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 machine‑guns, and confront colossal Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One detail that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous "snake gun," a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a child’s off‑hand suggestion. "My team member’s son asked if we could make a gun that shoots snakes," Dietsch recalls. "Because we had built a modular weapon system, I could prototype it in about thirty minutes.
The kid went nuts, and the snake gun stayed in the game." This anecdote captures the kind of chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay Join Us aims to deliver: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or real‑life co‑op partners—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a tiny team to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, describes the team’s philosophy as deliberately disruptive.
"We told everyone we could build a AAA‑level experience with just twelve people. Most people laughed and said it was impossible," he says.
Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where small crews routinely punch far above their budgetary weight. After a grueling 80‑pitch marathon, Wolf Haus finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which now hold stakes in the studio. The founders’ Hollywood connections run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, the son of Mel Gibson, who co‑founded Wolf Haus and 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 he turned his attention 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 big‑scale storytelling and a knack for stretching limited resources. Join Us originated when Dietsch began tinkering with Unreal Engine, which he discovered was free to download.
"I’d been a gamer my whole life, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge," he explains. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, built a few tiny prototypes, and eventually settled on the idea of a doomsday cult simulator—a hybrid of survival mechanics and grindhouse cinema that merged his two passions. The proof‑of‑concept was rough but promising, and Dietsch showed it to Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma, a production partner. Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had previously worked as a screenwriter and producer before transitioning to games in the early 2000s, contributing writing to titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins.
In the 2010s he founded several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million. After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, planning a quiet retirement.
That plan was upended when an old Hollywood‑hill roommate, Michael Abbott, called him about a video‑game project. "The demo blew my mind and pulled me out of retirement," Wendschuh says. Wendschuh recruited former Warner Bros.
Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor, and Schneider brought in Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer. With the core leadership in place, the next hurdle was financing.
Pitching began in the summer of 2023, a period marked by a broader industry downturn. Initial reactions were positive—"cool game"—but securing capital proved difficult.
The studio eventually aligned with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for representation, re‑pitched in 2024, and closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. The partnership with CAA, which also represents titles like 007: First Light, proved invaluable, as did the presence of seasoned game veterans Schneider and Chartrand. "My agent Derek Douglas had represented me for twelve years in games and previously headed the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh notes, underscoring how industry pedigree helped open doors.
What truly sets Join Us apart is its development model: a full‑time staff of just thirteen people. The team deliberately kept the roster small to preserve a collaborative culture where every voice matters and each member can touch both creative and technical aspects.
To make such an ambitious open‑world possible, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset. "Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. "We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across a six‑kilometre‑square map without the project collapsing under its own weight.
The first year was as much about building those tools as it was about designing the game itself." Funding from Krafton and Lifelike was structured as equity, allowing the studio to self‑finance development while reserving a modest amount of project finance for marketing later on. This model gave Wolf Haus the freedom to iterate on tools without the pressure of short‑term ROI expectations. "Our investors want the studio to increase its enterprise value, so they support us in building robust tools," says Wendschuh. "When we encounter a problem we can’t solve, we simply build a tool to solve it.
It may slow us down in the short term, but it enables a tiny team to create a game of this scale." Despite the buzz around generative AI in game development, Wolf Haus deliberately steered clear of it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential," Dietsch asserts. "Using AI to generate core content would defeat why we get up in the morning." 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, echoing similar statements from Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. The commitment to handcrafted content is evident: the entire six‑kilometre‑square map is manually designed, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by human actors. "Even as a small indie, we felt it was vital to keep everything human‑made," Dietsch says.
Dietsch also reflects on the contrast between filmmaking and game development. In film, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent. In games, an idea can be prototyped within hours and tested instantly in the engine, offering a level of immediacy he finds exhilarating.
Wendschuh notes that while movies are front‑loaded with intense, costly pre‑production phases, games have far fewer gatekeepers, making it easier for small teams to bring a vision to market without needing A‑list actors or directors. Ultimately, both mediums share a common creative impulse: to tell stories and craft experiences that engage an audience.
"When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games, and it came down to a coin toss and a Christmas camera," Dietsch smiles. "Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re delivering an experience, telling a story, and that core drive never changes."