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 clip, robed followers zip around on pig‑drawn carts, brandishing machine guns, before the screen fades 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, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—originated from a child’s off‑hand suggestion. "My teammate’s son asked, ‘What if there was a gun that shot snakes?’" Dietsch recalls.
"Because we built a modular weapon system, I could prototype a snake‑shooting gun in about thirty minutes. The kid went nuts, and we kept it in the game." That anecdote captures the kind of chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire.
More importantly, it illustrates the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has allowed a tiny crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed it up succinctly: “We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build this with twelve people.
Most people laughed.” The team’s confidence wasn’t unfounded. Their background in indie filmmaking taught them to “punch above their weight” and achieve cinematic results on modest budgets. Before Join Us secured financing, Wolf Haus delivered eighty pitches before finally attracting equity investors Krafton and Lifelike Capital, each taking a stake in the studio. The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—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 originally founded by Chris Roberts before he turned his attention to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ‘84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a personal experiment for Dietsch in Unreal Engine.
"Unreal was free to download, and I’d spent my life playing games while watching movies," he explains. "It felt like a huge barrier to actually create something, so I started tinkering with tutorials on YouTube." Even without formal training, Dietsch managed to ship a few small prototypes before committing to a larger vision. He describes the core idea as a “doomsday cult simulator” that merges his love of survival mechanics with the gritty aesthetic of grindhouse cinema.
The proof‑of‑concept was rough but promising, and after showing it to Abbott, the duo took the demo to Dooma, a partner studio. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, entered the picture after a varied career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game narrative work. He founded 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, most notably the cannabis‑formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million). After that windfall, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet a sudden call from his old Hollywood‑hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the industry.
"I watched the prototype Joe had built and it blew my mind," Wendschuh says, prompting him to join the effort. Through Wendschuh’s network, Wolf Haus recruited Reid Schneider—former VP at Warner Bros Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet—as a strategic advisor.
Schneider, in turn, brought on Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a veteran programmer from Ubisoft Montreal, to serve as chief technology officer. With a core team of roughly thirteen full‑time staff members, the studio faced a classic chicken‑and‑egg problem: securing funding in a market that was already experiencing a downturn.
Their first round of pitches began in summer 2023, but investors were cautious. "People liked what we were building, but the timing was tough," Dietsch notes.
The studio eventually partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, which helped reopen doors in 2024. After a second wave of pitches, Lifelike Capital and Krafton came on board, providing the seed capital needed to move forward. Wendschuh credits the CAA connection and the presence of seasoned industry veterans as key to winning over investors. "My old agent Derek Douglas, who’s now at CAA, had represented me during my twelve years in games," he says.
"His endorsement carried weight." Beyond financing, the most striking aspect of Join Us is its development methodology. With only a dozen‑plus developers, Wolf Haus placed a heavy emphasis on building reusable tools early in the process. "Every system we create has to be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. "We invested a huge portion of the first year in tooling so that when the world expands, the engine doesn’t collapse under its own weight." The equity funding model gave the studio the runway to perfect these tools.
Krafton and Lifelike’s investment was used almost entirely to self‑fund the game, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing. "Our investors want the studio to increase its enterprise value, so they encourage us to build robust tools," Wendschuh says. "When we hit a problem we don’t know how to solve, we build a tool for it. It may slow us down short‑term, but it lets a tiny team achieve something that would normally need dozens of engineers." In an industry where many small studios lean on generative AI to fill creative gaps, Wolf Haus deliberately avoids it.
"We don’t use generative AI for any creative work," Dietsch affirms. "Our process is about the human touch.
If a machine made the decisions, it would defeat why we get up in the morning." Wendschuh adds a nuance: "We have a few AI subscriptions for mundane tasks like calendar management and email replies, but none of that touches the actual game design or art." Interestingly, Krafton—despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus remain AI‑free for the creative pipeline. This mirrors a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio that publicly distanced itself from the parent’s AI push.
The studio’s commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s massive six‑kilometre‑square map, which was built entirely by hand, and the 15,000 voice lines that were recorded by human actors. "Even as a tiny indie, we felt it was crucial to keep the experience human‑driven," Dietsch says.
Dietsch also reflects on the differences between filmmaking and game development. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring countless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent.
By contrast, a game concept can be prototyped in a single day and tested instantly in the engine. "You can have an idea at breakfast and see it on screen by lunch," he enthuses. This immediacy, he believes, lowers the barriers to entry and democratises creative expression.
Wendschuh agrees, noting that film production is heavily front‑loaded with expensive talent and studio gatekeepers, whereas games can succeed without A‑list names. "Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without distribution it rarely reaches an audience.
A game, however, can find its market more organically," he explains. Both founders trace their passion back to childhood.
"When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games—it was a coin toss," Dietsch says, recalling his early experiments with programming on a TI‑83 calculator. "Whether it’s a film or a game, you’re trying to tell a story, create an experience, and engage the audience.
The medium changes, but the core impulse stays the same." Join Us thus stands as a testament to what a small, tightly‑knit team can achieve when they combine Hollywood storytelling sensibilities, savvy business acumen, and a relentless focus on building the right tools—all while shunning the shortcut of generative AI. The result is a sprawling, player‑driven cult simulator that promises both absurd fun and a glimpse into a new model of indie‑scale, high‑budget game development.