The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator. In the clip, robed followers charge on pig‑back while firing machine guns, culminating in a shot of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
What didn’t make the final cut was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that originated from a spontaneous idea by one of the developers' children. Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recalls the moment: “My teammate’s son asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool, so within half an hour I built it.
The kid was thrilled, and the gun stayed in the game.” That anecdote captures the chaotic, experimental spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity experience that would normally require a much larger staff. 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 scope, but we were determined to prove them wrong.” The founders’ backgrounds are steeped in Hollywood. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who later co‑founded Wolf Haus and co‑wrote 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 he turned his attention to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. This cinematic lineage gave the team a comfort with storytelling and a willingness to punch above their weight—a habit forged in low‑budget indie filmmaking.
Join Us began as a personal experiment in Unreal Engine. "I discovered that Unreal was free to download and started tinkering with it using YouTube tutorials," Dietsch explains.
Though he had never built a game before, he managed to create a few small prototypes before deciding to tackle something bigger: a doomsday cult simulator that merged his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo and showed it to Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma, a production partner.
The financial side of the venture was far from straightforward. Wolf Haus pitched the project eighty times before securing equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital.
Their chief financial officer and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, brings a unique blend of film and tech experience. After a career producing and writing for movies, he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins.
He later sold a cannabis‑formulation company, Ebbu, for roughly C$430 million. A brief retirement on a remote Canadian island was interrupted when his old Hollywood‑hills roommate, Michael Abbott, called to share a video‑game prototype.
Wendschuh was instantly hooked, leading him to recruit former Warner Bros. Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and to bring Ubisoft Montreal veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand on board as chief technology officer.
Funding proved challenging amid an industry downturn that began in 2023. After initial outreach, Wolf Haus partnered with CAA in Los Angeles, leveraging the agency’s connections—such as Schneider, who had previously guided titles like 007: First Light—to secure a seed round in 2024. The backing from Kraftor and Lifelike not only provided capital but also aligned incentives: as equity partners, they encourage Wolf Haus to build reusable tools that increase the studio’s long‑term value.
Tool development is at the heart of Wolf Haus’s workflow. "Every system we create must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," says Dietsch. The first year of production was split between designing gameplay concepts and engineering a robust toolkit that could support an expansive open world without collapsing under its own weight. This approach allowed a team of just thirteen full‑time staff to maintain a collaborative atmosphere where each member contributes to both creative and technical decisions.
Contrary to the hype surrounding generative AI in game development, Wolf Haus deliberately avoids using AI for any creative tasks. "We believe a game should retain a human touch," Dietsch states. While the studio employs AI‑powered services for mundane administrative duties—like calendar management and email drafting—none of the game's art, writing, or design is generated by algorithms.
Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required that Wolf Haus refrain from AI‑driven content creation, echoing similar policies at Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s massive six‑kilometre‑square map and its 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors. Dietsch emphasizes that this level of manual labor is a point of pride, especially for an indie studio. He also notes the creative freedom that games afford compared to film.
In cinema, a concept can take years to secure financing, talent, and distribution before it ever sees the light of day. By contrast, a game idea can be prototyped within hours, allowing developers to iterate rapidly and see immediate results in the engine. Wendschuh adds that film production is heavily front‑loaded: securing A‑list directors or actors is often a prerequisite for greenlighting a project. While anyone can technically shoot a movie with a backyard camera, breaking through without established names or a distribution deal is rare.
Video games, however, have far fewer gatekeepers; a small team can launch a successful title without celebrity involvement, democratizing the creative process. Both founders trace their passion back to childhood.
"When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games—it was a coin toss," Dietsch recalls, noting that a Christmas camera and early programming on a TI‑83 calculator set him on his path. He believes that whether one is crafting a film or a game, the core objective remains the same: to deliver an experience, tell a story, and engage an audience. Join Us stands as a testament to what a tightly knit, technically adept team can achieve when they blend Hollywood storytelling sensibilities with indie‑game resourcefulness—without relying on generative AI.
The project showcases how a modest budget, strategic equity partnerships, and a relentless focus on tool creation can empower a dozen developers to build a sprawling, high‑quality game that rivals productions from far larger studios.