The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, giving viewers a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. In the clip, robed followers zip around on pig‑back rides, wielding machine guns before the screen fades to massive, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What didn’t make the cut, according to Wolf Haus Games’ CEO and creative director Joe Dietsch, was the infamous snake gun. "One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new weapon in about thirty minutes, so I built it on the fly.
The kid was thrilled, and the snake gun stayed in the final build," Dietsch recalls. This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival game where players can recruit followers—or fellow players in co‑op mode—to grow a 1970s‑style cult. It also illustrates the studio’s tech‑first philosophy, which has allowed a tiny 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 ambition: "We set out to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build a AAA‑level experience with just twelve people. Most people laughed and said it was impossible." Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where small budgets often demand creative over‑engineering. After 80 pitches, the team finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving them the runway to bring Join Us to life.
The founders’ Hollywood credentials run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—and the two later 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 Star Citizen venture. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us began as a personal experiment in Unreal Engine. "Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt blocked from creating anything myself," Dietsch explains.
He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, eventually crafting a few small prototypes before deciding to tackle something bigger: a doomsday cult simulator that merged his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming it would soon hit a technical wall.
When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and passed it to Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director. Wendschuh’s résumé spans film production, screenwriting, and early‑2000s 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. After selling Ebbu, 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: "A friend had made a video game and wanted me to see it. The moment I played Joe’s demo, I was blown away and decided to come out of retirement." He then recruited former Warner Bros.
Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and brought in Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer. Funding proved challenging amid a market downturn. The team began pitching in summer 2023, receiving positive reactions but facing a cautious investment climate. After partnering with CAA in Los Angeles and persisting through 2024, they closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh credits CAA’s representation—also handling titles like 007: First Light—and the presence of seasoned veterans such as Schneider and Chartrand for opening doors. Despite the high‑profile backing, the studio has deliberately kept its headcount low, operating with just 13 full‑time staff. "We entered the project with a clear understanding of scope and a desire to keep a tight, collaborative environment where every voice matters," says Dietsch.
To make a large‑scale open world feasible for a small team, they invested heavily in custom tooling early on. "Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person. We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across the map without the project collapsing under its own weight," Dietsch notes.
The first year of development was therefore split between designing gameplay and engineering the tools that would support it, a strategy that also positions the studio to reuse those tools for future projects. The equity financing model gave Wolf Haus the luxury of time. "Krafton and Lifelike’s investment has essentially self‑funded the game," explains Wendschuh. "We’re now only adding a modest amount of project finance for marketing.
The investors’ equity stake aligns their interests with ours: they want us to build robust tools and a high‑quality product, even if that slows short‑term progress." When asked about generative AI, the team’s response is unequivocal: they avoid it in creative production. "We believe a human touch is essential. Using AI to generate assets would defeat the purpose of why we love making games," says Dietsch.
Wendschuh adds that the studio’s AI subscriptions are limited to administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting, not content creation. Interestingly, Krafton, which has marketed itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to refrain from using generative AI in the game's development, mirroring similar statements from Krafton‑owned Neon Giant.
The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and voice work. The six‑kilometre‑square map of Join Us was built entirely by hand, and its 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, not synthetic voices. "That mattered to us even as a small indie studio," Wendschuh asserts.
Dietsch also reflects on the contrast between filmmaking and game development. In film, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, casting, and extensive pre‑production. In games, an idea can be prototyped within hours, allowing immediate iteration: "You can have a concept in the morning and see it live in the engine by afternoon. That immediacy is exhilarating." Wendschuh points out that while film production is heavily front‑loaded and dependent on a few high‑profile talent to secure financing, video‑game creation faces fewer gatekeepers.
"Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without star power or distribution, success is unlikely. In games, you don’t need an A‑list actor or director to reach an audience; the barriers to entry are lower, which makes the odds of success much higher for indie teams." Both founders agree that, at their core, storytelling is the common thread. "Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re trying to give someone an experience, tell a story, and engage them," Dietsch says, noting that his childhood fascination with both mediums ultimately led him to the path he follows today.