The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator where robed followers zip around on pigs, fire machine guns, and eventually confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like 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 off‑hand suggestion. “One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool, so within about thirty minutes I built a gun that shoots snakes.
The kid went nuts, and we kept it in the game,” Dietsch recalls. That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit of Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title that lets players recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style cult.
It also highlights the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a small team to produce a high‑fidelity experience that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, explains their ambition: “We set out to be disruptors. We told everyone, ‘We don’t need a hundred developers; twelve will do.’ Most people laughed and said it was impossible.” The team’s confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to “punch above their weight.” After 80 pitch meetings, they finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. The founders’ Hollywood roots run 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 founded by Chris Roberts before he moved on to the Star Citizen universe. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s experimentation in Unreal Engine.
“I discovered Unreal was free to download and started learning from YouTube tutorials,” he says. Though he had no formal training, he built a few small prototypes before deciding to tackle a larger vision: a doomsday cult simulator that fuses survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He created a proof‑of‑concept demo, ran into technical roadblocks, and showed the result to Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into games in the early 2000s.
He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles such as 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, he bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire.
Yet a chance call from his old Hollywood‑Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into development. Wendschuh was blown away by the early demo and decided to join the effort, bringing along veteran game industry figures like Reid Schneider—formerly a vice president at Warner Bros. Games—and Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer who now serves as chief technology officer.
Funding proved challenging during an industry downturn. The studio began pitching in summer 2023, initially receiving polite interest but few commitments. After enlisting CAA (Creative Artists Agency) as representation and re‑pitching in 2024, they secured a seed round from Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh credits CAA’s network and the presence of seasoned advisors for opening doors. Despite the high‑profile backers, the studio remains lean: only 13 full‑time staff members.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional, fostering an environment where “everyone has a voice, everyone touches the creative, and the game feels like a product of a tight‑knit group.” To make such an ambitious open‑world possible, the team invested heavily in custom tooling early on. “If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch explains. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and building the internal tools that would later allow the world to expand without collapsing under its own complexity. The equity financing model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools.
Krafton and Lifelike’s capital funded the entire development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing. “Equity partners want the studio to increase its enterprise value, so they support us in building extensive tooling,” says Wendschuh.
This philosophy means that whenever the team encounters a problem they can’t solve off‑the‑shelf, they create a bespoke tool—even if it slows short‑term progress, it enables a small crew to achieve big results. When asked about generative AI, the team’s stance is clear: they avoid it for creative work. “We don’t use any generative AI in the game‑making process,” Dietsch says. “Our motivation is the human touch; handing development over to an algorithm would defeat why we get up every morning.” Wendschuh adds that the studio only uses AI for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Interestingly, Krafton—positioning itself as an “AI‑first” company—insisted that Wolf Haus not employ generative AI for content creation, mirroring similar statements from Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s massive six‑kilometer‑square map and its 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors.
Dietsch believes this human‑centric approach differentiates Join Us from titles that rely heavily on synthetic assets. Comparing film and game development, Dietsch notes the immediacy of the latter.
In film, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, casting, and extensive pre‑production. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped in a single morning, allowing creators to see their vision instantly within the engine.
Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with a small number of high‑profile talent needed to secure studio backing, whereas games face fewer gatekeepers: “You don’t need an A‑list actor or director to get a game greenlit.” Both mediums, however, share a core creative impulse: storytelling and immersive experience. Dietsch reflects on his childhood, recalling that a coin toss decided whether he’d pursue movies or games, and that a Christmas camera sparked his love for visual storytelling. Whether through a film reel or a game engine, the goal remains the same—to craft an experience that engages, moves, and entertains an audience.