followers ride pig‑mounted platforms, unleash machine‑gun fire, and confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One of the most memorable, yet unseen, elements was the "snake gun," a weapon that fires serpents. According to Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, the idea came from a team member’s child who asked, "Can there be a snake gun?" Leveraging an internal tool that allowed rapid weapon prototyping, Dietsch spent roughly thirty minutes building the serpent‑shooting armament, delighting the youngster and cementing the weapon’s place in the final product. That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us.
The game is an open‑world sandbox survival experience set in a 1970s‑style cult, where players can recruit AI followers or invite friends to join the cause in cooperative mode. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, 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 philosophy: "We wanted to be disruptors.
We told everyone we could build a AAA‑level experience with just twelve people, and they laughed." The team’s confidence stems from a background in low‑budget, high‑impact filmmaking. "We come from indie film," Abbott noted, "and we’re used to punching far above our weight." After 80 pitch meetings, Wolf Haus finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in the studio.
The founders’ Hollywood credentials run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director Mel Gibson; the two later 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 Star Citizen venture.
Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated when Dietsch began tinkering with Unreal Engine. "Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games, but the barrier to creating something felt huge," he recalled.
He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few modest prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday‑cult concept that merged his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He crafted a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming it would soon hit a technical wall. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and introduced it to Dooma, a partner studio.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, transitioned from film production and screenwriting to games in the early 2000s, founding Sekretagent Productions, which supplied writing for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. He later built several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million (about $330 million USD). After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood‑hillroommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry.
Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh joined the project, bringing on former Warner Bros. Games VP Reid Schneider as strategic advisor and hiring Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer.
Funding proved challenging amid an industry downturn in 2023. Initial pitches generated interest but not commitment. After aligning with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and refining their pitch, Wolf Haus secured seed financing from Lifelike Capital and Krafton in 2024.
Wendschuh credits the CAA connection—whose roster includes titles like 007: First Light—and the presence of seasoned veterans such as Schneider and Chartrand for opening doors. Despite the high ambitions, the studio operates with just 13 full‑time staff members.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team model preserves a collaborative atmosphere where everyone contributes creatively. To make such a scope feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one.
"Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," he explained. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and building the underlying toolset, a strategy that also prepares the studio for future projects.
The equity financing model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools. "Krafton and Lifelike’s investment funds the game directly, making it essentially self‑funded," Wendschuh said. The investors’ equity stake aligns their interests with the studio’s long‑term value, encouraging the team to continue building robust tools even if it slows short‑term progress.
This approach, they argue, is essential for delivering a complex open‑world experience with a lean crew. When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not rely on it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is vital," Dietsch stated. "Using AI to generate content would defeat the purpose of why we love making games." Wendschuh added that the studio only uses AI for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Interestingly, Krafton—publicly branding itself as an "AI‑first" company—specifically required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and audio. The six‑kilometre‑square map was built entirely by hand, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, not synthetic voices. Dietsch argues that this level of artisanal detail is crucial, even for an indie‑scale title.
Dietsch also reflects on the contrast between film and game development. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, subject to studio approvals and scheduling constraints. In games, a concept can be prototyped within hours, allowing immediate iteration. Wendschuh notes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, requiring high‑profile talent to secure financing, whereas games face fewer gatekeepers, making it easier for small teams to achieve success without celebrity involvement.
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 someone an experience, tell a story, and engage them," Dietsch concluded, noting that his childhood fascination with both cameras and computers set him on this dual‑path. The result is Join Us, a wildly original cult simulator built by a handful of Hollywood‑savvy developers who chose tools, talent, and tenacity over massive budgets and AI shortcuts.