The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator. In the preview, robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates in a nightmarish vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One detail that didn’t make the final cut was the snake‑shooter weapon, a quirky addition that Joe Dietsch, the studio’s CEO and creative director, says was inspired by a suggestion from a team member’s son. "He asked, 'What if there was a gun that fired snakes?'" Dietsch recalls.
"Because we had built a modular gun system, I could prototype it in about thirty minutes. The kid was thrilled, and the snake gun stayed in the game." This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title where players can recruit AI followers or friends into a 1970s‑style cult. It also illustrates Wolf Haus’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a tiny crew to produce a high‑fidelity experience that would normally require a much larger staff.
Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed up the team’s philosophy: "We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone, 'We don’t need a hundred people; twelve is enough.' Most people laughed and said it was impossible." Their confidence stemmed from a background in low‑budget, high‑impact indie filmmaking, where they learned to “punch above their weight.” After 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving the studio the runway to finish the game.
The founders’ Hollywood connections run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who now co‑heads Wolf Haus. Together they 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 work on Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. These film‑industry roots gave the team a knack for storytelling and a comfort with tight budgets.
Join Us originated from Dietsch tinkering with Unreal Engine. "Unreal was free to download, and I was frustrated by the high barrier to creating games," he explains. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse‑movie aesthetics. The early proof‑of‑concept was rough but promising, and when he showed it to Abbott, the latter took it to Dooma, a partner who helped shape the vision further.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, entered the picture after a career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game narrative work on 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.
After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood‑hill roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into development. Wendschuh was impressed by Dietsch’s demo and agreed to help, bringing in Reid Schneider—formerly a vice president at Warner Bros. Games—and Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, an ex‑Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as strategic advisor and chief technology officer respectively.
Funding proved to be the next hurdle. The team began pitching in the summer of 2023, a period marked by an industry downturn.
Despite the tough climate, the game’s unique premise attracted interest. After initial outreach, Wolf Haus signed with CAA in Los Angeles, which helped them re‑pitch in 2024 and eventually close a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh credits CAA’s representation—alongside industry veterans like Schneider and Chartrand—for opening doors that might otherwise have stayed closed. Even with high‑profile backers, Wolf Haus deliberately kept the development staff small: only 13 full‑time employees.
Dietsch emphasizes that this size allowed everyone to have a voice and stay closely connected to the creative core. To make a sprawling open‑world game feasible with such a lean crew, the studio invested heavily in internal tooling from day one.
"Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch says. "We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across a six‑kilometre‑square map without the project collapsing under its own weight." The equity financing model gave Wolf Haus the breathing room to perfect those tools.
Krafton and Lifelike provided capital that was used almost entirely to fund development, with only a modest amount earmarked for marketing. Because the investors own equity, they are motivated to see the studio increase its enterprise value, which aligns with Wolf Haus’s philosophy of building reusable tools for future projects. "When we hit a problem we don’t know how to solve, we build a tool to solve it," Wendschuh notes. "It may slow us down short‑term, but it enables a small team to achieve something that normally requires a much larger operation." When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not rely on it for creative work.
"We believe a game needs a human touch," Dietsch asserts. "Using an AI to generate assets would defeat the reason we get up every morning. We only use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting." Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, also insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline.
This stance mirrors that of Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio that publicly denied using AI for game development. Wendschuh stresses that AI threatens jobs for voice actors and artists, and the studio is committed to preserving those roles. The six‑kilometre‑square map in Join Us is hand‑crafted, and all 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human performers—a point of pride for the tiny indie team. Dietsch reflects on the contrast between film and games.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, star attachments, and studio greenlights. In game development, a concept can be prototyped in a single morning, placed into the engine, and instantly experienced. This immediacy fuels his enthusiasm for interactive media. Wendschuh adds that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with massive costs incurred before any footage is shot, whereas games have far fewer gatekeepers; a small team can launch a successful title without A‑list talent.
Both mediums, however, share a common creative impulse: storytelling and delivering an experience. Dietsch recalls that as a child he wanted to make either movies or games, and a coin toss decided his path.
He learned programming on a TI‑83 calculator, and that early fascination has guided his career. Whether through film or interactive entertainment, his goal remains the same—to craft compelling narratives that engage audiences. In summary, Wolf Haus’s Join Us is a testament to what a determined, technically savvy, and Hollywood‑savvy team can achieve with a modest headcount, strategic financing, and a refusal to lean on generative AI.
The result is a quirky, chaotic cult simulator that blends survival mechanics, dark humor, and a handcrafted world, all built by a dozen passionate creators who believe that size matters less than vision and craftsmanship.