The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. In the teaser, robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates in a nightmarish vision of Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One detail that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake gun, a quirky weapon that emerged from a spontaneous idea.
"One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’" recalls Joe Dietsch, CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games. "We had a modular weapon system, so I whipped up a snake‑gun in about half an hour.
The kid went nuts, and the weapon stayed in the game." That anecdote captures the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a small group 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‑person team; twelve people can do it.’ Most people laughed and said it was impossible." The team’s confidence stems from a background in low‑budget, high‑impact productions.
"We come from indie film,” Abbott explains, “so we’re used to punching well above our weight.” After 80 pitches, the studio finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University in California 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, a production company originally founded by Chris Roberts before he turned his attention to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch tinkering in Unreal Engine. "The engine was free to download, and I’d always loved games, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge," he says. 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.
He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, ran into technical hurdles, and showed the result to Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma. 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, which supplied narrative work 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 roughly C$430 million (US$330 million). After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire. Yet a call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back: "I saw the demo Joe made and it blew my mind, so I came out of retirement." Wendschuh introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros.
Games VP now heading Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet. Schneider joined as a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, formerly of Ubisoft Montreal, to serve as chief technology officer. With a core team forming, the next hurdle was financing—particularly challenging during the industry downturn of 2023‑24.
The studio pitched repeatedly, eventually signing with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles and re‑pitching in 2024. Their persistence paid off when Lifelike Capital and Krafton closed a seed round, providing the capital needed to continue development.
Abbott credits CAA’s network and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand for opening doors. "Our agent Derek Douglas had represented me for twelve years and previously ran the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh notes.
Despite the high aspirations, Join Us is being built by just 13 full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team model is intentional: "We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership over the final product." To make such an ambitious open‑world possible with limited manpower, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. "Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. "We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across a massive map without the project collapsing under its own weight.
The first year was as much about building those tools as it was about designing gameplay." The equity‑funded model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools. "Krafton and Lifelike’s investment essentially self‑funded the game," says Wendschuh. "We’re now only seeking a small amount of project finance for marketing.
The investors’ equity stake aligns their interests with ours, encouraging us to keep building robust tools even if it slows short‑term development." When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not rely on it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential," Dietsch states. "Using AI to generate content would defeat the purpose of why we get up every morning. We only use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting." Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, also insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline.
This mirrors a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio that publicly denied using AI for game creation. The studio’s 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. "Even as a tiny indie, we felt it was crucial to keep that human element," says Wendschuh. Dietsch reflects on the contrast between film and game development. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring approvals, casting, and extensive pre‑production.
In games, a concept can be prototyped in a matter of hours: "You can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly. That immediacy is exhilarating." Wendschuh adds that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with intense, expensive set‑ups and a reliance on a handful of high‑profile talent to secure financing. While anyone can shoot a low‑budget movie, breaking through without star power or distribution is rare.
By contrast, the barriers to publishing a game are lower; a small team can reach a global audience without A‑list actors or directors. Both mediums, however, share a common creative impulse: storytelling and experience design. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games—it was a coin toss.
I got a camera for Christmas and learned to program on a TI‑83. Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re trying to tell a story and engage an audience," Dietsch concludes. Join Us thus stands as a testament to what a tightly knit, technically savvy team with Hollywood roots can achieve without relying on generative AI. By leveraging custom tools, strategic funding, and a clear vision, Wolf Haus is poised to deliver a wildly original cult‑simulator that feels both cinematic and interactive, all while keeping the development process firmly in human hands.