The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation. In the clip, robed followers ride atop pigs, unleash machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates in a nightmarish vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What didn’t make the cut was the infamous snake‑gun, a weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says originated from a simple suggestion by 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 thirty minutes.
It blew his mind, and it’s still in the final 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 friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. More importantly, it illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled 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 up their philosophy: “We set out to be disruptors. We told everyone we could deliver a AAA‑ish experience with just twelve people, and they laughed.” The team’s confidence wasn’t baseless. Their backgrounds in independent filmmaking taught them to “punch above their weight” and stretch limited budgets.
After eighty pitch meetings, they finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving Wolf Haus the financial runway to continue development. Wolf Haus’s leadership is steeped in Hollywood pedigree. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—who later co‑founded the studio 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, a production house founded by Chris Roberts before his Star Citizen venture.
Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a hobby project for Dietsch in Unreal Engine.
“Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games. The barrier to creating something felt huge, so I started tinkering with tutorials on YouTube,” he explains. Despite having no formal training, Dietsch built a few modest prototypes before committing to a larger vision: a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He created a proof‑of‑concept demo, ran into technical roadblocks, and presented the rough build to Abbott, who then introduced it to Dooma.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, transitioned from film to games in the early 2000s by founding Sekretagent Productions, a writing house that contributed scripts for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he launched several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million (approximately $330 million USD).
After cashing out, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet a call from his old Hollywood‑Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back: “Joe showed me a demo that blew my mind and convinced me to come out of retirement.” Through Abbott’s network, the studio recruited Reid Schneider—former Warner Bros. Games VP and now head of Raccoon Logic—to serve as a strategic advisor, and he brought in Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal engineer, as chief technology officer.
Funding proved challenging amid a market downturn. The team began pitching in summer 2023, received positive feedback but struggled to close deals. After enlisting CAA (Creative Artists Agency) as representation and re‑pitching in 2024, they finally sealed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh credits the CAA connection—alongside veteran advisors like Schneider and Chartrand—and his long‑standing relationship with agent Derek Douglas, who once represented him during his twelve‑year game‑development career, for opening doors. Today, Join Us is being built by just thirteen full‑time staff. Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional: “We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership over the final product.” To make such an ambitious open‑world feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on. “Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” he notes.
The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the internal tools that would later allow the world to expand without collapsing under its own weight. The equity funding model gave Wolf Haus the breathing room to perfect these tools. “Krafton and Lifelike’s investments have essentially self‑funded the game,” says Wendschuh.
“We’re now only taking on a modest amount of project finance for marketing, but the core development has been covered by our equity partners.” This arrangement aligns investors’ interests with the studio’s long‑term value creation, encouraging the team to build reusable tools rather than taking shortcuts. When asked about generative AI, Dietsch is unequivocal: the studio does not employ it for any creative tasks.
“We believe a human touch is essential. Using an AI to generate content would defeat why we get up each morning,” he says. Wendschuh adds that while they use AI for administrative chores like calendar management, it never touches design, art, or narrative.
Interestingly, Krafton—publicly branding itself as an “AI‑first” company—specifically required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring similar stances taken by other Krafton‑owned studios such as Neon Giant. The team’s commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s massive six‑kilometer‑square map, which was built entirely by hand, and the 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors. “That level of human involvement matters, even for a small indie,” Wendschuh asserts.
Dietsch reflects on the contrast between film and game creation. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, casting, and studio greenlights. In game development, an inspiration 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 points out that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with intense set work and a reliance on a handful of high‑profile talent to secure financing.
While anyone can shoot a low‑budget movie, breaking through without star power or distribution is rare. By contrast, the barriers to entry for games are lower; a small team can reach a global audience without A‑list actors or directors. Both mediums, however, share a core creative drive: storytelling and immersive experience.
“When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games. It came down to a coin toss and a Christmas camera. I learned programming on a TI‑83, so the passion has always been there. Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience.
The medium changes, but the purpose stays the same.”