You may remember that the Join Us trailer premiered during the Xbox Showcase in June. The clip introduced a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation, featuring robed followers zipping around on pigs while firing machine guns, and it culminated in a shot of massive, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What wasn’t shown, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, the studio behind Join Us—was the infamous snake gun.
"One of our team members’ kids came up with the idea," Dietsch recounts. "He asked, ‘What if there was a snake gun?’ We had a modular weapon system, so in about thirty minutes I built a gun that actually launches snakes. It blew his mind, and it’s still in the final build." That anecdote captures the kind of chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay players can expect from Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival game where you can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join your 1970s‑style cult.
It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a high‑fidelity, large‑scale experience to be produced by a surprisingly small crew. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed it up: "We set out to be disruptors." "We told everyone, ‘We don’t need a hundred‑person studio; twelve people can do this.’ Most people laughed and said it was impossible," Abbott says.
"But we come from indie film backgrounds where we’ve learned to punch far above our weight. We pitched the concept eighty times before securing equity from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which now own a stake in Wolf Haus." The founding trio has deep roots in Hollywood. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson and another Wolf Haus co‑founder—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, a production company founded by Chris Roberts before he turned his attention to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a side project for Dietsch while he was tinkering with Unreal Engine. "It started simple: I discovered Unreal Engine was free to download," he explains. "I’d loved games for years, but there seemed to be a huge barrier to actually building something.
I downloaded the engine, followed YouTube tutorials, and started experimenting." Even without prior development experience, Dietsch managed to ship a couple of small prototypes before deciding to aim bigger. "I kept circling back to the idea of a doomsday cult simulator because it merged my love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema, blending the things I adore in movies and games into a single IP." He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming it would eventually hit a technical wall. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter took it to Dooma, a partner studio.
Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, began his career as a producer and screenwriter in film before moving into games in the early 2000s, founding Sekretagent Productions, which supplied writing for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. In the 2010s he launched several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation firm Ebbu, later sold for C$430 million (about $330 million US).
After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a tiny restaurant on an isolated Canadian island, intending to retire and walk his dog on the beach. Yet, in true Hollywood fashion, a call from his old roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back. "A friend of mine had made a video game, and I saw a demo that completely blew my mind. It convinced me to come out of retirement," Wendschuh says.
He then introduced the project to Reid Schneider, former VP at Warner Bros. Games and now head of Raccoon Logic (the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet), who became a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer. With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was funding—an especially tough task during the industry downturn of 2023‑24.
The studio began pitching in summer 2023, receiving positive but cautious feedback. "People liked what we were building, but the market was shaky," Dietsch notes.
After initial outreach, they enlisted CAA (Creative Artists Agency) in Los Angeles, re‑approached investors, and eventually closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh believes the CAA connection—an agency that also represents titles like 007: First Light—was instrumental, as were veteran advisors like Schneider and Chartrand.
"Derek Douglas, our CAA agent, had represented me for twelve years in games and previously headed the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh adds. Despite the Hollywood pedigree, Join Us is notable for being built by just thirteen full‑time staff members. "We entered the project with a clear sense of scope and a desire to keep the team small, so every voice matters and everyone can touch the creative process," Dietsch says.
To make such an ambitious title feasible, the studio invested heavily in internal tooling from the outset. "If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person. We built a robust toolkit early so that when features spread across an open‑world map, the project doesn’t collapse under its own weight. A large portion of the first year was spent simultaneously designing gameplay and constructing the tools that would enable it." The funding structure gave the studio the runway needed to perfect those tools.
"Krafton and Lifelike are equity partners; their capital funded the entire development. We’re now adding a modest amount of project finance for marketing, but the game itself is essentially self‑funded through their investment," Wendschuh explains. "Equity investors are motivated to increase the studio’s enterprise value, so they support our tool‑building ethos.
Whenever we encounter a problem we can’t solve, we build a custom tool. It may slow us down short‑term, but it lets a tiny team deliver a game of this scale." When asked about generative AI—a hot topic in game development—Dietsch is unequivocal: the studio does not use it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential. Turning development over to an AI would defeat why we get up in the morning," he says.
Wendschuh adds that the only AI they employ are mundane productivity tools for scheduling and email drafting, not for design or art. Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline. "They wanted assurance we weren’t relying on AI to make the game," Wendschuh notes, echoing similar statements from Krafton‑owned Neon Giant, which also distanced itself from the AI pivot. Both executives stress that their commitment to hand‑crafted content extends to the game’s massive six‑kilometre‑square map and its 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors.
"That level of human involvement mattered to us, even as an indie studio," Dietsch affirms. Dietsch also reflects on the contrast between film and games. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring approvals, casting, and studio green‑lights before a director ever sees the set.
In games, by contrast, an idea can be prototyped in a morning, dropped into the engine, and instantly visualised. "That immediacy is exhilarating," he says.
Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded: securing a few high‑profile directors or actors is often the make‑or‑break factor for a studio’s green‑light. While anyone can shoot a backyard movie, breaking through without marquee names or distribution is rare. Games, however, have far fewer gatekeepers. "You don’t need an A‑list star or director to succeed; the barriers are lower," he explains.
Despite the differing mediums, both creators share a common purpose: to craft experiences, tell stories, and engage audiences. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games. It came down to a coin toss and whether I got a camera for Christmas.
I learned to program on a TI‑83, so I’ve always loved both," Dietsch says. "Whether it’s film or a game, the goal is the same—deliver an experience that moves people."