The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulator. In the preview, robed followers charge on pig‑mounted platforms, firing an assortment of absurd weapons before the screen fades to a massive, Cthulhu‑like mass of tentacles. One of the most memorable, yet unseen, elements was the "snake gun" – a weapon that literally launches serpents.
Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, explains that the idea sprang from a child’s imagination. "One of our team members’ sons asked, ‘What would a snake gun look like?’ We had a modular gun system, so within about thirty minutes I built a prototype that shoots snakes. The kid was thrilled, and the weapon made it into the final game." That anecdote captures the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers or friends into a 1970s‑style cult, wield bizarre weapons, and explore a sprawling, hand‑crafted map. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a tiny crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger budget.
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, but our background in indie film taught us how to punch far above our weight." The founders of Wolf Haus bring deep roots in Hollywood. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, the 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 he turned his attention to Star Citizen. Abbott’s film résumé also includes producing credits on projects such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a personal experiment for Dietsch in Unreal Engine.
"I discovered Unreal was free to download and started tinkering after watching YouTube tutorials," he recalls. Though he had never built a commercial game before, he quickly assembled a few small prototypes. The concept that stuck was a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics – essentially a love letter to the movies and games he adored.
He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the duo began pitching the idea. The financial journey was far from smooth. After 80 pitches, the studio finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital.
Their chief financial officer and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, arrived in the picture after a varied career that spanned screenwriting for Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins, as well as founding a cannabis formulation company that sold for roughly C$430 million. Wendschuh had retired to a remote Canadian island when a former roommate, Michael Abbott, called with a video of Dietsch’s demo. "It blew my mind and pulled me out of retirement," Wendschuh says.
He then introduced Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros. Games VP, who became a strategic advisor and recruited Ubisoft veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. With a core team of just 13 full‑time staff, Wolf Haus relied heavily on custom tooling to keep the project scalable.
"Every system must be debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. The first year of development was split between designing gameplay and building the internal toolset that would let a small crew expand features across an open world without the codebase collapsing under its own weight. This approach was supported by their investors; Krafton and Lifelike provided seed capital that essentially self‑funded the game, allowing the studio to focus on tool creation rather than chasing external deadlines.
Contrary to industry chatter about generative AI replacing artists, Wolf Haus deliberately shunned AI for any creative work. "We believe a game needs a human touch," Dietsch states.
"We have a few AI subscriptions for mundane tasks like calendar management, but none of it touches the art, design, or writing." Krafton, which markets itself as an "AI‑first" company, actually required that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline as a condition of their investment. This mirrors a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑backed studio that publicly distanced itself from the parent company's AI pivot.
Wendschuh emphasizes the studio’s respect for creative labor: "We don’t want AI to replace voice actors, artists, or writers. All 15,000 voice lines in Join Us were recorded by human talent, and the six‑kilometre‑square map was handcrafted." The contrast between film and game development is another recurring theme for Dietsch. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, subject to the approval of studios, directors, and A‑list talent. In games, the same concept can be prototyped overnight and iterated directly in the engine.
"I can have an idea at breakfast, drop it into Unreal, and see it in action within minutes," he says. This immediacy, combined with fewer gatekeepers, makes the medium more accessible for small teams. Nevertheless, both mediums share a core purpose: storytelling and immersion.
Dietsch reflects on his childhood, when a coin toss decided whether he would become a filmmaker or a game developer. "I learned to program on a TI‑83 calculator and grew up with both cameras and computers. Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re crafting an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience.
The tools have changed, but the creative impulse remains the same." Join Us thus stands as a testament to what a tightly knit, technically adept team can achieve without relying on massive staffing or AI shortcuts. By leveraging Hollywood connections, a background in indie filmmaking, strategic investment, and a relentless focus on bespoke development tools, Wolf Haus has turned a wild, cult‑themed concept into a fully realised, open‑world sandbox that promises both absurd fun and a fresh perspective on indie game production.