The buzz around Join Us first surged when its trailer lit up the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator. In the clip, robed followers zip around on pigs, wielding machine guns, before the screen erupts into an image of 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 gun" – a weapon that fires live serpents.
Joe Dietsch, the chief executive officer and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, explains that the idea sprang from a child’s imagination. “One of our team member’s sons asked, ‘Can there be a snake gun?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new weapon in roughly half an hour, so I built it on the spot.
The kid went nuts, and the weapon stayed in the game.” That anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style doomsday cult. It also highlights the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has enabled a relatively tiny crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, says the team set out to be “disruptors.” “We told everyone we could pull off a AAA‑ish experience with just twelve people.
Most people laughed and said it was impossible,” he recalls. Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to “punch above their weight” on shoestring budgets. After roughly eighty pitch meetings, Wolf Haus finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital.
Both firms took a stake in the studio, providing the capital needed to move from prototype to full production. The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director Mel Gibson, and 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 founded by Chris Roberts before his transition to the Star Citizen universe. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine.
“I discovered Unreal was free to download, and I’d been a gamer my whole life, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge,” he says. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, built a few modest games, and eventually gravitated toward a concept that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics: a doomsday cult simulator.
He crafted a proof‑of‑concept demo, ran into technical roadblocks, and showed the early build to Abbott, who then introduced it to Dooma, a production partner. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, entered the video‑game arena after a career in film production and screenwriting. In the early 2000s he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins.
Later, he launched several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million). After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire.
Yet a chance call from his former Hollywood‑Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into development. Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh re‑entered the industry, bringing on former Warner Bros. Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and recruiting Ubisoft Montreal veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. With the core team in place, the next hurdle was financing—an especially tough task during the industry downturn of 2023‑24.
The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, initially receiving polite interest but few commitments. After signing with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and re‑pitching in 2024, they finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits CAA’s representation—alongside high‑profile titles like 007: First Light—and the involvement of seasoned game veterans for opening doors that might otherwise have remained closed. Despite the high‑profile backing, Wolf Haus deliberately kept its staff lean: thirteen full‑time employees at the time of writing.
Dietsch emphasizes that a small team fosters a “everyone‑has‑a‑voice” culture, where each member can touch both creative and technical aspects of the game. To make such an ambitious project feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset. “Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch explains.
“We spent the first year simultaneously designing gameplay and building the internal tools that would let that gameplay survive the pressures of an open‑world map.” This tool‑centric approach, funded by equity partners, allowed the team to iterate quickly without relying on external contractors. Funding from Kraftor and Lifelike was structured as equity, meaning the investors share in the studio’s eventual enterprise value.
This alignment encouraged the studio to pour money into tool development, even if it slowed short‑term progress. “Whenever we hit a problem we don’t know how to solve, we build a tool for it,” says Dietsch.
“It may feel slower, but it enables a tiny team to deliver a game of this scope.” In an era where many studios tout generative‑AI pipelines, Wolf Haus takes a contrary stance. “We don’t use generative AI for any creative work,” Dietsch states flatly. “Our game is built by human hands; that’s why we get up in the morning.” Wendschuh adds that the only AI they employ is for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting. Interestingly, Krafton—publicly branding itself as an “AI‑first” company—specifically required Wolf Haus to avoid AI‑generated content as a condition of their investment, echoing similar statements from Krafton‑owned Neon Giant.
The studio’s 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. Dietsch believes this human touch is essential for immersion, especially in a genre that leans heavily on atmosphere and narrative. He also notes a key advantage of games over films: immediacy. “In film, an idea can take years to materialise, needing approvals, casting, and massive budgets.
In a game, I can prototype a mechanic this morning, see it in the engine by lunch, and iterate instantly.” Wendschuh agrees, observing that film production is front‑loaded with gate‑keeping—securing A‑list talent and studio green‑lights—whereas games have far fewer barriers to entry. “You don’t need a Hollywood star to sell a game; you just need a compelling experience.” Both founders reflect on how their childhood passions—coding on a TI‑83 calculator and making home movies—converged into a career that straddles both mediums. “Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re telling a story, creating an experience, and engaging an audience,” Dietsch concludes. "Join Us" embodies that philosophy, blending cinematic flair with interactive freedom, all while proving that a small, focused team can deliver a blockbuster‑scale experience without leaning on generative AI.