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 ride pigs, wield machine guns, and eventually confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One of the most memorable—and oddly whimsical—moments that didn’t make the final cut was the appearance of a "snake gun," a weapon that literally fires serpents. Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounted the origin of that bizarre armament: "My team member’s son asked if we could make a snake‑shooter.
Because we had built a modular gun system, I was able to prototype it in roughly thirty minutes. The kid was thrilled, and the weapon stayed in the game." That anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us. The title is an open‑world sandbox survival experience set in a 1970s‑style cult, where players can recruit NPC followers or invite friends to join their growing congregation. The gameplay encourages absurdist experimentation—think pig‑mounted cultists, improvised weaponry, and a world that reacts to the player’s increasingly bizarre decisions.
What makes the project truly remarkable is the way Wolf Haus has managed to deliver a high‑fidelity, content‑rich experience with a remarkably small crew. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed up their philosophy: "We wanted to be the disruptors who prove you don’t need a hundred‑person development house to build an ambitious, cinematic game. Twelve people should be enough if you have the right tools and mindset." Abbott and his teammates have a track record of achieving big results on shoestring budgets. "Our background is in indie filmmaking, where you learn to punch well above your weight," he explained.
The studio endured eighty pitch meetings before finally securing equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. The founders’ Hollywood roots run 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, a production company originally founded by Chris Roberts before his transition to the Star Citizen universe. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a personal experiment in Unreal Engine.
"I discovered Unreal was free to download and decided to tinker," Dietsch said. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, creating a handful of small prototypes before committing to a larger vision. The core concept—a doomsday cult simulator that blends survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics—kept resurfacing in his mind.
He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the two set out to prove that the idea could scale. The studio’s narrative director and CFO, Dooma Wendschuh, entered the gaming world after a varied 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, most notably the cannabis‑formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million).
After that windfall, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, planning a quiet retirement. But a call from his old Hollywood‑hillroommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the fray.
"When I saw the demo, it blew my mind and convinced me to come out of retirement," he recalled. Wendschuh recruited former Warner Bros.
Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor, and Schneider brought on Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer. With the leadership team in place, the next hurdle was funding—an especially tough challenge given the industry downturn of 2023‑24. The studio partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for representation, and after a series of pitches, secured seed investment from Lifelike Capital and Krafton. The involvement of CAA, which also represents titles like 007: First Light, proved instrumental.
"Our agent Derek Douglas had represented me for over a decade in the gaming sector, and his connections opened doors that would have been impossible otherwise," Wendschuh noted. Despite the high‑profile backing, the development team remains lean: thirteen full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional, fostering an environment where every employee can influence creative decisions. To make such an ambitious project feasible, the studio invested heavily in bespoke tooling early on.
"If a system needs to scale across a massive open world, a single developer must be able to debug and iterate without the whole team being overwhelmed," he explained. The first year of development was therefore split between designing gameplay concepts and building the internal toolset that would sustain them. Funding from Krafton and Lifelike has been structured as equity, allowing the studio to self‑finance the bulk of development.
"The investors are motivated to increase the studio’s enterprise value, so they support our tool‑building ethos," Wendschuh said. This model also means the studio can afford to spend extra time perfecting systems rather than racing to meet external deadlines.
In an industry increasingly enamored with generative AI, Wolf Haus has deliberately steered clear of using such technology for creative work. "We believe a game should retain a human touch; automating art or design would defeat the purpose of why we love making games," Dietsch asserted. Wendschuh added that the only AI tools they employ are mundane productivity aids—calendar scheduling and email drafting.
Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, also insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in its creative pipeline, mirroring a broader industry caution about preserving jobs for voice actors, artists, and writers. Indeed, the six‑kilometre‑square map in Join Us is handcrafted, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by human talent.
Dietsch emphasized that this commitment to handcrafted content is a point of pride, especially for a small indie studio. Transitioning from film to games has given Dietsch a fresh perspective on immediacy.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring extensive pre‑production, casting, and studio approval. In game development, however, a concept can be prototyped within hours and instantly visualized in the engine. "You can wake up with an idea, drop it into Unreal, and see it come to life the same day," he said, describing the exhilarating feedback loop that keeps the team motivated. Wendschuh contrasted the gate‑keeping structures of Hollywood with the comparatively open landscape of game development.
While a low‑budget film might struggle to secure distribution without marquee names, an indie game can reach a global audience through digital storefronts without needing A‑list actors or directors. This democratization, he argues, is why he believes the medium is ripe for creative experimentation. Both founders reflect on how their childhood passions converged. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games; it boiled down to a coin toss and whether I got a camera for Christmas," Dietsch recalled.
He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, laying the groundwork for a career that now blends storytelling, visual design, and interactive technology. Join Us stands as a testament to what a tightly knit, technically savvy team can achieve when they combine Hollywood storytelling instincts, entrepreneurial savvy from the cannabis sector, and a commitment to handcrafted artistry— all without leaning on generative AI. The game promises players a bizarre, immersive cult experience, and its development story offers a fresh blueprint for indie studios aiming to punch well above their weight.