The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. In the preview, robed followers zip around on pigs, firing machine guns, before the screen cuts to a massive, Cthulhu‑inspired mass of tentacles. One element that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake gun, a quirky weapon that originated from a simple suggestion by a developer’s son. Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounted how his team quickly built a gun that launches snakes in roughly thirty minutes using an in‑house scaling tool.
The weapon remains a permanent fixture in the game, exemplifying the off‑the‑wall gameplay that Join Us promises. Join Us is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. The title’s chaotic, tongue‑in‑cheek tone mirrors the development philosophy of its creators: a small, tech‑savvy team that refuses to rely on massive staffing or generative‑AI shortcuts. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: “We wanted to be disruptors.
We told everyone we could build a AAA‑quality game with just twelve people, and they laughed.” Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where doing more with less is a daily reality. The Wolf Haus founders bring deep Hollywood connections to the table.
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 veteran makeup artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production company originally founded by Chris Roberts before his shift to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. These cinematic roots gave the team a knack for storytelling and an instinct for high‑impact visual design.
The seed of Join Us sprouted when Dietsch began tinkering with Unreal Engine, attracted by its free download model. “I’d loved games for years, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge,” he explained.
He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, eventually crafting a few modest prototypes before deciding to chase a larger vision: a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse‑movie aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, ran into inevitable technical hurdles, and shared the early build with Abbott, who then introduced it to Dooma. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, arrived from a career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game writing.
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, most notably the cannabis‑formulation firm Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (about $330 million USD).
After cashing out, Wendschuh bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire. Yet a chance call from his old Hollywood‑Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the industry. He was shown Dietsch’s demo, was blown away, and decided to join the effort. To strengthen the studio’s leadership, Wendschuh recruited Reid Schneider, a former vice‑president at Warner Bros.
Games and now head of Raccoon Logic (the makers of Journey to the Savage Planet), as a strategic advisor. Schneider in turn brought Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, an ex‑Ubisoft Montreal programmer, on board as chief technology officer. With this talent assembled, the next hurdle was financing—an especially tough task in the summer of 2023, when the industry was already feeling a downturn.
The team pitched the project repeatedly, eventually signing with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles to broaden their reach. After a series of meetings throughout 2024, they secured a seed round from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both taking equity stakes in Wolf Haus. Wendschuh believes CAA’s representation, alongside the credibility of veterans like Schneider and Chartrand, played a crucial role in convincing investors. Despite the high‑profile backers, Wolf Haus kept its development crew deliberately small—thirteen full‑time staff members at the time of writing.
Dietsch emphasized that the limited headcount was intentional: “We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership of the game.” To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible with a tiny team, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. "If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch noted. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and building the internal tools that would later allow the world to expand without collapsing under its own weight.
Funding from Krafton and Lifelike was structured as equity, meaning the studio could self‑finance the development while retaining creative control. The capital was used primarily for tool creation, core development, and later a modest amount of project finance for marketing. Wendschuh explained that equity investors are motivated to increase the studio’s enterprise value, so they support the tooling‑first approach even if it slows short‑term progress. When asked about generative AI, the team gave a unified, unequivocal response: they do not employ it for any creative aspects of the game.
"We believe a human touch is essential," said Dietsch. "Turning development over to an AI would defeat the purpose of why we get up every morning." Wendschuh added that the only AI services they use are mundane productivity tools for scheduling and email.
Interestingly, Krafton—publicly positioning itself as an "AI‑first" company—explicitly required that Wolf Haus refrain from using generative AI in the creative pipeline, echoing a similar stance taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. The commitment to handcrafted content is evident throughout Join Us. The six‑kilometer‑square map was built entirely by hand, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by human actors. Dietsch stressed that even as a modest indie, they wanted the world to feel lived‑in and authentic, not generated by algorithms.
Comparing his experiences in film and games, Dietsch highlighted the immediacy of interactive media. In film, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent to secure a studio green‑light. By contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours: "You can have an idea in the morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly. That immediacy is exhilarating." Wendschuh echoed this sentiment, noting that movies are front‑loaded with intense, high‑stakes production phases, whereas games have fewer gatekeepers.
Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard film, but without star power or distribution, the odds of success are slim. In the gaming world, a small, dedicated team can reach a global audience without needing A‑list actors or directors, thanks to digital distribution platforms. Both founders agree that the core creative impulse—telling stories and delivering experiences—remains the same across mediums.
Dietsch recalled that as a six‑year‑old he wanted to make either movies or games, and a coin toss (and a Christmas camera) set him on his path. He learned programming on a TI‑83 calculator, and that early fascination has persisted.
Whether through a cult‑simulating sandbox or a low‑budget horror film, the goal is to engage audiences, spark imagination, and provide a memorable journey. In summary, Wolf Haus’s Join Us stands out not only for its off‑beat premise—a 1970s‑style cult run in a chaotic open world—but also for the way it was built: a Hollywood‑infused, cannabis‑rich, tech‑driven studio that proved a dozen passionate creators could deliver a large‑scale, high‑fidelity experience without leaning on generative AI.
The game’s development story underscores the power of small, focused teams, bespoke tooling, and a steadfast belief that human creativity still reigns supreme in interactive entertainment.