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 on pigs, unleash machine‑gun fire, and eventually confront massive, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One of the most memorable, yet unseen, moments was the inclusion of a snake‑shooting weapon, a feature that originated from a simple suggestion by a team member’s child.
Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounted how the team leveraged a rapid‑prototyping tool to craft a functional snake gun in roughly thirty minutes, a novelty that still remains in the final product. This anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, experimental spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival game where players can recruit followers—or friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. It also highlights the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a high‑fidelity title to be produced by a remarkably small crew.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, explains that the team set out to be “disruptors,” believing they could achieve what larger studios do with a fraction of the personnel. "We told everyone we could deliver a AAA‑level experience with just twelve people.
Most thought we were naïve," he said. Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to stretch limited budgets far beyond conventional expectations. The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director 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 his transition to Star Citizen. Abbott’s résumé also includes producing credits on movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a side project for Dietsch while he was tinkering with Unreal Engine.
"Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge," he explained. Starting with YouTube tutorials, he built a few modest prototypes before deciding to tackle a larger vision: a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He created a proof‑of‑concept demo, pushing it as far as his tools would allow before hitting technical limits.
After showing the demo to Abbott, the latter introduced it to Dooma, a production partner. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, entered the picture after a varied career in film production and screenwriting.
In the early 2000s he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he built several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million).
After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood‑Hills roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry. Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh helped secure strategic advice from former Warner Bros. Games VP Reid Schneider and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, an ex‑Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer.
Funding proved to be the next hurdle. The team began pitching in the summer of 2023, a period marked by a broader industry downturn. Despite positive reactions to the game’s concept, securing capital was difficult.
After initial outreach, Wolf Haus signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, refined their pitch, and eventually closed a seed round with Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both taking equity stakes in the studio. The involvement of CAA—whose roster includes titles like 007: First Light—combined with the credibility of veteran advisors, helped convince investors.
"Derek Douglas, our agent at CAA, had represented me for twelve years and previously led the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh noted. What truly sets Join Us apart is its production model: a core team of just thirteen full‑time staff. Dietsch emphasizes that the studio deliberately kept the group small to ensure every member could influence creative decisions and maintain a cohesive vision.
To make an ambitious open‑world game feasible with such a lean crew, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on. "Every system in the game needed to be scalable and debuggable by a single developer," Dietsch said.
The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and building the internal tools that would later support the entire project and future titles. The equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike allowed Wolf Haus to self‑fund the development, using the capital primarily for tool creation and later for limited marketing spend.
"Our investors are motivated to increase the studio’s enterprise value, so they support our tool‑building philosophy," Wendschuh explained. This approach sometimes slows immediate progress but enables a small team to deliver a complex, high‑quality product. When asked about generative AI, Dietsch gave a clear answer: the studio does not employ it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential for games.
Handing creative decisions to an AI would defeat the purpose of why we love making games," he asserted. Wendschuh added that while they use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management, none of it touches the artistic side of development. Interestingly, Krafton—publicly branding itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus refrain from using generative AI in game creation, 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‑kilometer‑square map was built entirely by hand, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, a point the team stresses as a hallmark of their indie ethos. Dietsch also reflected on the differences between film and game production. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring numerous approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent to secure studio backing. By contrast, a game idea can be prototyped within hours, allowing immediate iteration.
"You can have a concept in the morning and see it live in the engine by afternoon," he said, highlighting the immediacy that attracted him to interactive media. Wendschuh observed that filmmaking is heavily front‑loaded, with intense pre‑production and the need for star power to greenlight projects. While anyone can technically shoot a movie with a consumer‑grade camera, breaking through without major names or distribution is rare.
Game development, however, faces fewer gatekeepers; a small team can launch a successful title without A‑list actors or directors. This democratization aligns with the founders’ belief that storytelling—whether through film or games—remains the core objective, and that the medium is merely a vessel for delivering immersive experiences.