The trailer for Join Us first caught the public’s eye during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation. In the clip, robed followers zip around on pig‑back, brandishing machine guns, before the scene culminates in a monstrous, Cthulhu‑like mass of tentacles.
What didn’t make the final cut was the now‑infamous snake‑gun, a weapon that Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—credits to a spontaneous idea from a team member’s child. “His son asked, ‘What if there’s a snake gun?’ We had a modular gun system, so I whipped up a snake‑shooting weapon in about thirty minutes.
It blew his mind, and it stayed in the game,” Dietsch recalls. That anecdote perfectly illustrates 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 cult empire. It also showcases the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity, large‑scale title.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: “We set out to be disruptors. We told everyone we could deliver a AAA‑ish experience with just twelve people. Most people laughed, saying it was impossible.” The team’s confidence wasn’t unfounded. Their background in indie filmmaking had taught them to punch far above their budgetary weight.
“We grew up making indie films, learning to do a lot with very little. That experience translated directly to game development,” Abbott explains. After 80 pitches, the studio finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. Wolf Haus’s founders are steeped in Hollywood pedigree.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—who now co‑heads the studio. Together they co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie features Happy Hunting and Manifest West. Abbott, the son of veteran makeup artist Larry Abbott, helped launch Ascendant Pictures, a production company originally founded by Chris Roberts before his transition to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies 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 that removed a huge barrier for anyone who wanted to create,” he says. With only YouTube tutorials as guidance, he built a couple of tiny prototypes before deciding to tackle something larger. The concept—a doomsday cult simulator that fuses survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics—kept resurfacing in his mind.
He crafted a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming he would eventually hit a technical wall. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and introduced it to Dooma.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, entered the picture after a varied career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game narrative work. In the early 2000s he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing writing services for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he launched several tech ventures, most notably Ebbu, a cannabis‑formulation company that sold for roughly C$430 million (about $330 million USD). After cashing out, he bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, planning a quiet retirement.
Yet a chance call from his old Hollywood‑Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the industry. “I watched the demo Joe had built, and it blew my mind. I quit my retirement plan and jumped back in,” Wendschuh recounts.
Through Wendschuh’s network, the studio recruited Reid Schneider—former VP at Warner Bros. Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, the makers of Journey to the Savage Planet—as a strategic advisor, and hired Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, an ex‑Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer. With the core team solidified, the next hurdle was financing, a task made tougher by an industry downturn that began in mid‑2023.
The studio’s initial outreach yielded interest but no commitments. After partnering with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) in Los Angeles and re‑pitching throughout 2024, they finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Abbott credits the CAA connection—and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand—for opening doors.
“Our agent Derek Douglas had represented me for twelve years in games and even headed the video‑game department at William Morris. That kind of pedigree matters when you’re a tiny studio trying to be taken seriously,” he notes. What truly sets Join Us apart is the way it’s being built: a thirteen‑person full‑time team that strives to keep every voice heard and every member involved in creative decisions.
Dietsch explains that early in development they focused heavily on tooling. “If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person. We invested a huge portion of the first year in building a robust toolkit that lets us expand features across a massive open world without the project collapsing under its own weight.” This tool‑first philosophy also aligns with the equity‑funding model. Krafton and Lifelike’s capital has been used to self‑finance development, allowing the studio to allocate resources toward tool creation rather than rushing to market.
“Our investors want the studio to increase enterprise value, so they support our long‑term approach of building tools for every problem we encounter,” Wendschuh says. In an era where many studios tout generative‑AI pipelines, Wolf Haus deliberately steers clear of AI‑driven content creation.
“We don’t use generative AI for any creative work. The human touch is essential to us,” Dietsch asserts. Wendschuh adds that the only AI they employ are mundane productivity tools for scheduling and email.
Even Krafton, which has branded itself as an “AI‑first” company, insisted that Wolf Haus refrain from AI‑generated assets, fearing it could diminish the studio’s artistic integrity. This stance mirrors that of Neon Giant, another Krafton‑backed studio that publicly denied using AI for its games.
The commitment to handcrafted content is evident throughout Join Us. The six‑kilometre‑square map was manually designed, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by human actors—an impressive feat for an indie‑scale production.
Dietsch believes this dedication to hand‑crafted detail enhances immersion and respects the work of voice talent and artists. Transitioning from film to games also gave Dietsch a sense of immediacy he found lacking in cinema. In film, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals before it ever reaches a set.
In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped in a single morning, inserted into the engine, and instantly visualized. “That instant feedback loop is exhilarating,” he says. Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with massive coordination required to secure high‑profile talent before a project ever gets green‑lit. While anyone can technically shoot a backyard movie, breaking through without star power or distribution is rare.
Games, however, have far fewer gatekeepers; a small team can launch a successful title without needing A‑list actors or directors. Both mediums, though, share a core creative drive: storytelling and experience design. “When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games. It came down to a coin toss and a camera for Christmas.
I learned to program on a TI‑83, so I’ve always been split between the two,” Dietsch reflects. “Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re trying to give someone an experience, tell a story, and engage them. The tools change, but the intention stays the same." In summary, Wolf Haus’s Join Us exemplifies how a small, tightly knit team—bolstered by Hollywood connections, savvy investors, and a relentless focus on custom tooling—can produce an ambitious, high‑quality game without relying on generative AI.
Their story underscores the power of interdisciplinary expertise, the value of human‑centric creation, and the growing feasibility of indie studios competing with larger studios on a global stage.