The trailer for Join Us first caught the public’s eye during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator. In the clip, robed followers zip around on pig‑back, wielding machine guns, before the scene culminates in an image of massive, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake gun, a weapon that, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—originated from a simple suggestion by a team member’s child. "His son asked, ‘What if there was a snake‑shooting gun?’" Dietsch recalls.
"Because we built a modular gun system, I could prototype a snake‑launcher in about thirty minutes. The kid went wild, and the weapon stayed in the game." This anecdote illustrates the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title where players can recruit followers—or friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. It also showcases the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed 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 the ambition: "We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build a AAA‑level game with just twelve people. Most thought we were crazy." The team’s confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where doing more with less is the norm.
"We grew up on indie film sets, learning to punch well above our weight," Abbott explains. After 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in the studio. The founders’ Hollywood ties 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 started 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 started tinkering after watching countless YouTube tutorials," Dietsch says.
Though he had no formal training, he managed to create a few modest games before deciding to tackle something larger. The concept of a doomsday cult simulator kept resurfacing because it fused his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema, merging filmic aesthetics and game design into a single intellectual property. The initial proof‑of‑concept was built as a sandbox to test the limits of the engine. Dietsch expected to hit a technical wall quickly, but when he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and introduced it to Dooma Wendschuh, the studio’s chief financial officer and narrative director.
Wendschuh’s résumé spans film production, screenwriting, and game writing, having contributed to titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins through his company Sekretagent Productions. He later founded several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation firm Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million. After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire. Yet a sudden call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into development.
"I watched the prototype and it blew my mind. It convinced me to come out of retirement," he says. Wendschuh then recruited Reid Schneider, former VP at Warner Bros. Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, to serve as strategic advisor, and brought in Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer.
Funding proved challenging amid a market downturn in 2023. The team pitched relentlessly, eventually partnering with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for representation.
Their persistence paid off in 2024 when Lifelike Capital and Krafton closed a seed round, providing the capital needed to continue development. Wendschuh notes that CAA’s connections—alongside veteran advisors like Schneider and Chartrand—were instrumental in navigating the tough investment climate.
Despite the high aspirations, Wolf Haus has kept its headcount deliberately low: only thirteen full‑time staff members. "We wanted a small‑team culture where everyone has a voice and can touch every creative decision," Dietsch explains. To make such an ambitious project feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. "Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," says Dietsch.
The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and building the internal tools that would later allow the team to expand the open‑world map without the project collapsing under its own weight. The equity funding model gave Wolf Haus the breathing room to perfect these tools.
"Krafton and Lifelike’s investment is essentially financing the game itself," Wendschuh states. While the studio has begun to explore project finance for marketing, the core development has been fully self‑funded through the equity partners. This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s long‑term value creation, encouraging the continued development of proprietary tools even if they slow short‑term progress. In an industry increasingly obsessed with generative AI, Wolf Haus deliberately avoids using AI for creative work.
"We believe a game should retain a human touch," Dietsch says. "If we handed development over to an AI, it would defeat the purpose of why we get up every morning." The team does use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting, but never for art, design, or narrative.
Interestingly, Krafton—publicly positioning itself as an “AI‑first” company—insisted that Wolf Haus not employ generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring similar stances taken by other Krafton‑owned studios such as Neon Giant. The studio’s commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and audio.
The six‑kilometer‑square map is entirely hand‑built, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, not synthetic voices. "That was non‑negotiable for us," Wendschuh emphasizes, noting the importance of preserving jobs for voice talent and artists.
Dietsch also highlights the immediacy of game development compared with film. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring extensive pre‑production, casting, and studio approval. By contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours: "You can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly.
That immediacy is exhilarating." Wendschuh adds that filmmaking is heavily front‑loaded, with intense pre‑production phases to secure high‑profile talent before a studio greenlights a project. While anyone can shoot a backyard movie, breaking into the mainstream without star power or distribution is rare. Game development, however, faces fewer gatekeepers; a small indie can reach a global audience without A‑list names. This democratization is a key reason Wolf Haus believes a modest team can achieve success in the gaming space.
Both founders trace their creative passions back to childhood. Dietsch recalls wanting to make either movies or games at age six, his path ultimately decided by a coin toss and a Christmas camera. He learned programming on a TI‑83 calculator, blending technical skill with storytelling. "Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience," he concludes.
This shared philosophy underpins Join Us, a game that fuses cinematic horror, dark humor, and sandbox freedom—all crafted by a tiny, highly skilled team that refuses to rely on generative AI, opting instead for human ingenuity and bespoke tools.