You may remember catching the Join Us trailer during the Xbox Showcase in June. The clip introduced a darkly humorous cooperative cult‑simulation where robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and culminate in a showdown with Cthulhu‑esque tentacles.
One quirky element that didn’t make the final cut was the snake‑gun, a weapon that Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—attributes to a spontaneous suggestion from a team member’s child. "His son asked, ‘What if there’s a snake‑gun?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new firearm in about thirty minutes, so I built one that shoots snakes on the fly. He was blown away, and the weapon stayed in the game," Dietsch recalls. That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit of Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title that lets players recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult.
It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity experience that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed it up: “We set out to be disruptors. We told everyone we could deliver a AAA‑level game with just twelve people, and they laughed.
But we’ve spent our careers punching far above our weight, so we knew it was possible.” The team’s background is steeped in Hollywood. 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 house founded by Chris Roberts before he moved on to Star Citizen.
Abbott also produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. This blend of film‑industry savvy and indie‑budget discipline proved crucial when Wolf Haus pitched their project eighty times before finally securing equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital. The genesis of Join Us traces back to Dietsch tinkering with Unreal Engine. "I discovered Unreal was free to download and started learning from YouTube tutorials," he explains.
Though he had never built a commercial game before, he managed to create a few small prototypes and soon became enamored with the idea of a doomsday cult simulator—a concept that married his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo and showed it to Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma, a venture partner that helped move the project forward.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, entered the picture after a varied career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game writing for 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 C$430 million (about $330 million USD).
After cashing out, Wendschuh bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire. Yet, as he puts it, “Hollywood never lets you stay retired.” A call from his old roommate Michael Abbott led him to watch Dietsch’s demo, which reignited his passion and pulled him back into game development.
Through Abbott’s network, Wolf Haus recruited Reid Schneider—former Warner Bros. Games VP and now head of Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet—as a strategic advisor. Schneider then brought in Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer. With this core team in place, the next hurdle was financing, a task made tougher by a market downturn that began in 2023.
After a series of early pitches that generated interest but no commitments, the studio signed with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) in Los Angeles, refined their pitch deck, and returned to the road in 2024. Their persistence paid off when Lifelike Capital and Krafton each took an equity stake, providing the seed round needed to move from prototype to full production.
The partnership with CAA proved invaluable. Derek Douglas, Wolf Haus’s agent at CAA, had previously represented Wendschuh during his twelve‑year stint in game development and had headed the video‑game division at William Morris.
This Hollywood‑meets‑gaming representation helped the studio gain credibility and access to investors who appreciated their unique pedigree. Today, Wolf Haus operates with just thirteen full‑time staff members.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team philosophy is intentional: “We wanted every person to have a voice, to touch the creative core, and to feel ownership of the final product.” To make such an ambitious open‑world possible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. "Any system we build must be scalable and debuggable by a single developer," Dietsch notes. "We spent the first year simultaneously designing gameplay and engineering the tools that would let that gameplay expand across a six‑kilometre‑square map without collapsing under its own weight." Funding from Kraftor and Lifelike allowed Wolf Haus to develop those tools without the pressure of short‑term deadlines.
The equity model means the investors share in the studio’s eventual enterprise value, encouraging them to support the time‑intensive tool‑building approach. "Whenever we hit a technical roadblock, we simply create a tool to solve it," says Wendschuh. "It may slow us down in the short term, but it enables a tiny team to produce a game of this scale." In an industry increasingly fascinated by generative AI, Wolf Haus deliberately steers clear of it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential in game making," Dietsch says.
"Using AI to generate core content would defeat the purpose of why we get up every morning. We only use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting." Even Krafton, which has marketed itself as an “AI‑first” company, pushed back against the idea of Wolf Haus employing generative AI in the creative pipeline.
The investors wanted assurance that the studio’s artistic output would remain wholly human‑crafted. This stance mirrors comments from Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio that publicly denied using AI for its projects. The commitment to handcrafted content is evident throughout Join Us. The entire six‑kilometre‑square world is manually designed, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by professional actors—no synthetic voices.
Dietsch stresses that preserving this level of artisanal detail was a non‑negotiable goal, even for a modest indie operation. Transitioning from film to games also gave Dietsch a fresh perspective on creative immediacy. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize: you write a script, secure financing, assemble a cast, and wait for production schedules.
In game development, however, an idea can be prototyped within hours. "I can think of a mechanic this morning, drop it into Unreal, and see it in action by lunchtime," he says, describing the exhilarating feedback loop that keeps him energized. Wendschuh adds that while film production is heavily front‑loaded—requiring big names and extensive pre‑approval before cameras roll—games have far fewer gatekeepers. "Anyone can make a game with a laptop and an engine," he notes, "but making a successful one still demands talent and polish.
The barrier to entry is lower, which is why we believe a small, dedicated team can compete with much larger studios." Both founders reflect on how their childhood passions converged. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games; it came down to a coin toss and a Christmas camera," Dietsch laughs. He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, laying the groundwork for his dual love of storytelling and interactivity.
Ultimately, whether through film or interactive media, his goal remains the same: to craft experiences that captivate, move, and entertain audiences. Join Us is set to deliver a wildly original, player‑driven cult adventure that showcases what a tightly knit, tool‑savvy team can achieve without leaning on generative AI. It stands as a testament to Hollywood‑born creativity, indie‑budget ingenuity, and the power of a small group of passionate developers daring to defy industry expectations.