The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator. In the clip, robed followers ride on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates with a monstrous, Cthulhu‑like mass of tentacles. One element that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake‑gun, a quirky weapon that originated from an off‑hand suggestion by a developer’s child. Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounts the moment: “My team member’s son asked, ‘What would a snake‑gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool, so within half an hour I built a gun that actually fires snakes.
He was blown away, and we kept it in the game.” That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us. The title is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. The gameplay is deliberately wild, encouraging absurdist tactics and over‑the‑top combat.
Yet behind the madness lies a disciplined, technology‑first approach that has allowed a tiny studio to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger crew. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, explains the team’s philosophy: “We set out to be disruptors. Everyone told us you needed a hundred‑person studio to pull off something of this scale. We proved them wrong with just twelve full‑time staff.” Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where small budgets and lean crews are the norm.
Abbott notes, “We’ve spent our careers punching far above our weight, so the idea of a lean development pipeline felt natural.” After a grueling 80‑pitch marathon, the studio finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which now hold stakes in Wolf Haus. 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, the production company originally founded by Chris Roberts before his transition to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. This blend of cinematic experience and entrepreneurial grit informs the studio’s storytelling sensibility. Join Us was born from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine.
“I discovered Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt blocked by the cost and complexity of creating something myself,” he says. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a handful of small prototypes, and eventually gravitated toward a doomsday‑cult concept that merged survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics.
The proof‑of‑concept demo impressed Abbott, who then introduced it to Dooma, a partner that helped refine the vision. Another key player, Dooma CFO and narrative director Dooma Wendschuh, began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into game writing in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, contributing narrative work to titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he launched several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis‑formulation firm 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‑hill roommate Michael Abbott lured him back into game development, and he quickly became a strategic advisor, recruiting former Ubisoft Montreal programmer Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. Funding the project proved challenging amid a broader industry downturn. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, receiving polite interest but few commitments.
After aligning with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and re‑pitching in 2024, Wolf Haus finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits the CAA connection—whose roster includes titles like 007: First Light—and the presence of seasoned veterans such as former Warner Bros.
Games VP Reid Schneider for opening doors. Despite the high‑profile backing, the studio has deliberately kept its headcount low—13 full‑time employees at the time of writing. Dietsch emphasizes that a small team fosters a collaborative environment where every member can influence creative decisions.
To make a large‑scale open world feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. “Any system we build must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” he explains. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the internal toolset that would later allow the team to expand features across a six‑kilometre‑square map without the project collapsing under its own weight. The equity‑funded model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools.
Krafton and Lifelike’s capital was used primarily to finance development, with only a modest amount earmarked for marketing. Because the investors share an interest in growing the studio’s enterprise value, they encourage the team to keep building reusable tools—a practice that may slow short‑term progress but ultimately enables a small crew to deliver a product of this magnitude.
When asked about the role of generative AI, Dietsch gives a clear answer: the studio does not employ AI for creative work. “We believe a game needs a human touch. Handing the creative process over to an algorithm would defeat the reason we get up every morning,” he says. Wendschuh adds that the only AI they use is for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Krafton, which has publicly positioned itself as an “AI‑first” company, actually required assurance that Wolf Haus would not rely on generative AI for core development, echoing similar statements from other Krafton‑owned studios. The team’s commitment to human‑crafted content extends to the game’s audio. All 15,000 voice lines in Join Us were recorded by professional actors, and the expansive map was built entirely by hand. Dietsch argues that this dedication to artisanal creation is especially important for an indie‑scale title that wishes to stand out in a market increasingly saturated with AI‑generated assets.
Comparing his film background to game development, Dietsch highlights the immediacy of the medium. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize: “You write a script, wait for financing, assemble a cast, and then finally get on set—often after a long approval process.” By contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours. “You can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, see it in action, and iterate instantly.
That speed is exhilarating.” Wendschuh notes that traditional film production is front‑loaded with high‑stakes negotiations for talent and studio approval, whereas games face fewer gatekeepers. “Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without star power or distribution, it’s hard to break through. In games, the barriers are lower; you don’t need an A‑list actor or director to find an audience.” Both mediums, however, share a core creative impulse: delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience. In summary, Wolf Haus’s journey illustrates how a small, Hollywood‑savvy team can leverage custom technology, strategic partnerships, and a steadfast belief in human‑driven creativity to produce an ambitious open‑world cult simulator without resorting to generative AI.
Their story underscores the evolving landscape of game development, where lean teams can compete with larger studios by building the right tools, securing the right investors, and staying true to a distinctive artistic vision.