You may remember seeing the Join Us trailer during the Xbox Showcase in June. The clip introduced a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator, featuring robed followers riding pigs, firing machine guns, and culminating in a shot of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
What didn’t make the final edit was the infamous "snake gun," a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was inspired by a child’s imagination. "One of the developers’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a modular weapon system that let us prototype something in under thirty minutes, so I built a gun that actually launches snakes. The kid went nuts, and we kept it in the game," Dietsch recalls.
That anecdote captures the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed it up succinctly: “We wanted to be disruptors.” "Everyone told us it was impossible to deliver a AAA‑level experience with just twelve people. We’d spent our careers in indie film, learning to punch far above our weight, so we knew we could defy expectations," Abbott said. After 80 pitches, the team finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving Wolf Haus the runway to finish the project.
The founders’ Hollywood roots run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who later co‑founded Wolf Haus and 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 moved on to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us began as a simple experiment in Unreal Engine. "I discovered that Unreal was free to download and started tinkering after watching YouTube tutorials," Dietsch explains. Though he had never built a game before, he managed to put together a few small prototypes before deciding to tackle something far 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 two took the concept to Dooma, the studio’s early incubator. 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. 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 (about $330 million USD). Wendschuh retired to a remote island restaurant in Canada, planning a quiet life of beach walks and dog‑walking.
Yet, in classic Hollywood fashion, an unexpected call from his old roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry. "I saw the prototype Joe had built and it blew my mind, so I came out of retirement to help," Wendschuh says. He introduced the project to Reid Schneider, former VP at Warner Bros.
Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, who became a strategic advisor and recruited former Ubisoft Montreal programmer Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. With the core team in place, the next hurdle was funding—an especially tough challenge during the industry downturn of 2023‑24. The studio pitched repeatedly, eventually partnering with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles to refine their pitch deck and secure meetings.
Their persistence paid off when Lifelike Capital and Krafton closed a seed round, providing the capital needed to finish development. The partnership with CAA, which also represents titles like 007: First Light, proved invaluable.
"My agent Derek Douglas had represented me for twelve years in games and was formerly head of the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh notes, highlighting how industry connections can open doors even for a tiny studio. What truly sets Join Us apart is how it’s being built: a 13‑person full‑time team that emphasizes shared ownership of the creative process. "We wanted everyone to have a voice and to touch every aspect of the game," Dietsch says. To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible with a lean crew, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from day one.
"Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person. We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across a massive map without the project collapsing under its own weight," he explains. The funding model reinforced this tool‑first philosophy.
Because Krafton and Lifelike are equity partners, the studio could self‑fund development, using the investors’ capital to cover salaries, technology, and later a modest marketing budget. "Equity investors care about the studio’s enterprise value, so they encourage us to build reusable tools that will pay off in future projects," Wendschuh adds. When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not rely on it for any creative work.
"We believe a game needs a human touch. Using AI to generate assets would defeat the purpose of why we love making games," Dietsch states.
Wendschuh concedes that they use AI for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting, but none of it touches the art, design, or narrative. Even Krafton, which recently branded itself as an "AI‑first" company, insisted that Wolf Haus stay clear of generative AI for creative production. "Our investors wanted to be sure we weren’t building a game with AI‑generated content," Wendschuh explains, echoing similar statements from Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio. The commitment to hand‑crafted content is evident throughout Join Us.
The six‑kilometer‑square map was built manually, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by professional actors—not synthetic voices. "That level of craftsmanship matters, even for a small indie title," Dietsch emphasizes. Dietsch also reflects on the differences between film and game creation. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, casting, and massive budgets before a director ever sees a single frame on set.
In games, an inspiration can be prototyped within hours, allowing immediate iteration. "You can have an idea at breakfast and see it in the engine by lunch," he says, describing the exhilarating immediacy of interactive media. Wendschuh adds that film production is heavily front‑loaded: securing a few high‑profile directors or actors is often the make‑or‑break factor for a studio’s greenlight. While anyone can technically shoot a low‑budget movie, breaking through without star power or distribution is rare.
By contrast, the barriers to entry for games are lower, and a compelling experience can find an audience without celebrity endorsement. Both founders agree that the core creative drive is the same across mediums: telling a story and delivering an experience that resonates with players or viewers.
"When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games—it was a coin toss that landed on a camera for Christmas," Dietsch recalls. "I learned to program on a TI‑83, and that love for both worlds has never left me. Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re crafting an experience, a narrative, and an emotional connection. The tools change, but the goal stays the same."