The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, giving viewers a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. In the clip, robed followers charge on pig‑mounted platforms, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates with an image of enormous, Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
What didn’t make the cut, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—was the infamous snake gun. "One of the developer’s kids came up with the idea and asked, ‘What if there’s a snake‑shooting gun?’ We had a modular weapon system, so I whipped up a prototype in about thirty minutes.
The kid went nuts, and the weapon stayed in the final build," Dietsch recalls. That anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or teammates in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire.
It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a high‑fidelity, large‑scale title to be produced by a surprisingly small crew. "We set out to be disruptors," says Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer.
"We told everyone we could deliver a AAA‑level experience with just twelve people. Most people laughed, but we proved them wrong." The team’s confidence stems from a history of achieving big results on modest budgets.
Abbott notes, "We come from indie film backgrounds, so we’re used to punching well above our weight." After 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which now hold stakes in the company. Wolf Haus’s founding members have deep roots in Hollywood. 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, a production outfit founded by Chris Roberts before he moved on to the Star Citizen universe.
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 been a gamer forever, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge.
I started learning from YouTube tutorials and built a few tiny prototypes," he explains. Although he lacked formal game‑dev experience, Dietsch quickly assembled a couple of small games before deciding to tackle something more ambitious: a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse‑movie aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming it would soon hit a technical wall.
When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter took it to Dooma, a partner studio, for further development. 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 C$430 million.
After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire. Yet a call from his old Hollywood‑hillroommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back.
"I saw the demo Joe sent, and it blew my mind. I quit my retirement plan and re‑joined the effort," Wendschuh says. He then introduced Reid Schneider—former VP at Warner Bros. Games and now head of Raccoon Logic—to act as strategic advisor, and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, formerly of Ubisoft Montreal, as chief technology officer.
With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was financing, a daunting task given the industry’s downturn in mid‑2023. The studio pitched relentlessly, eventually signing with CAA in Los Angeles and re‑pitching in 2024. Their persistence paid off when Lifelike Capital and Krafton closed a seed round, providing the capital needed to continue development.
Abbott credits CAA’s representation—also handling titles like 007: First Light—and the presence of veteran game professionals for opening doors. "My agent Derek Douglas had represented me for twelve years and previously ran the video‑game department at William Morris.
That network was invaluable," says Wendschuh. What truly sets Join Us apart is the way it is being built: a full‑scale open‑world game crafted by just 13 full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the team deliberately kept the roster small to ensure every voice mattered and everyone could touch the creative process. To make such an ambitious scope feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on.
"Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single person. We built a toolkit that lets one developer extend features across a massive map without the project collapsing," he explains.
The first year of development was therefore split between ideating gameplay and constructing the underlying tools that would sustain future expansion. The equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike allowed Wolf Haus to self‑finance the entire development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing. "Our investors want the studio to increase in enterprise value, so they encourage us to build robust tools. When we encounter a problem we can’t solve, we simply create a tool to fix it.
It may slow us down short‑term, but it enables a tiny team to deliver a game of this magnitude," Wendschuh notes. In an industry buzzing about generative AI, Wolf Haus deliberately steered clear of it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential.
Using AI to generate assets would defeat why we love making games," says Dietsch. Wendschuh adds that the studio only uses AI for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting. Interestingly, Krafton—publicly positioning itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus not employ generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio. The commitment to handcrafted content is evident: the six‑kilometre‑square map in Join Us is entirely hand‑built, and the game features 15,000 voice lines recorded by human actors.
"Even as a small indie, we felt it was crucial to keep the experience authentic," Dietsch asserts. Dietsch also highlights a key advantage of game development over film: immediacy.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, casting, and extensive pre‑production. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped in a single morning, inserted into the engine, and instantly visualized. This rapid feedback loop fuels the studio’s creative energy.
Wendschuh observes that filmmaking is heavily front‑loaded, with intense, high‑stakes production phases that rely on securing a few marquee names to green‑light a project. While anyone can shoot a backyard movie, achieving commercial success without star power or distribution is rare.
Games, however, have far fewer gatekeepers; a small team can reach a global audience without needing A‑list talent. Both founders agree that the core impulse behind movies and games is the same: to craft an experience, tell a story, and engage an audience. Dietsch reflects, "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games. It boiled down to a coin toss and getting a camera for Christmas.
I learned programming on a TI‑83, so I’ve always loved both mediums. Ultimately, whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re delivering an experience and a narrative, and that doesn’t change."