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 pigs, unleash a hail of gunfire, and ultimately confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One of the most memorable moments that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake‑gun, a weapon that originated from a simple suggestion by a team member’s child. Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounts how his team took that off‑hand idea and, using a rapid‑scaling tool they had built, crafted a functional snake‑shooting gun in roughly half an hour. The result remains a quirky staple of the game.
Join Us is an open‑world sandbox survival experience that lets players recruit followers—or fellow players in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. The chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay is a direct reflection of the studio’s tech‑first philosophy, which has allowed a tiny crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, explains that the team set out to be “disruptors,” aiming to prove that a dozen developers could deliver a AAA‑level product. “Everyone told us it was impossible,” Abbott says, “but we knew from indie filmmaking that we could punch well above our weight.” The founders of Wolf Haus bring deep Hollywood connections to the table.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who later co‑founded the studio. Together they 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 transition to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. These film‑industry roots gave the team a comfort with tight budgets, rapid pivots, and the need to wear multiple hats—skills that translate well to indie game development. The genesis of Join Us can be traced back to Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine. “Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a huge barrier to actually building something,” he explains.
He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, creating a few modest prototypes before committing to a larger vision. The concept that stuck was a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with the aesthetic of grindhouse cinema—a hybrid that appealed to both his gaming and filmmaking sensibilities.
After assembling a proof‑of‑concept demo, Dietsch presented it to Abbott, who then took it to Dooma, a production partner. Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had previously produced and written for major film franchises before moving into games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, Wendschuh built several tech ventures, including the cannabis‑formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million.
After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry. Wendschuh was instantly impressed by the Join Us demo and helped secure strategic advisors, including former Warner Bros.
Games VP Reid Schneider and former Ubisoft Montreal programmer Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, who joined 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 the challenging climate, they persisted, eventually signing with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and relaunching their pitch campaign in 2024. Their perseverance paid off when Krafton and Lifelike Capital each took an equity stake, providing the seed capital needed to move forward.
Wendschuh notes that CAA’s representation—also handling titles like 007: First Light—along with the credibility of veteran advisors, helped convince investors of the studio’s potential. What truly sets Join Us apart is the scale of its ambition relative to the size of its team. At any given moment, Wolf Haus employs roughly 13 full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the studio deliberately kept the roster small to maintain a collaborative environment where “everyone has a voice and touches the creative.” To make a sprawling, open‑world game feasible with such limited manpower, the team invested heavily in custom tooling during the first year of development.
“If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch explains. By building robust pipelines and reusable tools early on, they ensured that as features expanded across the six‑kilometre‑square map, the project wouldn’t crumble under its own weight. The equity funding model also gave Wolf Haus the breathing room to perfect these tools. Krafton and Lifelike’s investment was used to self‑fund the entire development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing later on.
This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s long‑term value creation, encouraging the team to continue building internal tools rather than relying on third‑party shortcuts. In an industry where generative AI is increasingly touted as a productivity booster, Wolf Haus has deliberately steered clear of it for creative work. Dietsch states unequivocally, “We don’t use any generative AI in the creative process. The human touch is essential to what we do.” Wendschuh adds that the studio’s AI subscriptions are limited to mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Interestingly, Krafton—publicly positioning itself as an “AI‑first” company—specifically required that Wolf Haus not employ generative AI for 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 entire six‑kilometre map was manually designed, and all 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, a decision Dietsch believes is crucial for maintaining immersion and artistic integrity. He contrasts the rapid iteration possible in games with the lengthy gestation periods of film.
“In movies, you can spend years just to get a script approved and a set built,” he says. “In games, you can have an idea at breakfast and see it in the engine by lunch.” Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, requiring the attachment of high‑profile talent to secure studio backing, whereas games have fewer gatekeepers. “Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without star power it’s hard to break through,” he notes.
“A game, however, can reach a massive audience without A‑list names, which democratizes the medium.” Both founders agree that, at their core, filmmaking and game development share the same creative impulse: delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience. Dietsch recalls that as a child he wanted to make either movies or games, and a coin toss—plus a Christmas camera—set him on this dual path. His early programming on a TI‑83 calculator laid the groundwork for a career that now blends cinematic storytelling with interactive design.
Join Us therefore stands as a testament to what a small, tightly knit team can achieve when they combine Hollywood know‑how, entrepreneurial grit, and a willingness to build their own tools from the ground up—without leaning on generative AI. The game promises a bizarre, tongue‑in‑cheek cult adventure, but its creation story is a serious case study in modern indie development, showcasing how a dozen passionate creators can rival the output of far larger studios.