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 preview, robed followers charge on pig‑mounted platforms, wielding machine guns, before the screen fades to a massive, Cthulhu‑like tangle of tentacles. What didn’t make the cut, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—was the infamous snake‑gun.
"One of the team members’ kids suggested a snake‑gun," Dietsch recalls. "We had a modular weapon system, so within half an hour I built a gun that fires snakes. The kid went nuts, and the weapon stayed in the final build." This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or friends in co‑op mode—to a 1970s‑style cult.
It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a high‑fidelity title to emerge from a surprisingly small development crew. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up the ambition: “We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build a AAA‑level experience with just twelve people, and they laughed.” The team’s confidence stems from a history of achieving big results on modest budgets.
“We come from indie filmmaking and we’re used to punching well above our weight,” Abbott explains. After 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity funding 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 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 later produced films such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s experimentation with Unreal Engine.
"Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt the barrier to creation was huge," he says. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few modest prototypes, and eventually returned to his long‑standing fascination with a doomsday cult simulator—a concept that merges survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He crafted a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the pair took it to Dooma, the studio that would later become Wolf Haus.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before transitioning to games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative work for titles like 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 C$430 million (approximately $330 million USD).
After the sale, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet a call from his old Hollywood‑hillroommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into development.
Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh revived his involvement, recruiting former Warner Bros. Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and hiring Ubisoft Montreal veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. Funding proved challenging amid a broader industry downturn.
The team began pitching in summer 2023, initially receiving polite interest but little commitment. After signing with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and refining their pitch throughout 2024, they finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh credits the CAA connection—whose roster includes titles like 007: First Light—and the presence of seasoned veterans Schneider and Chartrand for opening doors. Despite the high ambitions, Join Us is being built by only thirteen full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the small size 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 a scope feasible, the studio invested heavily in internal tooling from day one.
"Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. "We built a robust toolkit early so that, as the open‑world expands, the project doesn’t collapse under its own weight." This tool‑first philosophy not only supports Join Us but also lays groundwork for future projects.
The equity funding model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools. Krafton and Lifelike’s investment has essentially self‑funded development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing.
"Our investors are incentivized to increase the studio’s enterprise value, so they encourage us to build extensive tools," says Wendschuh. "When we encounter a problem we can’t solve, we build a custom tool. It may slow short‑term progress, but it enables a tiny team to deliver a game of this scale." When asked about generative AI, Dietsch is unequivocal: the studio does not employ it for any creative work.
"We believe a human touch is essential. Using AI to generate assets would defeat the purpose of why we love making games," he says. Wendschuh adds that the only AI they use is for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Interestingly, Krafton—publicly branding itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. The commitment to handcrafted content is evident throughout Join Us. The six‑kilometre‑square map is entirely hand‑built, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by human actors—no synthetic voices.
Dietsch stresses that this level of artisanal detail matters even for an indie‑scale title. Comparing game development to filmmaking, Dietsch notes the immediacy of the former.
In film, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring studio approval, casting, and location logistics. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours, allowing developers to see their vision in real time. Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with massive effort spent securing a few high‑profile names before a project even gets green‑lit.
While anyone can shoot a backyard movie, breaking through without star power or distribution is rare. Games, however, have fewer gatekeepers; a small team can reach a global audience without A‑list talent.
Both mediums, though, share a core creative drive: storytelling and delivering an experience. Dietsch reflects on his childhood, when a coin toss decided whether he would pursue movies or games.
"I learned to program on a TI‑83, so I’ve always loved both. Whether it’s a film or a game, you’re trying to tell a story and engage an audience— the medium changes, but the goal stays the same."