The trailer for Join Us first caught public attention during the Xbox Showcase in June, unveiling a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator where robed followers ride on pigs, unleash machine‑gun fire, and ultimately confront massive, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One of the most memorable, yet unseen, moments in that preview was the appearance of a "snake gun" – a weapon that literally fires serpents. According to Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, the idea came from a team member’s son who simply asked, “Can there be a snake gun?” With a custom scaling tool that the studio had built, Dietsch was able to prototype the weapon in roughly thirty minutes, delivering a jaw‑dropping surprise that still makes its way into the final build. That anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers – or invite friends in co‑op mode – to join a 1970s‑style cult.
It also highlights the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity, large‑scale title. Michael Abbott, the COO of Wolf Haus, summed up their ambition succinctly: “We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build this with twelve people, and they laughed. They said it was impossible.” The team’s confidence stems from a history of doing big things on shoestring budgets.
Many of the founders cut their teeth in indie filmmaking, where resourcefulness is a daily requirement. They pitched the project a staggering eighty times before finally securing equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which now hold stakes in Wolf Haus. The founding trio brings deep Hollywood pedigree to the table.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson – son of Mel Gibson – and together they 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 his shift to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx.
This blend of cinematic experience and entrepreneurial spirit informs the studio’s approach to game design. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine. He recalls, “Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge. I started learning from YouTube tutorials and built a few tiny prototypes.” Although he had no formal game‑development background, he managed to create two modest games before deciding to tackle something more ambitious: a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics.
He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the duo began pitching the concept under the working title Dooma. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, entered the picture after a varied career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game writing. 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 roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry. Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh helped bring on Reid Schneider – former VP at Warner Bros Games and now head of Raccoon Logic – as a strategic advisor, and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, an ex‑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.
Initial interest was positive, but securing capital required persistence. After enlisting Creative Artists Agency (CAA) as representation and conducting a second round of pitches in 2024, Wolf Haus closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh notes that CAA’s connections, along with the credibility of veterans like Schneider and Chartrand, were instrumental in closing the deal. Today, Join Us is being built by just thirteen full‑time staff members.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional: “We wanted a team where everyone has a voice, everyone can touch the creative, and the game feels like a product of a tight‑knit group.” To make such an ambitious open‑world possible with limited manpower, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on. “If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch explains. The first year of development was therefore split between designing gameplay concepts and constructing the internal tools that would later allow those concepts to scale across a six‑kilometre‑square map.
The equity funding from Kraftor and Lifelike has given Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools without the pressure of aggressive milestone‑based financing. “Our investors are motivated to increase the studio’s enterprise value, so they support us in building extensive toolsets,” says Wendschuh. This approach sometimes slows development, but it enables a tiny team to produce a game of this magnitude.
When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not rely on it for creative work. Dietsch states, “We believe a human touch is essential. Using AI to generate content would defeat the purpose of why we love making games.” Wendschuh adds that while the studio may use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management, it is never employed in design, art, or narrative creation. Interestingly, Krafton – which has branded itself as an “AI‑first” company – explicitly required that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant.
Human craftsmanship extends to every facet of Join Us. The entire game world is hand‑crafted, and the 15,000 voice lines are recorded by real actors, a point the team stresses as a badge of pride for an indie studio.
Dietsch contrasts the immediacy of game development with the lengthy gestation of film: “In movies, an idea can take years to get green‑lit, filmed, and released. In games, I can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly.” Wendschuh agrees, noting that film production is heavily front‑loaded with securing high‑profile talent and studio approval, whereas games face fewer gatekeepers, allowing smaller teams to achieve success without A‑list names.
Both founders agree that whether you’re making a film or a game, the core goal remains the same: to craft an experience, tell a story, and engage an audience. Dietsch reflects, “When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games. It came down to a coin toss and a camera for Christmas. I learned to program on a TI‑83, and that love has never left me.” This shared passion drives Wolf Haus as they continue to build Join Us, a cult‑themed sandbox that promises both outrageous fun and a testament to what a lean, determined team can achieve without leaning on generative AI.