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 preview, robed followers charge on pig‑back, brandishing machine guns before the scene cuts to a massive, Cthulhu‑like mass of tentacles. One element that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake gun, a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a child’s imagination.
“My team member’s son asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool, so within half an hour I built a gun that fires serpents. He was thrilled, and the weapon stayed in the game,” Dietsch recalls. That anecdote captures the chaotic, sandbox‑style gameplay at the heart of Join Us, an open‑world survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult.
It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a tiny crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally demand a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: “We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could deliver a AAA‑quality game with just twelve people.
Most people laughed, saying it was impossible.” The team’s confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to “punch above their weight.” After 80 pitches, they finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who later co‑founded Wolf Haus and 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 house 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 when Dietsch began tinkering in Unreal Engine.
“Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games. The biggest barrier felt like the lack of tools to actually create,” he explains. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few modest prototypes, and eventually gravitated toward a “doomsday cult simulator” that merged his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics.
He created a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the idea was handed off to Dooma for further development. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, entered the gaming world after a career as a film producer and screenwriter. In the early 2000s he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative work 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 company Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million (about $330 million USD).
After cashing out, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet a call from his old Hollywood‑Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back: “Joe showed me a demo, and it blew my mind. I quit my retirement plan and jumped back in.” Through Abbott’s network, they recruited Reid Schneider—formerly a vice‑president at Warner Bros.
Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet—as a strategic advisor, and brought in Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer. Funding proved tricky. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, during a market downturn.
“People liked what we were building, but the climate was tough,” Dietsch says. After initial outreach, they partnered with CAA in Los Angeles, refined their pitch, and in 2024 secured a seed round from Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh credits CAA’s representation—also handling titles like 007: First Light—and the presence of veteran advisors for opening doors. Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us is being crafted by just 13 full‑time staff. Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team model is intentional: “We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership of the final product.” To make such an ambitious open‑world possible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on.
“Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” he explains. “We spent the first year building the tools that let us iterate quickly and keep the project from collapsing under its own weight.” The equity funding model gave them the runway to perfect these tools.
“Krafton and Lifelike’s investment funds the entire development,” Wendschuh notes. “We’re now adding a bit of project finance for marketing, but the core game was built entirely with their capital.” This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s ethos of tool‑driven development: when a problem arises, they build a bespoke solution rather than outsourcing or cutting corners.
When asked about generative AI, Dietsch gives a clear answer: they don’t use it for any creative work. “Our game thrives on a human touch. Hand‑crafting a six‑kilometre‑square map and recording 15,000 voice lines with real actors is essential to our identity.” Wendschuh adds that they only employ AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email replies. Krafton, despite branding itself as an “AI‑first” company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio.
Both Dietsch and Wendschuh reflect on the differences between film and games. Dietsch loves the immediacy of game development: “You can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly.” In contrast, film is a long‑lead process where a concept can sit for years before production, often dependent on securing A‑list talent and studio approval. Wendschuh points out that games have far fewer gatekeepers; you don’t need a Hollywood star to attract an audience, making indie success more attainable.
Ultimately, the story of Join Us is one of cross‑industry talent, entrepreneurial grit, and a steadfast belief in handcrafted experiences. From a teenage fascination with snakes and cults to a fully realized, high‑budget‑looking title built by a dozen passionate developers, Wolf Haus demonstrates that with the right tools, a clear vision, and a willingness to defy expectations, a small team can indeed create a game that feels massive.