The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult‑simulation where robed followers zip around on pigs, fire machine guns, and eventually confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One element that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake‑gun, a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a child’s imagination. “My teammate’s son asked, ‘What would a snake‑gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool, so in about thirty minutes I built a gun that shoots snakes. He was thrilled, and we kept it in the game,” Dietsch recalls.
That anecdote captures the chaotic, sandbox‑style gameplay at the heart of Join Us, an open‑world survival title that lets players recruit followers—or friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑styled cult. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a high‑fidelity experience to be produced by a surprisingly small crew. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: “We set out to be disruptors. Everyone told us a twelve‑person team couldn’t deliver a game of this scale, but we proved them wrong.” The team’s confidence stems from a history of achieving big results on modest budgets.
“We come from indie film backgrounds, so we’re accustomed to punching well above our weight,” Abbott explains. After 80 pitch meetings, the studio finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which now hold stakes in Wolf Haus. Wolf Haus’s founders are steeped in Hollywood pedigree.
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 renowned 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 when Dietsch began experimenting in Unreal Engine.
“Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt blocked from creating anything myself,” he says. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually returned to a long‑standing fascination: a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He crafted a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the concept was quickly taken to Dooma for further development. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, entered the gaming world after a career in film production and screenwriting.
In the early 2000s he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he launched several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million. After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood‑Hills roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry. Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh helped bring in strategic advisor Reid Schneider—formerly a Warner Bros.
Games VP—and CTO Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a veteran programmer from Ubisoft Montreal. Funding proved to be the next hurdle.
The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, amid a market downturn that made investors cautious. Initial interest was positive but insufficient.
After enlisting CAA (Creative Artists Agency) as representation and re‑pitching in 2024, Wolf Haus finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits the CAA connection and the presence of seasoned industry veterans for the breakthrough.
Despite the high‑profile backers, the development team remains tiny—13 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 an ambitious title feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. “Any system we build must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch explains. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the internal tools that would keep the open‑world from collapsing under its own weight.
The equity funding model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools. Krafton and Lifelike’s capital financed the entire development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing. This structure aligns investor incentives 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 generative AI, Dietsch is unequivocal: the studio does not rely on it for any creative work.
“Our game is built by humans, and outsourcing creativity to an algorithm would defeat the purpose of why we love making games,” he says. Wendschuh adds that while the team uses AI for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting, it never touches the artistic side. Interestingly, Krafton—publicly branding itself as an “AI‑first” company—specifically required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant.
The commitment to human craftsmanship extends to the game’s assets. The six‑kilometre‑square map was hand‑crafted, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by real actors, not synthetic voices. Dietsch believes this personal touch is essential, even for an indie‑scale project. Comparing film and game development, Dietsch notes the immediacy of the latter.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring studio approval, casting, and lengthy production schedules. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours, allowing creators to see their vision in real time.
Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded with high‑profile talent negotiations, whereas games face fewer gatekeepers; a small studio can launch a successful title without needing A‑list actors or directors. Both mediums, however, share a core purpose: delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience. Dietsch reflects on his childhood desire to make either movies or games, noting that a simple coin toss—and perhaps a camera for Christmas—set him on a path that now blends both worlds.
The result is Join Us, a cult‑simulator that showcases how a handful of Hollywood‑savvy, tech‑focused creators can defy industry expectations, build a massive open world, and do it all without leaning on generative AI.