The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. The teaser showed robed followers riding pigs, firing machine guns, and culminating in a monstrous, Cthulhu‑like tentacle monster.
What didn’t make the cut, according to Joe Dietsch, CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, was the infamous snake gun. “One of our team members’ kids suggested a snake‑shooting weapon,” Dietsch recalls.
“We had a modular gun system, so within half an hour I built a snake‑gun prototype. 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 other players in co‑op mode—to a 1970s‑style cult.
It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a tiny 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 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 team draws on a background in independent filmmaking, where doing more with less is the norm.
After 80 pitch meetings, they finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving the studio the runway to finish the project. The founders have deep Hollywood connections.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who now co‑heads Wolf Haus. Together they co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie films 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 Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us originated from Dietsch’s experiments in Unreal Engine. “Unreal Engine is free to download, and I was frustrated by the high barrier to entry for creating games,” he explains.
He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. The proof‑of‑concept impressed Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma, a partner studio.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into games 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 launched several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company 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 development.
Wendschuh was impressed by Dietsch’s demo and helped bring in strategic advisor Reid Schneider, former Warner Bros. Games VP, and CTO Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, formerly of Ubisoft Montreal.
Funding proved challenging amid a market downturn. The team began pitching in summer 2023, received positive feedback but struggled to close a deal. After signing with CAA in Los Angeles and re‑pitching in 2024, they finally secured seed funding from Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh credits the CAA connection—also representing titles like 007: First Light—and the presence of seasoned industry veterans for the eventual success. Despite the pedigree, the studio remains lean: only 13 full‑time employees.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional, allowing every team member a voice in the creative process. To make an ambitious open‑world game feasible with such a limited crew, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling early on. “Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” he says.
The first year of development was split between designing gameplay and building the internal tools that would keep the project from collapsing under its own weight. This tool‑centric approach also aligns with the equity funding model: Krafton and Lifelike provide capital that the studio uses to finance development, with the game essentially self‑funded. The investors encourage the studio to build robust tools because they increase the studio’s long‑term enterprise value.
When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not employ it for creative work. “We believe a human touch is essential to game making,” Dietsch states. “Using an AI to generate assets would defeat the purpose of why we love this work.” Wendschuh adds that the studio only uses AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting, never for art, design, or writing.
Interestingly, Krafton—publicly branding itself as an “AI‑first” company—insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in its creative pipeline, mirroring a similar 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, not synthetic voices.
This decision reflects the studio’s respect for creative professionals and their desire to preserve jobs for voice talent and artists. Dietsch also notes the immediacy of game development compared with film. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring studio approval, casting, and location logistics.
In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped in a single morning, inserted into the engine, and instantly visualised. Wendschuh agrees, observing that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with extensive pre‑production and gatekeeping by studios and high‑profile talent.
While anyone can shoot a backyard movie, breaking through without established names or distribution is rare. Games, however, have far fewer gatekeepers; a small team can reach a global audience without A‑list actors or directors. Both mediums, though, share a common creative impulse: storytelling and delivering an experience.
Dietsch reflects, “When I was six, I wanted to make either games or movies. It came down to a coin toss and a Christmas camera. I learned programming on a TI‑83, so making games has always been part of me.
Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re trying to tell a story and engage an audience.” Join Us thus stands as a testament to what a determined, technically savvy, and creatively unified small team can achieve—delivering a large‑scale, high‑quality cult simulator without relying on generative AI, and proving that Hollywood heritage and indie‑spirit can coexist in the modern gaming landscape.