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, wield machine guns, and the sequence culminates with an image of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What viewers didn’t see was the infamous snake gun, a quirky weapon that emerged from a simple suggestion by a developer’s child. Joe Dietsch, the chief executive officer and creative director at Wolf Haus Games, recalls the moment: “One of the team members’ sons asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had built a rapid‑prototyping tool for firearms, so within half an hour I scripted a gun that launches snakes.
The kid was blown away, and the weapon stayed in the final build.” That anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises. The open‑world sandbox lets players recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire, complete with bizarre rituals and outlandish weaponry. It also highlights Wolf Haus’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a small crew to deliver a high‑fidelity experience that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed up their philosophy: “We set out to be disruptors.
We told ourselves we could do everything with twelve people, and everyone else called us crazy.” The team’s confidence stems from a history of achieving big results on modest budgets. “We come from indie film,” Abbott explained, “so we’re used to punching far above our weight class.” After eighty pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which now hold stakes in the studio.
The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University in California alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director Mel Gibson, who later co‑founded Wolf Haus. Together they co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie features Happy Hunting and Manifest West. Abbott is the son of renowned makeup artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production company started by Chris Roberts before his transition to the Star Citizen universe.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine.
“I discovered Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a massive barrier to creating my own,” he said. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually gravitated toward a doomsday cult simulator—a concept that fused his love of survival mechanics, grindhouse cinema, and the narrative freedom of games. He built a proof‑of‑concept, expecting to hit a technical wall at some point. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter immediately took it to Dooma, the company’s early‑stage financing arm.
Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had a varied career that began in film production and screenwriting before he pivoted to games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he launched several tech ventures, including the cannabis‑formulation firm Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million). After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire and enjoy a quiet life.
Yet, in classic Hollywood fashion, a call from his old roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry. “I was looking at the video Joe had made and it completely blew my mind. It convinced me to come out of retirement,” Wendschuh recalled. He then introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros.
Games vice‑president now heading Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet. Schneider joined as a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a veteran programmer from Ubisoft Montreal, to serve as chief technology officer.
With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was financing—a daunting task during the industry downturn of 2023‑24. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, receiving positive feedback but facing a tight market. After partnering with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles and re‑pitching in 2024, they finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh believes CAA’s representation, which also covers titles like 007: First Light, and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand were instrumental in winning the investors’ confidence. Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us is being built by just thirteen full‑time staff members.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team structure is intentional: “We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership of the final product.” To make such an ambitious open‑world possible with limited manpower, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early in development. “Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch explained.
“We spent the first year simultaneously designing gameplay and building the internal tools that would let that gameplay scale across a massive map without collapsing under its own weight.” The equity financing model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect those tools. “Krafton and Lifelike are equity partners, so the money they invested finances the entire development,” Wendschuh noted. “We’re now adding a small amount of project finance for marketing, but the core development has been fully funded by them.” This arrangement aligns investors’ interests with the studio’s long‑term value creation, encouraging the team to keep building reusable tools even when it slows immediate progress. When asked about the role of generative AI—a hot topic in game development—both Dietsch and Wendschuh were unequivocal: the studio does not employ AI for creative work.
“We believe a human touch is essential. Using an AI to generate assets would defeat the purpose of why we love making games,” Dietsch said. Wendschuh added that the only AI tools they use are for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Interestingly, Krafton, which markets itself as an “AI‑first” company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. The studio’s commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and audio. The six‑kilometre‑square map is entirely hand‑modeled, and all 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, a point Dietsch stresses as a badge of pride for an indie‑scale project. Dietsch also reflects on the differences between film and games.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent. By contrast, a game concept can be prototyped in a single morning and instantly tested in the engine, offering immediate feedback and creative freedom. Wendschuh agrees, noting that film production is heavily front‑loaded with pre‑production hurdles, while games face fewer gatekeepers, allowing smaller teams to achieve success without A‑list names. Both creators trace their passion back to childhood.
Dietsch recalls wanting to make either movies or games at age six, a choice that ultimately hinged on whether he received a camera for Christmas. He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, laying the groundwork for a career that now bridges both mediums. “Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience.
That core impulse hasn’t changed for me.” In summary, Wolf Haus’s Join Us demonstrates how a blend of Hollywood experience, savvy entrepreneurship, and a dedication to building bespoke tools can enable a tiny team to produce a sprawling, high‑quality game—without leaning on generative AI. The studio’s journey from a free Unreal Engine download to a funded, equity‑backed project showcases the power of creative ambition, disciplined engineering, and a willingness to defy industry expectations.