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 charge on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and ultimately confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What didn’t make the final cut was the now‑infamous snake‑gun, a weapon that originated from an off‑hand suggestion by a developer’s child.
Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounted the moment: “One of the team member’s sons asked, ‘Can there be a snake gun?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool for firearms, so within half an hour I built a gun that shoots snakes. It blew his mind, and it stayed in the game.” That anecdote perfectly captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit of Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult.
It also illustrates why Wolf Haus has leaned heavily on technology to punch far above its weight. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed up their philosophy: “We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone, ‘We don’t need a hundred people; twelve is enough.’ Most people thought we were crazy.” The team’s confidence isn’t unfounded.
All of the founders come from indie‑film backgrounds, where small budgets and tight crews are the norm. “We’re used to punching above our weight,” Abbott explained. After a marathon of 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in the company.
The Hollywood connections run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—and the two 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, a production house founded by Chris Roberts before his shift to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us began as a side project for Dietsch while he was tinkering with Unreal Engine. “Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge,” he said.
He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually settled on the idea of a doomsday cult simulator that merged survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He crafted a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the duo set the wheels in motion. The studio’s narrative director and CFO, Dooma Wendschuh, brings a unique blend of film and tech experience. He began as a screenwriter and producer before founding Sekretagent Productions, which supplied writing 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, sold for roughly C$430 million. After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood‑hillroommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into game development. Impressed by the early demo, Wendschuh introduced the project to Reid Schneider—former VP at Warner Bros.
Games and now head of Raccoon Logic—and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, 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.
“People liked what we were building, but the climate was tough,” Dietsch recalled. After initial outreach, they signed with CAA in Los Angeles, re‑pitched in 2024, and finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh believes the CAA connection—alongside seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand—was decisive. “Derek Douglas, our CAA agent, had been my agent during my twelve‑year game‑making career and previously ran the video‑game department at William Morris,” he noted.
Despite the high‑profile backers, Join Us remains a boutique effort, built by just 13 full‑time staff. The studio deliberately kept the team small to preserve a collaborative atmosphere where every voice matters. To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible with limited manpower, Wolf Haus 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 explained. “We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across a massive map without the project collapsing under its own weight.” The first year of development was therefore split between designing gameplay concepts and engineering the tools that would later enable those concepts to flourish. The equity funding model gave the studio the breathing room to perfect these tools. “Krafton and Lifelike’s investment essentially self‑funded the game,” Wendschuh said.
“We’re now adding a modest amount of project finance for marketing, but the core development was covered by our equity partners.” This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s long‑term value creation, encouraging the team to continue building reusable tools even when they slow immediate progress. When asked about generative AI—a hot topic in game development—both Dietsch and Wendschuh were unequivocal: they do not rely on it for creative work. “We believe a human touch is essential,” Dietsch asserted.
“We have a few AI subscriptions for mundane tasks like calendar management, but none of that touches the actual game design or art.” Interestingly, Krafton, which has branded itself as an “AI‑first” company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring similar stances taken by other Krafton‑owned studios. The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and audio.
The six‑kilometre‑square map was built manually, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors—an effort Dietsch considers vital even for an indie title. “We wanted every line to feel authentic,” he said.
Dietsch also reflected on the contrast between filmmaking and game development. In film, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring approvals, casting, and studio greenlights.
In games, a concept can be prototyped in a morning, placed into the engine, and instantly visualised. This immediacy, he argues, fuels creativity and reduces reliance on gatekeepers. “Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without big names or distribution, success is rare,” he noted.
“In games, the barriers are lower; you don’t need an A‑list star or director to reach an audience.” Both mediums, however, share a core purpose: to tell a story and deliver an experience. Dietsch’s childhood fascination with both film and games—programming on a TI‑83 calculator and dreaming of a camera for Christmas—led him to a career where the two art forms intersect. "Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re crafting an experience, telling a story, and engaging the audience," he concluded. Join Us stands as a testament to what a small, tightly knit team can achieve when they combine Hollywood pedigree, entrepreneurial savvy, and a relentless focus on custom tooling—all without leaning on generative AI.
The result is a quirky, high‑octane cult simulator that promises players a uniquely hands‑on, creator‑driven adventure.