The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, giving viewers a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator. In the clip, robed followers zip around on pig‑back, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates with a nightmarish image of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What the audience didn’t see was the infamous "snake gun" – a weapon that shoots live‑looking serpents – which, according to Wolf Haus Games’ CEO and creative director Joe Dietsch, was born out of a child’s whimsical suggestion.
"One of our team member’s kids asked if we could make a snake‑shooting gun," Dietsch recounts. "We had a modular weapon system, so within half an hour I built it. The kid went nuts, and the gun stayed in the final build." This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style cult.
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, sums up their ambition: "We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build a AAA‑level experience with just twelve people. Most people laughed, saying it was impossible." Their confidence stems from a background in low‑budget, high‑impact indie filmmaking, where punching above one’s weight is the norm.
After 80 pitches, the team finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving the studio the runway needed to finish the game. The founders’ Hollywood connections run deep.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director 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 his shift to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine.
"Unreal was free to download, and I was fascinated by the barrier‑to‑entry that had kept many creators from building games," he explains. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually settled on the idea of a doomsday cult simulator that merged survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. The proof‑of‑concept was presented to Abbott, who then took it to Dooma, the studio that would later become Wolf Haus.
Chief financial officer and narrative director Dooma Wendschuh brings a hybrid film‑and‑gaming pedigree. After writing for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins through his company Sekretagent Productions, he founded several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation firm Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million. He retired to a remote Canadian island, only to be pulled back into development when an old Hollywood‑hill roommate, Michael Abbott, called with a video‑game demo that “blew his mind.” Wendschuh introduced the project to Reid Schneider, former Warner Bros. Games VP and now head of Raccoon Logic, who recruited Ubisoft Montreal veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer.
Funding proved tricky in a market downturn. After an initial round of pitches in summer 2023, the team partnered with CAA in Los Angeles and re‑pitched in 2024, eventually closing a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits the CAA relationship—and the presence of seasoned industry advisors—for opening doors that might otherwise have remained closed.
What truly sets Join Us apart is the scale of its ambition relative to the studio’s size. With only 13 full‑time staff, Wolf Haus built a development pipeline that emphasizes tool creation. "Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single developer," says Dietsch. The first year of production was split between designing gameplay and engineering the internal tools that would keep the open‑world from collapsing under its own weight.
This tooling‑centric approach was funded directly by the equity investors, allowing the team to iterate without external pressure. The studio deliberately shuns generative AI for creative work.
"We believe a game needs a human touch," Dietsch asserts. While they may use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management, no AI assists with art, design, or writing. Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, also insisted that Wolf Haus avoid AI in the creative pipeline, fearing it could devalue the studio’s handcrafted aesthetic. Consequently, the six‑kilometre‑square map in Join Us is entirely hand‑crafted, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by real actors.
Dietsch finds the immediacy of game development far more rewarding than film. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, subject to countless approvals and scheduling constraints. In contrast, a concept can be prototyped in a morning, dropped into the engine, and instantly visualised. Wendschuh notes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, relying on a handful of high‑profile talent to secure studio backing, whereas games have far fewer gatekeepers.
"You don’t need an A‑list director or star to make a successful game," he says, highlighting the democratising power of interactive media. Both mediums, however, share a core purpose: to deliver an experience, tell a story, and engage an audience. Dietsch reflects on his childhood, when a coin toss decided whether he’d pursue movies or games, and how early programming on a TI‑83 calculator set the stage for a career that blends both worlds.
The result is Join Us—a wildly original, lovingly handcrafted cult simulator that proves a small, focused team can rival the output of much larger studios, provided they invest in the right tools, maintain a clear creative vision, and stay true to a human‑first development philosophy.