The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator where robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and ultimately confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One of the most memorable—and bizarre—moments that didn’t make the final cut 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 child. “His son asked, ‘Can there be a snake gun?’ We had a modular weapon system, so I whipped up a snake‑shooting gun in about half an hour.
It blew his mind, and we kept it in the game,” Dietsch recounts. That anecdote perfectly captures the chaotic, sandbox‑style gameplay that Join Us promises. Players will build a 1970s‑inspired cult, recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to expand their influence across an open‑world environment. The game’s design philosophy is also reflected in the studio’s tech‑first approach, which has enabled a small team to deliver high‑fidelity visuals and complex systems that would normally require a much larger workforce.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed it up: “We wanted to be disruptors. Everyone told us it was impossible to make a AAA‑level experience with just a dozen people, but we proved them wrong.” Wolf Haus’s founders come from a distinctly cinematic lineage. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University in California, where he met Louie Gibson—son of actor‑director Mel Gibson—who later co‑founded Wolf Haus. The duo co‑wrote and co‑directed indie films such as Happy Hunting and Manifest West.
Abbott, on the other hand, is the son of veteran Hollywood make‑up artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production company originally founded by Chris Roberts before his shift to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies like Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx.
This blend of indie‑film hustle and Hollywood pedigree gave the team a knack for punching well above their weight. The genesis of Join Us can be traced back to Dietsch’s early experiments with Unreal Engine. “Unreal was free to download, and I’d been a gamer my whole life, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge,” he explains.
He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, built a few modest prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday cult simulator concept that merged his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. The initial proof‑of‑concept was rough but ambitious, and when he showed it to Abbott, the latter immediately took it to Dooma, a partner studio that helped refine the vision. The studio’s financial journey was anything but smooth. After 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital.
Both investors took stakes in the company, providing the seed funding needed to move from prototype to full production. The involvement of these backers was crucial, especially given the broader industry downturn that began in mid‑2023. "People liked what we were doing, but the market was cold," Dietsch notes. "We leaned on our agents at CAA, re‑pitched in 2024, and eventually closed the round." A key figure in that process was Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh.
He began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before transitioning to video games in the early 2000s, contributing writing to titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. In the 2010s he founded several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million). After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet a chance call from his old Hollywood‑hill roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into development.
"I saw the demo and it blew my mind," Wendschuh says, prompting him to bring on Reid Schneider—former VP at Warner Bros. Games—and Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a veteran programmer from Ubisoft Montreal, as strategic advisors and CTO respectively. With a core team of just 13 full‑time staff, Wolf Haus had to be meticulous about its development pipeline. Early on they invested heavily in custom tooling.
"If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. The studio built a suite of internal tools that allowed a lone developer to iterate on world‑building, AI, and combat mechanics without the project collapsing under its own complexity. This tool‑first mindset not only accelerated current development but also laid the groundwork for future projects. Funding from Kraftor and Lifelike was structured as equity, meaning the studio could self‑finance the bulk of development while reserving a modest portion of project finance for marketing.
"Our investors want the studio to increase its enterprise value, so they encourage us to build robust tools," says Wendschuh. "Whenever we hit a technical roadblock, we simply create a tool to solve it. It may slow short‑term progress, but it enables a tiny team to produce a game of this scale." When asked about the role of generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not rely on it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential," Dietsch states.
"We have a few AI subscriptions for mundane tasks like calendar management, but none of it touches the art, design, or narrative of the game." Interestingly, Krafton—publicly branding itself as an “AI‑first” company—explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid using generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by 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.
"Even as an indie studio, we felt it was vital to keep the experience fully human‑driven," Dietsch emphasizes. This philosophy contrasts sharply with the film industry’s gate‑keeping model, where securing A‑list talent is often a prerequisite for financing. "Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without big names or a distributor, success is rare," Wendschuh observes. "In games, the barriers are lower; you don’t need a Hollywood star to attract players." Both Dietsch and Wendschuh note the immediacy of game development as a major advantage over film.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, navigating endless approvals and scheduling. In contrast, a concept can be prototyped in a morning, dropped into the engine, and instantly visualised. This rapid feedback loop fuels creativity and keeps the team motivated.
Ultimately, Join Us represents a convergence of Hollywood storytelling, indie‑film resourcefulness, and cutting‑edge game technology—all delivered by a lean, purpose‑driven team that refuses to outsource its creative soul to algorithms. The result is a quirky, unsettling cult simulator that promises players a uniquely handcrafted experience, built from the ground up by a handful of passionate creators who proved that size isn’t the only determinant of ambition.