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 cultists ride on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates with a monstrous, Cthulhu‑like tangle of tentacles. What the audience didn’t see was the infamous “snake gun,” a weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says originated from an off‑hand suggestion by a team member’s son.
“It was a kid’s idea – ‘What if there was a gun that shot snakes?’ – and because we had a modular weapon system, I could prototype it in about thirty minutes. The kid went nuts, and the snake gun stayed in the final build,” Dietsch recalls. This anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers or invite friends to join a 1970s‑style cult, all while navigating a world that feels both absurd and menacing.
What makes the project even more remarkable is the team’s technology‑first philosophy, which has allowed a small group of developers to produce a high‑fidelity, large‑scale title. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed it up succinctly: “We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build a game of this scope with just twelve people.
Most people laughed; they thought it was impossible.” Their confidence stemmed from a background in indie filmmaking, where limited budgets often force creators to stretch resources creatively. Abbott notes, “We’ve spent our careers punching well above our weight, so the idea of a lean, efficient development pipeline felt natural.” The path to funding was far from smooth. Wolf Haus pitched the concept a staggering eighty times before securing equity investments from Krafton and Lifelike Capital.
Both investors now hold stakes in the studio, providing the capital necessary to keep the project afloat while preserving the team’s independence. Wolf Haus’s leadership is steeped in Hollywood history. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, the son of Mel Gibson, and the two 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 universe. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. This blend of cinematic expertise and entrepreneurial spirit informs the studio’s approach to game design, where narrative and visual flair are treated with the same rigor as any blockbuster film. The seed of Join Us was planted when Dietsch began experimenting with Unreal Engine, drawn by the fact that the engine could be downloaded for free.
“I’d always loved games, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge. I started learning from YouTube tutorials and built a few tiny prototypes,” he explains. After a series of modest experiments, the concept of a doomsday cult simulator resurfaced repeatedly, merging his love for survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics.
Creating a proof‑of‑concept was a test of both vision and technical stamina. Dietsch admits he expected to hit a wall at some point: “I thought there would be a moment where the technology would say, ‘No, you can’t do this.’” When he presented the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and introduced it to Dooma, a partner who helped refine the concept. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, entered the picture after a varied career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game writing.
He founded Sekretagent Productions, contributing narrative work to titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he built several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (about $330 million USD).
After cashing out, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, planning a quiet retirement. Yet a call from his old Hollywood‑hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the industry. “I saw the demo Joe sent me and it blew my mind.
It was the spark that got me out of retirement,” he says. Wendschuh then recruited Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros. Games vice‑president, as a strategic advisor, and brought on Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, an ex‑Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer.
With this core in place, the studio turned its attention to financing. Pitching began in the summer of 2023, a period marked by a downturn in the broader gaming market. Despite the challenging environment, the team’s persistence paid off.
After aligning with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and leveraging connections such as Derek Douglas—who had represented Wendschuh during his twelve‑year stint in game development—the studio secured seed funding from Lifelike Capital and Krafton in early 2024. The resulting development model is starkly lean: only thirteen full‑time staff members are working on Join Us. Dietsch emphasizes that this small‑team structure is intentional, fostering an environment where every voice matters and each person can influence both creative and technical decisions.
To make a game of this ambition feasible with such a limited headcount, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. “If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single developer,” Dietsch explains. The first year of development was therefore split between ideating gameplay features and building the underlying toolchain that would keep the project from collapsing under its own weight as the open world expanded.
Funding from Krafton and Lifelike has been pivotal in allowing Wolf Haus to perfect these tools without external pressure to cut corners. Because the investors hold equity, they share the studio’s long‑term goal of increasing enterprise value, which aligns with Wolf Haus’s philosophy of building reusable tools for future projects.
While this approach can slow immediate progress, it enables the team to maintain quality and creative control. When asked about generative AI—a hot topic in the industry—Dietsch gives a clear answer: the studio does not employ AI for any creative tasks. “We believe a game needs a human touch.
Automating art or design would defeat the purpose of why we love making games,” he says. Wendschuh adds that the only AI tools they use are mundane productivity assistants for scheduling and email.
Interestingly, Krafton, which has publicly branded itself as an “AI‑first” company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline as a condition of its investment. This mirrors a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑backed studio, which also distanced itself from AI‑driven content creation.
The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s massive six‑kilometre‑square map and its 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors. Dietsch stresses that even as an indie title, preserving that human element was non‑negotiable. Reflecting on the differences between film and games, Dietsch notes the immediacy of interactive media. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent to secure a studio green‑light.
By contrast, a game prototype can be built in a single morning and tested instantly within the engine. This rapid iteration cycle fuels his enthusiasm for game development. Wendschuh observes that while film production is heavily front‑loaded—requiring extensive pre‑production, casting, and securing of distribution—games face fewer gatekeepers. “Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without star power or a distribution deal, the odds of success are slim.
In games, you don’t need an A‑list actor or director to reach an audience,” he explains. Both founders agree that the core creative impulse—telling stories and delivering experiences—remains the same across mediums. Dietsch recounts that as a child he was torn between making movies or games, a decision ultimately decided by a Christmas gift: a camera. He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, laying the groundwork for a career that now bridges both worlds.
“Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re crafting an experience, a narrative, and an emotional journey for the audience. That essence never changes.” Join Us thus stands as a testament to what a tightly knit, Hollywood‑savvy team can achieve when they blend cinematic storytelling, innovative tooling, and a steadfast refusal to rely on generative AI. The result is a sprawling, hand‑crafted cult simulator that promises both chaotic fun and a fresh perspective on indie game development.