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 zip around on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates with an ominous image of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What the audience didn’t see was the infamous snake‑gun, a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the chief executive officer and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was inspired by a child’s imagination. "One of the developer’s kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new firearm in about thirty minutes, so I built a gun that actually fires snakes.
The kid was blown away, and the weapon made it into the final build," 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 invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style doomsday cult. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has allowed a tiny team to deliver a high‑fidelity, large‑scale experience. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, describes their ambition as disruptive.
"We told ourselves, ‘We don’t need a hundred‑person studio; twelve people can handle this.’ Everyone else thought we were crazy and said it was impossible," Abbott says. Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to achieve big results on shoestring budgets. After 80 pitch meetings, the studio finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving Wolf Haus the financial runway it needed.
The founders’ Hollywood connections run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director 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 transition to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a personal experiment in Unreal Engine. "I discovered that Unreal Engine could be downloaded for free, and that felt like a door opening for someone who had always loved games but thought the barrier to creation was insurmountable," Dietsch explains.
He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday cult simulator that merged his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. 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 immediately took it to Dooma, a partner studio. Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had previously produced and written for films before moving into games in the early 2000s.
He founded Sekretagent Productions, which supplied writing talent for titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, Wendschuh launched several tech ventures, including the cannabis‑formulation firm Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million).
After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, planning to retire and enjoy a quiet life. Yet, in classic Hollywood fashion, a call from his old roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry. "I was watching a video of Joe’s prototype and it completely blew my mind, so I came out of retirement to help," Wendschuh says. He introduced the project to Reid Schneider, former vice president at Warner Bros.
Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet. Schneider joined as a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer.
With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was funding—an especially tough task during the industry downturn of 2023‑2024. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, receiving positive but cautious feedback.
After securing representation from Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, they renewed their pitch efforts in 2024 and eventually closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh believes the CAA connection, along with veteran advisors like Schneider and Chartrand, was instrumental.
"My agent Derek Douglas, who also represented me during my twelve‑year game‑making career, helped open doors that would otherwise have stayed closed," he notes. Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us remains a product of a lean operation—just thirteen full‑time staff members.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional: "We wanted a studio where every voice matters, where everyone can touch the creative process, and where the final game feels like a collective effort of a tight‑knit group." To make an ambitious open‑world title feasible with such a limited headcount, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset. "Any system we build must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. The first year of development was split between designing gameplay concepts and constructing the internal toolset that would keep the project from collapsing under its own weight as the world expanded. The equity funding model gave the studio the breathing room to perfect those tools.
"Krafton and Lifelike provided capital that we used to self‑fund the game. We’re now adding a modest amount of project finance for marketing, but the core development was entirely covered by their equity investment," says Wendschuh. He adds that having investors who care about the studio’s long‑term enterprise value encourages the team to keep building reusable tools, even if it slows short‑term progress. When asked about the role of generative AI, Dietsch gives a clear answer: the studio does not rely on it for creative work.
"We believe a game needs a human touch. Hand‑crafting the experience is why we get up every morning," he says.
Wendschuh concedes that they use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting, but not for any aspect of game design or asset creation. Krafton, which brands itself as an "AI‑first" company, actually required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline. This stance mirrors that of Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio that publicly distanced itself from the parent’s AI push. Both studios stress the importance of preserving jobs for voice actors, artists, and other creatives.
Indeed, Join Us features a six‑kilometre‑square map that was entirely handcrafted, and its 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human performers—a point the team considers non‑negotiable, even for an indie project. Dietsch reflects on the differences between film and game development.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent. In games, an idea can be prototyped within hours, allowing immediate iteration. "You can have a concept in the morning, drop it into the engine, see it instantly, and start tweaking," he says, highlighting the immediacy that attracted him to interactive media.
Wendschuh adds that film production is heavily front‑loaded: securing a director, a star, and studio backing before any shooting begins. While anyone can pick up a camera and film in a backyard, breaking through without marquee names or distribution is rare.
By contrast, the video‑game market has fewer gatekeepers, making it easier for small teams to achieve commercial success without celebrity endorsements. Both founders agree that, at its core, storytelling unites the two mediums. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games; it boiled down to a coin toss and whether I got a camera for Christmas," Dietsch laughs. He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, showing that his passion for creating experiences has always been present, regardless of the format.
In summary, Wolf Haus’s journey—from Hollywood film roots and a lucrative cannabis exit to a tightly‑run, tool‑centric game studio—demonstrates that a small, focused team can produce a sprawling, high‑quality title without leaning on generative AI. Their story underscores the power of human creativity, strategic partnerships, and the willingness to defy industry expectations.