The buzz around Join Us began when its trailer appeared in the Xbox Showcase back in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator. The teaser showed robed followers charging on pig‑back, wielding machine guns, and culminated in an ominous vision of Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
Yet one of the most memorable moments— a snake‑shooting weapon— never made the final cut of the showcase. "One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘Can we have a snake gun?’" recalls Joe Dietsch, the studio’s CEO and creative director.
"We had a rapid‑prototyping tool for weapons, so within half an hour I built a gun that fires snakes. It blew the kid’s mind and we kept it in the game." That anecdote perfectly captures the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can amass followers—or friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire.
It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has enabled a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a far 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 thought we were crazy." Wolf Haus’s founders are no strangers to punching above their weight. Their roots lie in independent filmmaking, where they learned to stretch limited budgets into ambitious projects. "We come from indie film backgrounds, so we’re used to doing big things with tiny resources," Abbott says. After 80 pitch meetings, the studio finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took a stake in the company.
The team’s Hollywood pedigree runs deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who also 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 he moved on to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us originated from Dietsch’s experimentation in Unreal Engine. "Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge," he explains. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He created a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the idea quickly gained momentum.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, brings a unique blend of film and tech experience. He began as a producer and screenwriter before founding Sekretagent Productions, which supplied narrative work for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. In the 2010s he launched several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, later sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million). After selling Ebbu, he bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire.
"I thought I’d just walk my dog on the beach," he says, until a call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into game development. That call led Wendschuh to present the demo to Reid Schneider, former VP at Warner Bros.
Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet. Schneider joined as a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer. With the leadership team in place, the next hurdle was financing, which proved difficult amid a market downturn in 2023. The studio’s pitch cycle stretched into 2024, during which they partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles.
"People liked the game but the timing was tough," Dietsch notes. CAA’s connections, along with veteran advisors like Schneider and Chartrand, eventually helped secure a seed round from Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Despite the high‑profile backing, Wolf Haus remains a lean operation of just 13 full‑time staff members.
Their development philosophy centers on empowering every employee to contribute creatively. "We wanted a small‑team atmosphere where everyone has a voice and can touch the creative side," says Dietsch.
To make a sprawling open‑world title feasible with such a compact crew, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on. "If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains.
The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and building the internal tools that would later allow the game to scale across a six‑kilometre‑square map without collapsing under its own weight. The equity funding model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools.
"Krafton and Lifelike’s investment funds the development directly, so the game is essentially self‑funded," Wendschuh says. "We’re now adding a modest project‑finance component for marketing, but the core development was covered by our equity partners." One of the most striking aspects of Wolf Haus’s approach is its deliberate avoidance of generative AI in the creative process. While many studios tout AI‑assisted asset generation, Dietsch insists the team relies on human craftsmanship. "We don’t use generative AI for any creative work.
It would strip away the human touch that makes a game feel alive," he says. Wendschuh adds that AI tools are only used for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting. Even Krafton, which recently rebranded itself as an "AI‑first" company, required assurances that Wolf Haus would not employ generative AI for core development. This mirrors statements from Krafton‑owned Neon Giant, which also distanced itself from AI‑driven production.
The commitment to hand‑crafted content extends to the game's massive map and voice work. The entire six‑kilometre‑square world is manually designed, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors— a point the team emphasizes as a hallmark of quality. Dietsch reflects on the contrast between film and game creation.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, subject to studio approvals and talent scheduling. In game development, however, an idea can be prototyped within hours and tested instantly in the engine. "You can have an idea this morning, drop it into Unreal, and see it in action the same day," he says, describing the immediacy that fuels his enthusiasm.
Wendschuh notes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, requiring high‑profile directors or actors to secure financing. While anyone can shoot a low‑budget movie, breaking through without marquee names is rare. Game development, by contrast, faces fewer gatekeepers; a small team can reach a global audience without A‑list talent. Both founders agree that the core creative impulse—telling stories and delivering experiences—remains the same across mediums.
"Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re trying to engage an audience, tell a story, and give them an experience," Dietsch says, recalling his childhood fascination with both cameras and computers. Join Us therefore stands as a testament to what a tight‑knit, tech‑savvy team with Hollywood experience can achieve without relying on generative AI. It showcases how a blend of film‑grade storytelling, indie‑budget ingenuity, and custom tooling can produce a large‑scale, high‑quality game that feels both personal and expansive.