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 followers zip around on pig‑back, firing machine guns, before the screen fades to an image of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
One element that didn’t make the final edit was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a child’s off‑hand suggestion. "My team member’s son asked, ‘What if there was a snake‑shooting gun?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new weapon in about thirty minutes.
I built it on the spot, and the kid went wild. It’s still in the game today," Dietsch recounts. This anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, experimental spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title where players can recruit AI followers or friends into a 1970s‑style cult. It also highlights the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a tiny crew to produce a high‑fidelity experience that would normally require a much larger staff.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, sums up their philosophy: "We set out to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build a AAA‑level game with just twelve people. Most people laughed and said it was impossible." Their confidence stems from a background in low‑budget, high‑impact indie filmmaking, where they learned to stretch resources far beyond the usual limits.
After 80 pitches, the team finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took a stake in Wolf Haus. The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, the son of Mel Gibson and a fellow co‑founder of Wolf Haus.
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 he moved on to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. This blend of film‑industry savvy and entrepreneurial grit gave the studio a unique perspective on storytelling and production.
Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine. "I discovered Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt blocked by the cost of entry for creating them," 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 the communal storytelling he adored in both movies and games. The proof‑of‑concept was a rough but functional demo that Dietsch showed to Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma, a production partner.
Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had a career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game writing for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. In the 2010s he founded several tech ventures, most notably Ebbu, a cannabis‑formulation company that sold for C$430 million (about $330 million USD). After selling Ebbu, he bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire.
Yet a call from his old Hollywood‑hill roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into development. Wendschuh was impressed by Dietsch’s demo and agreed to join the effort, bringing in Reid Schneider—formerly a VP at Warner Bros. Games—and Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as a strategic advisor and chief technology officer, respectively.
Funding proved to be the next major hurdle. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, a period marked by a broader industry downturn. "People liked what we were building, but the market was tight," Dietsch says. After initial outreach, they enlisted Creative Artists Agency (CAA) as representation, refined their pitch, and returned to investors in 2024.
Their persistence paid off when Lifelike Capital and Krafton closed a seed round, providing the capital needed to continue development. The partnership with CAA—who also represent titles like 007: First Light—was instrumental, as was the involvement of seasoned veterans Schneider and Chartrand. "My agent Derek Douglas had represented me for twelve years in games and previously headed the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh notes, underscoring how industry connections smoothed the path to financing.
What truly sets Join Us apart is the way it is being built: a core team of just thirteen full‑time staff. Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional. "We wanted a studio where every voice matters, where everyone can touch the creative and technical aspects, and where the final product feels like the work of a tight‑knit group rather than a faceless corporation." To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible with a lean crew, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset. "Any system in the game has to be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains.
The studio devoted a significant portion of the first development year to building a robust toolset that would allow features to expand across a six‑kilometre‑square map without collapsing under their own weight. This tool‑first approach not only accelerated current development but also laid the groundwork for future projects.
The equity financing model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools. "Krafton and Lifelike’s investment essentially self‑funded the game," says Wendschuh. "We’re now adding a modest amount of project finance for marketing, but the core development has been covered by our equity partners." One of the most striking aspects of Wolf Haus’s workflow is its deliberate avoidance of generative AI in the creative process.
When asked about AI, Dietsch gave a concise answer: "We don’t use any generative AI. The human touch is essential to our games, and handing development over to an algorithm would defeat the purpose of why we love making games." Wendschuh adds nuance, noting that the studio does employ AI tools for administrative tasks such as calendar management and email drafting, but never for art, design, or narrative creation. This stance aligns with Krafton’s own policy; despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, Krafton insisted that Wolf Haus not rely on generative AI for game content, fearing it could dilute creative quality and jeopardize the studio’s artistic integrity. The commitment to handcrafted content is evident throughout Join Us.
The entire six‑kilometre‑square map is hand‑modeled, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by real actors—an effort that the team believes is essential to preserving immersion and emotional resonance. Dietsch reflects on the differences between filmmaking and game development, noting the immediacy of the latter. "In film, you write a script, wait years for greenlight, then spend months on set.
In games, you can prototype an idea in the morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly. That rapid feedback loop is exhilarating." Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, requiring high‑profile talent to secure financing, whereas games have a lower barrier to entry.
"Anyone can pick up a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without star power or distribution, it rarely breaks through. In games, the gatekeepers are fewer, and a small indie team can reach a global audience without A‑list names." Both founders agree that, at its core, storytelling remains the shared mission of both mediums. "Whether it’s a movie or a game, you’re trying to give someone an experience, tell a story, and engage them emotionally.
The tools change, but the creative impulse stays the same," Dietsch concludes. Join Us therefore stands as a testament to what a focused, technically adept, and creatively driven small team can achieve—delivering a sprawling, high‑production‑value cult simulator without leaning on generative AI, and proving that Hollywood‑style ambition can thrive in the indie game space.