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‑drawn carts, firing machine guns, before the screen cuts to a massive, Cthulhu‑like mass of tentacles. One element that didn’t make the final edit was the infamous "snake gun," a quirky weapon that originated from an off‑hand suggestion by a developer’s child.
Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounted the moment: “My team member’s son asked, ‘What would a snake‑gun look like?’ We had a modular weapon system, so I whipped up a prototype in about thirty minutes. The kid went nuts, and the gun stayed in the game.” That anecdote captures the chaotic, sandbox‑style gameplay that Join Us promises. Set in an open‑world environment reminiscent of 1970s cult movies, players can recruit followers—or team up with friends—to build and manage their own bizarre cult. The game’s design philosophy mirrors the studio’s broader approach: lean, tool‑centric, and unapologetically ambitious.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed it up succinctly: “We wanted to be disruptors. While everyone assumed you needed a hundred‑person studio to deliver a high‑fidelity experience, we believed twelve could do it.” The team’s confidence wasn’t baseless. Coming from independent film backgrounds, they were accustomed to punching far above their budgetary weight.
Abbott, the son of veteran Hollywood makeup artist Larry Abbott, had previously helped launch Ascendant Pictures—Chris Roberts’ pre‑Star Citizen production house—and produced titles such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Dietsch, a Chapman University film graduate, co‑wrote and co‑directed indie features like Happy Hunting and Manifest West alongside fellow co‑founder Louie Gibson, the son of actor‑director Mel Gibson.
Funding the venture proved to be a marathon. After 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity investments from Kraftor and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in the studio.
The financing allowed the team to remain self‑sufficient; the bulk of development costs were covered by the investors, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing later on. The origins of Join Us trace back to Dietsch’s early experiments with Unreal Engine.
“Unreal was free to download, and that removed a huge barrier for someone like me who’d spent a lifetime watching movies and playing games but never actually building one,” he explained. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, crafted a few modest prototypes, and eventually settled on the idea of a doomsday cult simulator—a concept that fused his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. The proof‑of‑concept demo was handed to Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma, a venture that would later bring in additional expertise.
Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had a storied career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game narrative work. He’d contributed writing to titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins, and had founded a cannabis‑formulation company that sold for roughly C$430 million. After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a chance call from his old Hollywood‑hillroommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the fray.
Impressed by the demo, Wendschuh introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros Games VP now heading Raccoon Logic, who in turn recruited Ubisoft Montreal veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. With a core team of thirteen full‑time staff, Wolf Haus leaned heavily on custom tooling to keep the project scalable. “Every system we build has to be debuggable and expandable by a single developer,” Dietsch noted.
The first year of development was therefore split between ideating gameplay and constructing the internal toolset that would later allow the open‑world map—spanning six square kilometres—to be populated without the codebase collapsing under its own weight. This tool‑first mentality also extended to future projects, as the studio intends to reuse and iterate on the same pipelines. The studio’s stance on generative AI sparked curiosity, especially given Kraftor’s public positioning as an “AI‑first” company. Both Dietsch and Wendschuh made it clear that no generative AI was employed in any creative capacity.
“We value the human touch,” Dietsch said. “Turning the entire development process over to an algorithm would defeat the reason we get up every morning.” Wendschuh added that the only AI tools they use are mundane productivity assistants for scheduling and email drafting. Kraftor’s investors explicitly required that the studio avoid AI‑generated assets, a policy echoed by other Kraftor‑owned studios such as Neon Giant. All voice work in Join Us—over 15,000 lines—was recorded by human actors, and the expansive map was hand‑crafted tile by tile.
This commitment to handcrafted content reflects the team’s broader philosophy: even as a small indie, they refuse to compromise on artistic integrity. Dietsch highlighted a key advantage of game development over film: immediacy.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring studio green‑lights, casting, and location logistics. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped within hours, allowing creators to see their vision in real time. Wendschuh agreed, noting that film production is front‑loaded with high‑stakes negotiations for A‑list talent, whereas games have far fewer gatekeepers. “You don’t need a Hollywood star to sell a game,” he said.
“If the experience is compelling, it will find its audience.” Both founders trace their creative spark back to childhood. Dietsch recalled wanting to make movies or games at six years old, a choice that ultimately hinged on whether he received a camera for Christmas.
He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, laying the groundwork for a career that now straddles both mediums. He believes the core objective remains the same: to deliver an engaging story and experience, regardless of whether it’s delivered through a film reel or an interactive engine. In sum, Wolf Haus’s journey illustrates how a small, tightly knit team—bolstered by Hollywood connections, savvy investors, and a dedication to building robust internal tools—can produce a high‑budget‑looking title without relying on generative AI or massive staffing.
Join Us stands as a testament to the power of lean development, creative risk‑taking, and the enduring appeal of hands‑on craftsmanship in the modern gaming landscape.