The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. In the clip, robed followers zip around on pigs while firing machine guns, culminating in a dramatic reveal of massive, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One detail that didn’t make the final edit was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a simple suggestion by a team member’s child.
"His son asked, ‘What would a snake gun look like?’" Dietsch recalls. "Because we had a modular weapon‑creation tool, I was able to prototype a snake‑shooting gun in roughly thirty minutes.
The kid was thrilled, and the weapon stayed in the game." That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us. The title is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit AI followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. The game’s design philosophy is deeply rooted in the studio’s tech‑first mindset, a strategy that has allowed a small 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 the ambition: "We wanted to be disruptors.
While everyone else assumed you needed a hundred‑person team, we set out to prove that twelve talented people could pull it off." The founders’ background in indie filmmaking gave them a practical edge. "We come from the world of independent cinema, where you constantly have to punch above your weight," Abbott says.
Their experience in low‑budget, high‑creativity environments translated well to game development. After 80 pitches, the studio finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took a stake in Wolf Haus.
Wolf Haus’s leadership team is steeped in Hollywood history. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of Mel Gibson—who later co‑founded the studio. 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 his transition to the Star Citizen project. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. The seed of Join Us was planted when Dietsch began experimenting with Unreal Engine.
"Unreal Engine is free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a huge barrier to actually creating something," he explains. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, building a few small prototypes before committing to a larger vision. The concept of a doomsday cult simulator appealed to him because it merged his love for survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics, creating a single intellectual property that bridges his two passions. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, expecting it to hit a technical wall at some point.
When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and presented it to Dooma, a strategic partner. Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had a varied career that began in film production and screenwriting before shifting to video games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative 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 the cannabis‑formulation firm Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million (about $330 million USD).
After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire. Yet a call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the industry. "I was watching a video of the game Joe had built, and it completely blew my mind," Wendschuh says.
He then introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros. Games VP now heading 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—a daunting task given the industry’s downturn in mid‑2023. The studio began pitching that summer, initially receiving enthusiastic but non‑committal feedback. After partnering with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, they refined their pitch and returned to investors in 2024, eventually closing a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Abbott credits the CAA relationship and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand for smoothing the fundraising process. "Derek Douglas, our agent at CAA, had represented me for twelve years in games and previously led the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh notes. Despite the high ambitions, Join Us is being built by just 13 full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team structure is intentional: "We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership over the final product." To make such an expansive game feasible with a lean crew, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset.
"Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. The studio devoted a significant portion of its first development year to building a robust toolkit that would allow features to expand across a large open world without causing the project to collapse under its own weight. This tool‑centric philosophy extends beyond Join Us; the studio plans to reuse the same infrastructure for future titles.
The funding model also gave the team breathing room to perfect these tools. Both Krafton and Lifelike are equity partners, and their capital has been used to self‑fund the game's development. While the studio is now seeking modest project‑finance for marketing, the core development has been financed entirely by the equity investors.
"Equity funding aligns the investors’ incentives with our studio’s long‑term value, encouraging us to build extensive tools," says Wendschuh. "Whenever we encounter a problem we can’t solve, we simply build a tool to address it. It may slow us down in the short term, but it enables a tiny team to achieve something that would otherwise require many more hands." When asked about generative AI, a hot topic in the industry, both Dietsch and Wendschuh are clear: the studio does not employ AI for creative work.
"We believe a human touch is essential for game development," Dietsch states. "Using an AI to generate content would defeat the purpose of why we love making games." Wendschuh adds that the studio only uses generative AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid AI‑generated assets in the creative pipeline. This mirrors Krafton‑owned Neon Giant’s stance, which publicly distanced itself from the parent company’s AI pivot. The team’s commitment to handcrafted content is evident in the game’s six‑kilometre‑square map, which was built entirely by hand, and its 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors. "That was non‑negotiable for us, even as a small indie studio," says Dietsch.
Dietsch also reflects on the differences between film and games. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring approvals, casting, and extensive pre‑production. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours and tested instantly in the engine. "You can have an idea this morning, plug it into the engine, and see it in action the same day," he says, highlighting the immediacy that attracted him to interactive media.
Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with intense, high‑budget set days and a reliance on a few high‑profile talents to secure studio backing. While anyone can shoot a low‑budget film with a backyard camera, breaking through without star power or distribution is rare. Video games, however, have far fewer gatekeepers; a small team can reach a global audience without needing A‑list actors or directors.
"The barrier to entry is lower, and the chances of success are higher," he notes. Both founders agree that storytelling is the core driver behind their work, regardless of medium.
"When I was six, I wanted to make either games or movies. It came down to a coin toss and getting a camera for Christmas," Dietsch reminisces. He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, a hobby that dovetailed with his love for cinema. "Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience.
That fundamental goal doesn’t change." In summary, Wolf Haus Games demonstrates that a small, focused team with strong Hollywood roots, strategic financing, and a dedication to building its own tools can produce a large‑scale, high‑quality game without relying on generative AI. Their journey from a simple Unreal Engine experiment to a fully realised cult‑simulator underscores the power of creativity, perseverance, and the belief that size isn’t the sole determinant of ambition.