The memory of Join Us’s debut trailer still lingers for many gamers who caught it during the Xbox Showcase in June. The clip offered a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulation, featuring robed followers careening on pig‑drawn carts, wielding machine guns, and culminating in a nightmarish vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
Yet, one of the most talked‑about weapons never made it onto the screen: the snake gun. Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, explains the origin of that oddball armament. “One of our team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us scale weapons in minutes, so I whipped up a snake‑gun in about half an hour. The kid went nuts, and the weapon stayed in the final build.” This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title where players can amass followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire.
The game’s wild design is only part of the story; the development approach is equally striking. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, says the studio set out to be “disruptors.” “We told everyone we could build a AAA‑quality experience with a twelve‑person team. Most people laughed and said it was impossible.” Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where small crews routinely punch far above their financial weight. After 80 pitch meetings, Wolf Haus finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which now hold stakes in the company.
The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of actor‑director Mel Gibson—who co‑founded Wolf Haus and co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie features Happy Hunting and Manifest West. Abbott, the son of renowned makeup artist Larry Abbott, helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production house originally created by Chris Roberts before his shift to Star Citizen, and 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 been a gamer my whole life.
The biggest barrier felt like the cost and complexity of making a game, so I started learning from YouTube tutorials and built a few tiny prototypes.” Though he had no formal training, Dietsch managed to create a couple of modest games before deciding to tackle something larger: a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept, hit what he expected to be a technical wall, and then showed the demo to Abbott, who took it to Dooma for further development.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer 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 services 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 selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, planning a quiet retirement. That plan was upended when an old Hollywood‑hill roommate, Michael Abbott, called and said, “A friend of mine has made a video game.” Intrigued, Wendschuh watched the demo, was blown away, and came out of retirement to join the effort.
Through Abbott’s network, Wolf Haus attracted strategic advisor Reid Schneider, former Warner Bros. Games VP and now head of Raccoon Logic (the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet). Schneider recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a veteran programmer from Ubisoft Montreal, to serve as chief technology officer. By the summer of 2023 the core team was in place, but securing financing proved difficult amid a broader industry downturn.
Initial outreach yielded interest but no commitments. After partnering with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles and re‑pitching in 2024, Wolf Haus finally closed a seed round with Krafton and Lifelike Capital. The involvement of CAA—also representing titles such as 007: First Light—was a key catalyst, as was the presence of seasoned gaming veterans like Schneider and Chartrand.
Derek Douglas, Wolf Haus’s agent at CAA, had previously represented Wendschuh during his twelve‑year stint in game development and had headed the video‑game department at William Morris. What truly sets Join Us apart is the scale of its ambition relative to the size of its team.
With just thirteen full‑time staff members, Wolf Haus deliberately kept the group small to preserve a collaborative culture where every voice matters. "We entered the project with a crystal‑clear understanding of scope," says Dietsch, "and we wanted everyone to have creative input, so the game feels like a product of a tight‑knit crew rather than a faceless studio." To make such a massive open‑world title feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. "Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single developer," Dietsch explains.
"We built a robust toolkit early on so that as features proliferated across the six‑kilometre‑square map, the project wouldn’t collapse under its own weight." This tooling philosophy meant that the first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the internal engines that would later support it. The result is a pipeline that can be reused for future projects, giving the studio a sustainable development model. Funding from Krafton and Lifelike allowed Wolf Haus to self‑finance the entire development cycle.
"The equity partners invested capital that we used directly for production," Wendschuh notes. "We’ve only taken on modest project finance for marketing purposes. The game itself is fully funded by our investors, which aligns their interests with our long‑term studio value." Both founders are vocal about their stance on generative AI. While many studios tout AI‑assisted asset creation, Wolf Haus deliberately avoids it in the creative process.
"We believe a human touch is essential for games," Dietsch says. "Hand‑crafting a six‑kilometre map and recording 15,000 voice lines with real actors was a non‑negotiable part of our vision." Wendschuh adds that the studio’s investors share this philosophy.
Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required that Wolf Haus not rely on generative AI for core development. This mirrors a similar position taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant, which publicly distanced itself from AI‑driven production.
The team’s aversion to AI also stems from a broader concern for creative labor. "We respect artists, voice actors, and all the people who bring a game to life," Wendschuh says.
"AI threatens to replace those jobs, and that’s not a direction we want to support." Beyond the technical and financial aspects, Dietsch highlights a personal advantage of game development over film: immediacy. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and a massive budget before a single frame is shot.
In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours, tested in the engine, and iterated upon the same day. "That instant feedback loop is exhilarating," he says. Wendschuh points out that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with pre‑production taking months of securing A‑list talent and studio backing.
While anyone can pick up a camera and shoot a backyard video, breaking into the mainstream film market without marquee names is nearly impossible. The gaming industry, however, offers a lower barrier to entry; a small, passionate team can reach a global audience without needing celebrity endorsements. Both founders agree that the core creative drive—telling stories and delivering experiences—remains the same across mediums.
"When I was six, I wanted to either make movies or games," Dietsch recalls. "A coin toss decided my path, but the underlying goal has always been to craft an engaging narrative, whether through pixels or film frames." Join Us, with its off‑beat premise, handcrafted world, and human‑driven production pipeline, stands as a testament to what a lean, determined team can achieve when they blend Hollywood know‑how, tech ingenuity, and a refusal to surrender creativity to algorithms.