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 clip, robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates with an ominous vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One detail that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous “snake gun,” a weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was inspired by a child’s off‑hand suggestion. “One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a modular weapon system that let us prototype a new gun in under thirty minutes, so I built it on the fly.
The kid was thrilled and we kept it in the game,” Dietsch recalls. That anecdote captures the kind of chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style doomsday cult. It also highlights the studio’s tech‑first philosophy, which has allowed a relatively tiny crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: “We wanted to be disruptors.
We told everyone we could build a AAA‑ish experience with just twelve people, and most people thought we were crazy.” Their confidence stems from a background in low‑budget, high‑impact indie filmmaking, where the team learned to “punch above their weight.” After a marathon of 80 pitch meetings, Wolf Haus finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took a stake 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 he turned his attention to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. This blend of film experience and entrepreneurial spirit has informed the studio’s approach to game development.
Join Us originated from Dietsch’s experiments in Unreal Engine. “I discovered Unreal was free to download and started tinkering with it using YouTube tutorials,” he explains. Though he had never built a game before, he managed to create a few small prototypes before committing to a larger vision: a doomsday cult simulator that fuses survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics.
He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the duo began to flesh out the idea. The narrative and financial side of Wolf Haus is spearheaded by Dooma Wendschuh, the studio’s CFO and narrative director. Wendschuh began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into games in the early 2000s, founding Sekretagent Productions, which supplied writing talent 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 (about $330 million USD). After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood‑hill roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry. Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh helped bring in strategic advisor Reid Schneider—formerly a VP at Warner Bros. Games—and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a veteran programmer from Ubisoft Montreal, as chief technology officer.
Securing financing proved challenging amid a market downturn in 2023. The team’s early pitches generated interest but also skepticism. After partnering with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, they relaunched their fundraising effort in 2024 and eventually closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits CAA’s representation—alongside seasoned gaming veterans like Schneider and Chartrand—for opening doors that might otherwise have remained closed.
Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us remains a lean operation with only 13 full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team model is intentional: “We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership of the final product.” To make a sprawling open‑world game feasible with such a limited crew, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset. “If a system is built, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch notes. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the internal tools that would later allow the game to expand across a six‑kilometre‑square map without collapsing under its own weight.
The equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike has given Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools. “The money we received is essentially self‑funding for the game,” says Wendschuh. “We’re now only using a small amount of project finance for marketing; the core development has been covered by our investors.” This model aligns with the investors’ desire to increase the studio’s enterprise value, encouraging the team to continue building reusable tools even when they momentarily slow down production.
When asked about generative AI—a hot topic in game development—Dietsch gives a clear answer: the studio does not employ it for creative work. “We believe a human touch is essential.
Hand‑crafting the experience is why we get up every morning,” he says. Wendschuh adds that the only AI tools they use are mundane productivity aids, such as calendar scheduling and email drafting. Interestingly, Krafton, which has publicly positioned itself as an “AI‑first” company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, echoing similar statements from other Krafton‑owned studios. The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s audio.
Join Us features a six‑kilometre‑square map built entirely by hand, and its 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors—not AI‑generated voices. Dietsch stresses that preserving that level of artisanal effort was a priority, even for a small indie studio.
Transitioning from film to games has given Dietsch a fresh perspective on creative immediacy. In cinema, a concept can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the coordination of high‑profile talent.
In contrast, a game idea can be prototyped in a single morning, placed directly into the engine, and iterated upon instantly. Wendschuh observes that filmmaking is heavily front‑loaded, with intense pre‑production phases that hinge on securing star power to green‑light a project.
While anyone can technically shoot a low‑budget film, breaking through without major names or distribution is rare. By contrast, the barriers to entry in game development are lower, allowing small teams to reach audiences without needing A‑list actors or directors. Both mediums, however, share a common creative impulse: storytelling and immersion.
Dietsch reflects on his childhood, recalling how a coin toss between a camera and a game console set his path. He learned programming on a TI‑83 calculator and has always been fascinated by the power of interactive narratives. Whether through film or interactive entertainment, his goal remains the same—to craft experiences that captivate, move, and entertain audiences.
In summary, Wolf Haus’s Join Us is a testament to what can be achieved when a handful of Hollywood‑savvy creators leverage custom technology, disciplined tool‑building, and a refusal to rely on generative AI. Their journey—from a free Unreal Engine download to a fully funded, high‑concept cult simulator—demonstrates that with the right blend of film‑grade storytelling, entrepreneurial grit, and technical ingenuity, a small team can indeed disrupt the traditional expectations of game development.