The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult‑sim where robed followers zip around on pigs, wield machine guns, and eventually confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One of the most memorable—and absurd—moments that didn’t make the final cut was the appearance of a snake‑shooting weapon, a detail recounted by Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games. According to Dietsch, the idea sprang from a conversation with a team member’s son who asked, “What would a snake gun look like?” Leveraging a proprietary tool that lets the studio rapidly prototype firearms, Dietsch whipped up a functional snake‑launcher in roughly thirty minutes. The result amazed the youngster and earned a permanent spot in the game, illustrating the kind of off‑the‑wall gameplay that Join Us promises.
Join Us is an open‑world sandbox survival experience set in a 1970s‑style cult. Players can recruit AI followers or friends in co‑op mode to expand their bizarre congregation. The game’s chaotic tone mirrors the development philosophy of Wolf Haus: a small, tech‑savvy crew determined to prove that a high‑fidelity title doesn’t require a massive staff.
Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed it up succinctly: “We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build this with twelve people, and they laughed.” The team’s confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to punch far above their budgetary weight.
Before securing any external capital, Wolf Haus delivered eighty pitch decks before finally attracting equity investors Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which now hold stakes in the studio. The founding trio’s Hollywood connections run deep.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—who 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, a production company originally founded by Chris Roberts before his shift to the Star Citizen universe. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx.
The seed of Join Us grew from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine. “Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt blocked by the cost of entry for creation,” he explains.
He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, eventually building a few modest prototypes. The concept that stuck was a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics—essentially marrying his favorite film tropes with interactive gameplay. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, expecting to hit a technical wall at some point. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and presented it to Dooma, a partner that helped move the project forward.
Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, entered the picture after a long career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game writing for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. He later founded several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million.
Wendschuh’s path to Wolf Haus was unconventional. After selling his cannabis business, he bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire.
A sudden call from his old Hollywood‑hill roommate Michael Abbott—who mentioned a friend’s video‑game project—pulled him back into development. The demo impressed him so much that he left retirement to join the effort, bringing on Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros. Games VP, as a strategic advisor, and recruiting Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, an ex‑Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer.
Funding proved to be the next hurdle. The team began pitching in the summer of 2023, a period marked by an industry downturn.
Despite positive reactions to the game’s concept, securing capital was challenging. After initial outreach, Wolf Haus signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, refined their pitch, and returned to investors in 2024. Their persistence paid off when Lifelike Capital and Krafton closed a seed round, providing the financial runway needed for development.
Wendschuh credits CAA’s representation—alongside agents who had previously worked with him on other gaming projects—for opening doors. The presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand also reassured investors.
What truly sets Join Us apart is its production model: a core team of just thirteen full‑time staff. Dietsch emphasizes that every member participates in creative decisions, fostering a tight‑knit environment where ideas flow freely. To make a game of this scope feasible with such a lean crew, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on.
“If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch notes. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and building the internal tools that would later support an expansive open world.
The equity‑funded structure gave Wolf Haus the luxury of time to perfect those tools. Krafton and Lifelike’s investment was used directly to finance development, making the project essentially self‑funded. While a modest amount of project finance is now being allocated for marketing, the core development budget remains fully covered by the equity partners. This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s goal of increasing enterprise value, encouraging the continued creation of in‑house tools that solve problems as they arise.
When asked about generative AI—a hot topic in game development—Dietsch gave a clear answer: the studio does not employ AI for creative tasks. “We believe a human touch is essential. Turning the creative process over to an algorithm would defeat the purpose of why we get up every morning,” he says. Wendschuh adds that the only AI they use is for administrative purposes, such as calendar management and email drafting.
Krafton, despite branding itself as an “AI‑first” company, explicitly required that Wolf Haus not rely on generative AI for artistic production. This stance mirrors similar declarations from other Krafton‑owned studios, such as Neon Giant, which also denied using AI in their creative pipelines. The team’s commitment to handcrafted content is evident: the six‑kilometre‑square map in Join Us is entirely hand‑built, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by real actors.
Dietsch reflects on the contrast between film and games, praising the immediacy of interactive media. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, subject to countless approvals and the need for high‑profile talent.
In game development, a concept can be prototyped within hours, allowing creators to see their vision instantly in the engine. Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, requiring extensive pre‑production to secure directors, actors, and studio backing, whereas games face fewer gatekeepers, making it easier for small teams to achieve success without A‑list names. Both veterans agree that storytelling is the common thread linking the two mediums.
Dietsch recalls that as a child he wanted to make either movies or games, and a simple coin toss—and perhaps a Christmas camera—set him on his path. He learned programming on a TI‑83 calculator, and that early fascination has persisted throughout his career. Whether through film or interactive experiences, his goal remains the same: to craft compelling narratives that engage audiences and deliver memorable experiences.