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 pigs, wield machine guns, and the sequence culminates with an image of massive, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What the audience didn’t see, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—is the infamous "snake gun" that fires serpents instead of bullets. Dietsch explains that the idea came from a teammate’s son, who simply asked, “Can there be a snake gun?” Thanks to an in‑house tool that lets the team prototype weapons in minutes, Dietsch was able to build a functional snake‑shooting firearm in roughly half an hour.
The quirky weapon survived the development process and remains a signature element of the final game. Join Us is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style cult. The gameplay is deliberately chaotic, encouraging players to experiment with bizarre weapons, strange rituals, and the occasional apocalyptic showdown.
This design philosophy mirrors the studio’s broader approach: a technology‑first mindset that lets a very small team produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: “We wanted to be disruptors.
We told everyone we could build a AAA‑quality game with just twelve people. Most people thought we were crazy.” Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to achieve impressive results on modest budgets.
After 80 pitch meetings, Wolf Haus finally secured equity investment from both Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving the studio the financial runway needed to bring Join Us to life. The founding trio brings deep Hollywood connections to the table.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director Mel Gibson, and the two 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 company founded by Chris Roberts before he turned his attention to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx.
The seed of Join Us was planted when Dietsch began tinkering with 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 says. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, eventually building a series of small prototypes.
One concept kept resurfacing: a doomsday cult simulator that merged survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. This hybrid idea became the foundation for the game’s unique identity.
Creating a proof‑of‑concept prototype, Dietsch pushed the limits of what his solo effort could achieve, anticipating that technical roadblocks would eventually force him to stop. He showed the demo to Abbott, who recognized its potential and introduced it to Dooma Wendschuh, the studio’s chief financial officer and narrative director. Wendschuh’s career began in film production and screenwriting before he transitioned to video games in the early 2000s, founding Sekretagent Productions, which supplied narrative work for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. In the 2010s he launched several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis‑formulation company Ebbu, later sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million).
After the sale, he bought a remote restaurant on a tiny Canadian island, intending to retire and enjoy a quiet life. That retirement was short‑lived. A call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, alerted him to a video game project that blew his mind.
“I was ready to walk my dog on the beach, but the game was so compelling that I came out of retirement,” Wendschuh recalls. He presented the prototype to Reid Schneider, former VP at Warner Bros. Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet.
Schneider joined as a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer. With a core team forming, the next hurdle was financing.
The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, a period marked by an industry downturn. Despite the challenging climate, the team’s pitch deck attracted interest, especially after they signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles. Their persistence paid off in 2024 when Lifelike Capital and Krafton provided seed funding, allowing the studio to remain self‑sufficient for most of development.
The equity partnership means the investors are motivated to increase the studio’s enterprise value, which aligns with Wolf Haus’s philosophy of building reusable tools rather than relying on shortcuts. Wolf Haus deliberately kept its headcount low—thirteen full‑time staff at its peak.
Dietsch emphasizes that this small‑team model fosters a collaborative environment where every member can influence creative decisions. To make such an ambitious open‑world game feasible, the studio invested heavily in internal tooling from day one. “If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch notes. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the underlying toolset, a strategy that also positions the studio to reuse those tools for future projects.
Funding from Krafton and Lifelike covered the bulk of development costs, with a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing later on. Because the investors are equity stakeholders, they encourage the studio to continue building proprietary tools, even if it slows short‑term progress.
This approach has allowed Wolf Haus to maintain creative control and avoid external pressures that could compromise their vision. When asked about the role of generative AI, both Dietsch and Wendschuh are unequivocal: the studio does not employ AI for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential for games," Dietsch says.
"Using an AI to generate assets would defeat the purpose of why we love making games every morning." The team does use AI for mundane tasks such as calendar management and email drafting, but not for art, design, or narrative creation. Interestingly, Krafton—despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus refrain from using generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a broader industry reluctance among some publishers.
The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and audio. The six‑kilometre‑square map was built entirely by hand, and all 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, a point the team proudly highlights as a testament to their dedication to authenticity. Dietsch reflects on the contrast between film and game development. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent.
In games, an inspiration can be prototyped within hours, allowing immediate iteration. This immediacy, he argues, lowers the gatekeeping barriers that dominate the film industry. While anyone can technically shoot a backyard movie, achieving commercial success without star power or studio backing is rare. By contrast, a small, skilled team can create a successful game without needing A‑list actors or directors.
Both mediums, however, share a core creative impulse: storytelling and delivering an experience. Dietsch’s childhood fascination with both movies and video games—spurred by a Christmas camera and early programming on a TI‑83—illustrates how the two art forms intersect. Whether through a film reel or a game engine, the goal remains the same: to engage an audience, tell a compelling story, and spark emotion.
Join Us stands as a testament to what a tightly knit, technically adept team can achieve without relying on generative AI or massive staffing. By leveraging Hollywood expertise, strategic investment, and a relentless focus on tool development, Wolf Haus has crafted a distinctive cult simulator that promises both chaotic fun and meticulous craftsmanship.