The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. In the teaser, robed followers zip around on pig‑back mounts, wielding machine guns before the screen cuts to an image of 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 imagination. "My team member’s son asked if we could make a gun that shoots snakes," Dietsch recalls.
"We have a rapid‑prototyping tool that lets us scale weapons in minutes, so I whipped up a snake‑shooting gun in about half an hour. The kid was thrilled, and we kept it in the game." That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit of Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title where players can recruit followers—or other players in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult.
It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has allowed a relatively tiny crew to produce a high‑fidelity experience. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, describes the team’s mindset: "We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build a AAA‑ish game with just twelve people.
Most people laughed and said it was impossible." The founders’ background in indie filmmaking gave them confidence in punching well above their weight. "We come from indie film circles where budgets are razor‑thin, yet we still manage to deliver compelling stories," Abbott says. After 80 pitch meetings, the studio finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. The Wolf Haus leadership team is steeped in Hollywood pedigree.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of 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 his shift to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine.
"Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a huge barrier to actually creating something," he explains. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few small prototypes, and eventually settled on the concept of a doomsday cult simulator—a mash‑up of survival mechanics, grindhouse cinema aesthetics, and a unique narrative IP. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, expecting to hit a technical wall at some point. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter took it to Dooma, a partner studio.
Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into 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, planning to retire. Yet, in classic Hollywood fashion, a call from his old roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back.
"I was looking at a video game Joe had made, and it 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, an ex‑Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer. With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was financing—an especially tough task during the industry downturn of 2023‑24. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, receiving positive feedback but facing a cautious market.
After partnering with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) in Los Angeles and refining their pitch, they finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton in early 2024. Abbott credits the CAA connection and the presence of veteran industry figures like Schneider and Chartrand for opening doors. "Our agent Derek Douglas had represented me for twelve years and previously headed the video‑game department at William Morris," says Wendschuh. Despite the high‑profile backers, Join Us remains a lean operation: only 13 full‑time staff members.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team model is intentional, fostering an environment where everyone has a voice and contributes directly to the creative vision. To make such an ambitious open‑world game feasible with limited manpower, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset.
"Every system we build must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch notes. "We spent the first year simultaneously designing gameplay and engineering the tools that would let that gameplay survive at scale." The equity funding structure gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect those tools. Krafton and Lifelike’s investment is used primarily to finance development, with only a modest amount earmarked for marketing.
"Because our investors hold equity, they care about the studio’s long‑term value and support our tool‑building ethos," explains Wendschuh. "When we encounter a problem we can’t solve, we simply create a tool to address it. It may slow short‑term progress, but it enables a tiny team to deliver a game of this magnitude." In an era where many studios tout generative AI to accelerate asset creation, Wolf Haus deliberately steers clear of it. "We don’t use generative AI for any creative work," Dietsch states.
"Our process relies on a human touch; handing the creative decisions over to an algorithm would defeat the purpose of why we love making games." Wendschuh adds that the studio does use AI for administrative tasks—calendar management and email drafting—but not for art, design, or narrative. Interestingly, Krafton, which has branded itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline.
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 world and audio.
The six‑kilometre‑square map of Join Us is entirely hand‑built, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, not synthetic voices. "Even as a small indie, preserving that human element was non‑negotiable," Dietsch asserts. Dietsch also reflects on the differences between filmmaking and game development. In film, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring approvals, casting, and extensive pre‑production.
By contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours. "I can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly," he says. This immediacy fuels his enthusiasm for the medium.
Wendschuh points out that traditional film production is heavily front‑loaded, with intense, costly set‑ups and a reliance on high‑profile talent to secure studio backing. While anyone can shoot a backyard movie, breaking through without star power or distribution is rare. Games, however, have fewer gatekeepers.
"You don’t need an A‑list actor or director to get a game funded and released," he explains, noting that digital distribution platforms level the playing field. Both Dietsch and Wendschuh agree that, at their core, filmmaking and game design share a common creative impulse: telling stories and delivering experiences that resonate with audiences. Dietsch recalls his childhood fascination with both mediums, saying, "When I was six, I wanted to make movies or games.
It boiled down to a coin toss and getting a camera for Christmas. I learned to program on a TI‑83, so I’ve always been drawn to both.
Whether it’s a film or a game, you’re crafting an experience and a narrative, and that doesn’t really change between the two." Join Us is poised to showcase how a small, Hollywood‑savvy team can blend cinematic storytelling, indie‑spirit resourcefulness, and bespoke technology to create a distinctive, high‑quality gaming experience—without leaning on generative AI shortcuts.