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 clip, robed followers zip around on pigs, brandish machine guns, and the sequence culminates in a nightmarish vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
One detail that didn’t make the final edit was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—originated from a child’s off‑hand suggestion. "My team member’s son asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new firearm in roughly half an hour, so I built it on the fly.
The kid went wild, and we kept the weapon in the final build," Dietsch recalls. That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style cult.
It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has allowed a small group to produce a high‑fidelity title that would traditionally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: "We wanted to be disruptors.
Everyone told us you need a hundred‑person team to pull off something of this scope. We said, ‘No, we can do it with twelve.’" Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where crews routinely punch far above their budgetary weight.
After 80 pitch meetings, the studio finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. The founders’ Hollywood credentials run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of 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 his transition to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a hobby project for Dietsch in Unreal Engine.
"Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a massive barrier to actually creating something," he explains. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, eventually producing a few modest prototypes.
The concept that stuck was a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse‑cinema aesthetics—a hybrid of his two passions. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming it would soon hit a technical wall. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and took it to Dooma, a production partner.
Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had previously worked as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, which supplied writing for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, Wendschuh launched several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis‑formulation company Ebbu, sold for roughly C$430 million.
After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet, in classic Hollywood fashion, a call from his old roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back. "I was ready for a quiet life, but when I saw Joe’s demo it blew my mind and convinced me to come out of retirement," Wendschuh says.
He introduced the project to Reid Schneider, former VP at Warner Bros. Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, who became a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand—formerly a programmer at Ubisoft Montreal—as chief technology officer. With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was financing.
Pitching began in the summer of 2023, a period marked by an industry downturn. Despite the challenging climate, the team’s unique pedigree and compelling demo attracted interest. They eventually partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for representation, which helped open doors to investors. By 2024 they closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton, both taking equity stakes.
Wolf Haus deliberately kept its headcount low—13 full‑time staff members—so that every employee could have a meaningful voice in the creative process. Dietsch notes that this intimacy fosters a sense of ownership: "We wanted a studio where everyone touches the creative, where the game feels like it was made by a specific, tight‑knit group." To make an ambitious open‑world game with such a lean crew, the studio 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 first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and building the underlying tools that would allow those ideas to scale across a six‑kilometre‑square map without collapsing under their own weight.
This tooling‑centric approach also aligns with the investors’ expectations; Krafton and Lifelike encourage the studio to develop robust pipelines, even if it slows short‑term progress, because it ultimately reduces risk for a small team tackling a large project. When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not rely on it for any creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential for games.
Using AI to generate assets would defeat the purpose of why we get up in the morning," Dietsch says. Wendschuh adds that the only AI tools they employ are mundane productivity aids such as calendar scheduling and email drafting. Interestingly, Krafton—publicly positioning itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. The decision to eschew AI extends to voice work and level design.
All 15,000 voice lines in Join Us were recorded by human actors, and the entire map was handcrafted. Dietsch believes this commitment to handcrafted content is vital for preserving the game’s personality, especially for an indie title that wants to stand out. Comparing game development to filmmaking, Dietsch highlights the immediacy of the interactive medium.
In film, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring greenlights, casting, and massive coordination. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours: "You can have an idea in the morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly. That rapid feedback loop is exhilarating." Wendschuh points out that movies are front‑loaded with high‑stakes negotiations for A‑list talent, making it difficult for a low‑budget production to break through.
Games, however, have fewer gatekeepers; a small studio can reach a global audience without needing star actors or directors. This democratization is a key factor behind Wolf Haus’s confidence in tackling a large‑scale project with a modest team. Ultimately, both mediums share a common creative impulse: storytelling and evoking emotion.
Dietsch reflects on his childhood, when a coin toss decided whether he’d pursue games or movies. "Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience.
The tools may differ, but the core mission remains the same." Join Us is poised to deliver a uniquely chaotic, humor‑laden cult experience, built by a team that blends Hollywood savvy, tech ingenuity, and a staunch commitment to human‑crafted artistry—all without leaning on generative AI. The project demonstrates that with the right tools, a clear vision, and a willingness to defy industry expectations, a small crew can indeed produce a game of impressive scope and polish.