The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, giving viewers a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator. In the clip, robed cultists ride on pigs, wield machine guns, and the sequence culminates with a monstrous, Cthulhu‑like mass of tentacles. What didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake gun, a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the chief executive officer and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a child’s imagination.
According to Dietsch, one of the developers’ sons asked, “What would a snake‑shooter look like?” The studio already had a rapid‑prototyping tool that could scale a weapon design in minutes, so within half an hour Dietsch had a functional snake‑firing gun in the game. The youngster was thrilled, and the weapon stayed in the final build, exemplifying the playful, chaotic tone that Join Us aims to deliver. Join Us is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style cult. The game’s design philosophy mirrors the development team’s own approach: lean, tool‑centric, and deliberately disruptive.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, explains that the studio set out to prove that a high‑quality, large‑scale title could be produced by a tiny crew. “We told everyone we could do it with twelve people. Most people laughed and called it impossible,” he recalls. Their confidence stems from a background in independent filmmaking, where small budgets often require creative problem‑solving and a willingness to punch far above one’s weight.
Before securing a partnership with Krafton and Lifelike Capital—both of which took equity stakes in Wolf Haus—the team endured a grueling 80‑pitch marathon. The founders’ deep ties to Hollywood helped open doors. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director Mel Gibson, and together they co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie features Happy Hunting and Manifest West.
Abbott is the son of renowned Hollywood 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. The seed of Join Us was planted when Dietsch began experimenting with Unreal Engine, attracted by its free download model. “I’d loved games for years, but the barrier to actually create something felt huge,” he says.
He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, built a few modest prototypes, and eventually returned to a recurring idea: a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. This concept became the foundation for a proof‑of‑concept demo that Dietsch showed to Abbott, who then introduced it to Dooma, a partner studio. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, brings a hybrid background of film production and game writing. Early in his career he produced and scripted for movies before moving into video‑game narrative work in the early 2000s, founding Sekretagent Productions, which contributed writing to titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins.
Later, Wendschuh founded several tech ventures, most notably 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 development.
Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh revived his involvement, bringing in Reid Schneider—former Warner Bros. Games VP and now head of Raccoon Logic—to act as strategic advisor, and recruiting Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a veteran Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer. Funding proved challenging amid a market downturn in mid‑2023. The team’s initial pitches generated interest but also skepticism.
After partnering with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, they refined their pitch and secured a seed round from Lifelike Capital and Krafton in 2024. Wendschuh notes that CAA’s representation, which also covers titles like 007: First Light, and the presence of seasoned industry veterans were instrumental in closing the deal. Despite the high ambitions, Join Us is being built by just 13 full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the studio deliberately kept the team small to ensure every voice could influence the creative direction.
To make a large‑scale, high‑fidelity world feasible with limited manpower, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset. “Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” he explains.
The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the underlying toolset, a strategy that also prepares the studio for future projects. The equity‑funded model gave Wolf Haus the financial runway to perfect these tools without external pressure to cut corners. Krafton and Lifelike’s capital funded the entire development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing. Because the investors’ returns are tied to the studio’s enterprise value, they encourage the team to build reusable tools rather than rely on shortcuts.
This philosophy sometimes slows immediate progress but ultimately enables a small crew to deliver a complex open‑world experience. When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not employ it in the creative process. Dietsch argues that a human touch is essential to game development; outsourcing creative decisions to an algorithm would undermine the very reason developers wake up excited to work.
Wendschuh adds that while they may use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management or email drafting, it never touches design, art, or narrative. Interestingly, Krafton—publicly branding itself as an “AI‑first” company—specifically required that Wolf Haus not integrate generative AI into its creative pipeline, mirroring similar stances taken by other Krafton‑owned studios such as Neon Giant. The 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 AI‑generated speech.
This decision reflects the team’s respect for creative labor and a desire to preserve jobs for voice talent and artists. Dietsch reflects on the contrast between filmmaking and game development. Film projects often involve years of pre‑production, securing high‑profile talent, and navigating studio gatekeepers before a camera ever rolls.
By contrast, a game idea can be prototyped in a single morning, inserted into an engine, and instantly experienced. This immediacy, he says, fuels his enthusiasm for interactive media. Wendschuh observes that while film production is front‑loaded with intense, short‑term bursts of activity, games allow for iterative development and a lower barrier to entry for independent creators.
“Anyone could rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without star power or distribution, success is rare,” he notes. “In games, the gatekeepers are fewer, so a small team with a great idea has a much higher chance of breaking through.” Both founders trace their passion back to childhood: Dietsch wanted to make either movies or games, depending on whether he received a camera or a computer for Christmas.
He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, laying the groundwork for a career that now blends cinematic storytelling with interactive design. Ultimately, whether through film or games, the goal remains the same—to craft an experience, tell a story, and engage an audience.
Join Us stands as a testament to that vision, proving that a small, dedicated team can build an ambitious, high‑quality title without relying on generative AI, instead leaning on human creativity, bespoke tools, and a dash of Hollywood flair.