You may remember seeing the Join Us trailer during the Xbox Showcase in June. The clip introduced a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation where robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash machine‑gun fire, and the finale reveals colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
What didn’t make the cut was the infamous snake gun, a feature that Joe Dietsch, CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, proudly points to. "One of the developer’s kids came up with the idea," Dietsch recounts. "He asked, ‘What if there’s a snake gun?’ We have a modular weapon system, so I whipped up a snake‑shooting gun in about thirty minutes.
He was blown away, and we kept it in the final build." That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit NPC followers—or friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style cult. It also highlights the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a small team to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff. "We set out to be disruptors," says Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer.
"We told everyone, ‘We don’t need a hundred people; twelve can do the job.’ Most people laughed and said it was impossible. But we’ve proven otherwise," Abbott adds. Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to achieve big results on shoestring budgets. After 80 pitch meetings, Wolf Haus finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving the studio the financial runway it needed.
The founding trio brings deep Hollywood connections. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson and fellow co‑founder. Together they 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 Star Citizen venture. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch tinkering in Unreal Engine. "I discovered Unreal was free to download and thought, why not give it a try?
I’d been a gamer forever, but creating something felt out of reach. I started learning from YouTube tutorials and built a few tiny prototypes," he explains. Even without prior development experience, Dietsch managed to ship a couple of small games before deciding to tackle something larger.
The seed of Join Us was a fascination with a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics—essentially merging his love of movies and games into a single intellectual property. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming it would eventually hit a technical wall.
When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter took it to Dooma, a production partner. Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before transitioning to games in the early 2000s, providing writing for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. He later founded several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which 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 looking at the video Joe had made and it completely blew my mind.
It convinced me to come out of retirement," Wendschuh says. He then 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, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer.
With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was financing—a task made tougher by an industry downturn in the summer of 2023. Initial pitches generated interest but no commitments. The studio eventually partnered with CAA in Los Angeles, refined its pitch, and returned to investors in 2024, securing seed funding from Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits CAA’s clout and the presence of veteran game industry figures like Schneider and Chartrand for the successful raise.
"Our agent Derek Douglas had represented me for a dozen years and previously headed the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh notes. Despite the heavyweight pedigree, Join Us is being built by a lean crew of just 13 full‑time staff. Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional: "We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership over the final product." To make such an ambitious open‑world possible with a tiny team, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling early on.
"Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. The first year of development was split between designing gameplay concepts and constructing the internal tools that would keep the project from collapsing under its own weight as it expanded across a six‑kilometre‑square map. The equity funding model gave the studio the breathing room to perfect those tools.
"Krafton and Lifelike’s investment funds the game directly, so the development is essentially self‑funded. We’ve only taken on a modest amount of project finance for marketing," says Wendschuh.
"Because our investors have skin in the game, they encourage us to build robust tools, even if it slows short‑term progress, because it enables us to achieve our vision with a small team." When asked about generative AI, Dietsch is unequivocal: the studio does not rely on it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential.
Using AI to generate core content would defeat the reason we get up every morning," he says. Wendschuh adds that the only AI they employ is for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting. Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the game's creation.
This mirrors a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio, which publicly denied using AI for its projects. The team’s commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s massive map and its 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors.
"That was non‑negotiable for us, even as a small indie," Dietsch asserts. Dietsch also reflects on the contrast between film and game development. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, often waiting on high‑profile talent and studio approval. In games, an inspiration can be prototyped within hours, offering immediate feedback and iteration.
"You can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, and see it in action the same day," he says. Wendschuh notes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with intense, costly set work and a reliance on securing A‑list directors or actors to greenlight a project. By contrast, the game industry has fewer gatekeepers; a small team can create and launch a successful title without celebrity endorsement.
Both founders agree that the core creative drive—telling a story, delivering an experience, and engaging an audience—remains the same across mediums. "Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re trying to transport people into a world you’ve built," Dietsch concludes, "and that passion is what fuels us every day."