The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation. In the clip, robed cultists zip around on pigs, brandishing machine guns, before the screen fades to a monstrous, Cthulhu‑like mass of tentacles. What didn’t make the final edit, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—was the infamous snake gun.
"One of the developers’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a weapon in under thirty minutes, so I built it on the spot. The kid was thrilled, and the weapon stuck around in the final build," Dietsch recalls with a grin. That anecdote captures the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. More importantly, it illustrates the team’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a small group to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a far larger studio.
"We set out to be disruptors," says Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer. "We told ourselves we could deliver a AAA‑level experience with just a dozen people. Everyone else called us crazy." The founders’ confidence stems from a background in low‑budget, high‑impact filmmaking. "We come from indie cinema, where you learn to punch well above your weight," Abbott notes.
After 80 pitch meetings, the studio finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving the project a solid financial footing. Wolf Haus’s leadership is steeped in Hollywood pedigree. 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 Star Citizen venture. Abbott also produced the Jamie Foxx‑led action drama Fight for ’84.
The seed of Join Us sprouted when Dietsch began tinkering with 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 had no formal game‑dev background, Dietsch soon crafted a modest proof‑of‑concept that combined his love for survival mechanics, grindhouse cinema, and the notion of a doomsday cult. He showed the demo to Abbott, who then introduced it to Dooma, a production partner. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before transitioning to games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, which supplied narrative work for titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins.
Later, he launched several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis‑formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million). After the sale, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet a call from his old Hollywood‑Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the industry.
"I watched the demo Joe sent me and it blew my mind. I couldn’t stay retired," he says. Wendschuh recruited Reid Schneider—former Warner Bros.
Games VP and now head of Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet—as a strategic advisor, and brought in Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer. With the core team in place, the next hurdle was funding, a task made tougher by the industry downturn of 2023‑24. After initial outreach, Wolf Haus signed with CAA in Los Angeles, re‑pitched the project throughout 2024, and ultimately closed a seed round with Krafton and Lifelike Capital.
The partnership with CAA, which also represents titles like 007: First Light, proved vital. "My agent Derek Douglas had represented me for twelve years in games and previously headed the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh notes, emphasizing the value of seasoned representation.
What truly sets Join Us apart is the scale of its creation: a full‑blown open‑world experience built by just 13 full‑time staff. "From day one we scoped the project realistically and insisted on a small‑team culture where everyone’s voice matters," says Dietsch.
To keep the ambition manageable, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on. "Any system we build must be scalable and debuggable by a single person. We spent the first year simultaneously designing gameplay and engineering the tools that would let that gameplay survive at world scale." The equity financing model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect those tools.
"Krafton and Lifelike’s investment funds the development directly, so the game is essentially self‑funded. We’re now adding a modest amount of project finance for marketing, but the core development was covered by the equity partners," explains Wendschuh. This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s ethos of tool‑driven development: whenever a technical obstacle appears, the team builds a bespoke solution rather than cutting corners.
In an era where many studios lean on generative AI to accelerate asset creation, Wolf Haus deliberately avoids 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 only uses AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Interestingly, Krafton—publicly positioning itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus not employ generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio. The commitment to handcrafted content is evident throughout Join Us. The six‑kilometer‑square map was manually designed, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by real actors. "Even as a tiny indie, we felt it was crucial to keep the experience human," says Dietsch.
Comparing his film background to game development, Dietsch highlights the immediacy of the latter. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, casting, and extensive pre‑production.
In games, an inspiration can be prototyped in a matter of hours within the engine, offering instant visual feedback. Wendschuh echoes this sentiment, noting that film production is heavily front‑loaded with high‑stakes negotiations for star talent, whereas games face fewer gatekeepers.
"You don’t need an A‑list actor or director to make a successful game; the barriers are lower," he observes. Both mediums, however, share a common creative drive: storytelling and immersive experience. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games—it was a coin toss. I learned programming on a TI‑83, so games were always part of my DNA.
Whether you’re crafting a film or a game, you’re delivering a story and an experience," Dietsch concludes. Join Us thus stands as a testament to what a tightly knit, technically savvy team can achieve without relying on generative AI or massive headcounts.
By leveraging Hollywood connections, savvy financing, and a relentless focus on custom tools, Wolf Haus is poised to deliver a cult‑simulator that feels both wildly eccentric and meticulously crafted.