The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, giving viewers a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation. In the clip, robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates in a nightmarish vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
What didn’t make the final edit was the infamous "snake gun," a quirky weapon that, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—originated from a child’s off‑hand suggestion. "One of the team members’ sons asked, ‘What if there was a snake‑shooting gun?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new weapon in about thirty minutes, so I built it on the spot. The kid went nuts, and the gun stayed in the game," Dietsch recalls.
This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title where players can recruit followers—or teammates in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a small group to deliver 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 set out to be disruptors. Everyone told us you’d need a hundred people to pull this off, but we believed twelve could do it." Their confidence wasn’t blind; the founders came from indie‑film backgrounds where operating on shoestring budgets is the norm. "We’re used to punching well above our weight," Abbott says.
After a grueling 80‑pitch marathon, they finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in the studio. The founding team’s Hollywood pedigree runs deep.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—and 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 transition to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us was born when Dietsch began tinkering in Unreal Engine. "Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge. I started learning from YouTube tutorials and built a few tiny prototypes," he explains.
Though he lacked formal game‑dev experience, he soon crafted a modest proof‑of‑concept that merged his love for doomsday‑cult narratives with the gritty aesthetic of grindhouse cinema. He showed the demo to Abbott, who then passed it to Dooma, the studio’s early backer.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, entered the picture after a varied career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game writing for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. He later founded several tech ventures, including the cannabis‑formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million.
After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood‑hill roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into development. Wendschuh was instantly impressed by Dietsch’s prototype and agreed to join forces, bringing on former Warner Bros.
Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and recruiting Ubisoft Montreal veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. Funding proved to be the next major hurdle.
The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, a period marked by a broader industry downturn. "People liked what we were building, but the market was tight," Dietsch says. After initial outreach, Wolf Haus signed with CAA in Los Angeles, refined their pitch, and returned to investors in 2024, ultimately closing a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits the CAA connection—and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand—for opening doors that might otherwise have remained closed.
What truly sets Join Us apart is the scale of its creation relative to the size of its team. With only thirteen full‑time staff members, Wolf Haus deliberately designed a development pipeline that empowers each individual to contribute creatively.
"We wanted a small‑team atmosphere where everyone has a voice and can touch every part of the game," Dietsch notes. To achieve this, they invested heavily in custom tools early in the process. "Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," he explains. The first year of development was therefore split between ideating gameplay and building the underlying toolset, a strategy that also positions the studio to reuse those tools for future projects.
The equity financing model gave Wolf Haus the runway needed to perfect these tools. "Krafton and Lifelike’s investment funds the game directly, making it essentially self‑funded," says Wendschuh.
While the studio is now seeking modest project finance for marketing, the core development has been covered entirely by its equity partners. This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s ethos of tool‑driven creation: when a technical problem arises, the team builds a bespoke solution rather than cutting corners. Despite the industry’s fascination with generative AI as a shortcut for small teams, Wolf Haus deliberately shuns it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential.
Using AI to generate core game content would defeat the purpose of why we love making games," Dietsch asserts. Wendschuh adds that the studio’s AI subscriptions are limited to administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting, not artistic creation. Interestingly, Krafton—publicly positioning itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus not employ generative AI in the creative pipeline, echoing similar statements from other Krafton‑owned studios. The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and audio.
The six‑kilometre‑square map is entirely hand‑built, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, not synthetic voices. Dietsch emphasizes that this level of manual craftsmanship mattered even for an indie‑scale title.
Reflecting on the differences between film and games, Dietsch highlights the immediacy of interactive media. In film, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, casting, and lengthy production schedules. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours and tested directly in the engine.
"You can have an idea this morning, drop it into Unreal, and see it instantly—that immediacy is exhilarating," he says. Wendschuh points out that while film production is heavily front‑loaded—often hinging on securing a handful of high‑profile talent—games face fewer gatekeepers. "Anyone can make a game with a modest budget, whereas a movie without A‑list names or a distributor rarely breaks through," he observes. Both mediums, however, share a core creative impulse: telling stories and delivering experiences that resonate with audiences.
In summary, Wolf Haus’s Join Us showcases how a small, Hollywood‑infused team can leverage custom tooling, strategic equity funding, and a staunch refusal to rely on generative AI to build an ambitious, high‑quality cult simulation. Their journey underscores that with the right blend of talent, technology, and tenacity, even a dozen developers can produce a game that feels massive in scope and rich in detail.