The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation. In the clip, robed followers zip around on pigs while firing machine guns, culminating in a nightmarish vision of colossal, 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 suggested, ‘What if there’s a gun that shoots snakes?’" Dietsch recalls. "We had a modular weapon system, so within half an hour I built a prototype that actually launched serpents.
The kid went nuts, and the weapon stayed in the final build." That anecdote perfectly captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us. The game is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends into co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. Yet behind the madness lies a disciplined, technology‑first philosophy that has allowed Wolf Haus to produce a high‑fidelity title with an exceptionally lean crew. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed it up: "We set out to be disruptors.
We told everyone we could deliver a AAA‑ish experience with just twelve people. Most people laughed, but we proved them wrong." The team’s confidence stems from a history of doing big things on shoestring budgets. "We come from indie film backgrounds, so we’re used to punching well above our weight," Abbott explains.
After 80 pitches, the studio finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. Wolf Haus’s leadership is steeped in Hollywood pedigree. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University, where he met 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 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 experimenting with Unreal Engine. "Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games, but the barrier to actually creating something felt huge," he says. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, eventually building a handful of small prototypes. One concept kept resurfacing: a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics.
"It let me merge everything I love about movies and games into a single IP," Dietsch notes. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming it would soon hit a technical wall.
When he showed it to Abbott, the latter took it to Dooma, the studio that would later become a key partner. Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, started his career as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative work for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he launched several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation firm Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million (about $330 million USD).
After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, planning a quiet retirement. Yet a phone call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back. "A friend of mine had made a video game and sent me a demo.
It blew my mind and got me out of retirement," Wendschuh recounts. He introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros. Games VP now heading 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 the core team assembled, the next hurdle was financing—a daunting task given the industry downturn of 2023‑24. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, initially without representation.
"People liked the concept but the market was tough," Dietsch says. The studio later signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, which helped refine the pitch and secure the seed round from Lifelike Capital and Krafton in 2024. Wendschuh believes CAA’s connections, along with the credibility of veterans like Schneider and Chartrand, were decisive.
"My agent Derek Douglas had been my representative during my 12‑year game‑making career and previously led the video‑game department at William Morris," he notes. Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us remains a product of a remarkably small crew—13 full‑time staff members. "We entered the project with a clear sense of scope and wanted to keep a tight‑knit culture where everyone’s voice matters," Dietsch explains.
To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible for a tiny team, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. "Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single developer," he says.
"We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across a massive map without the project collapsing under its own weight. The first year was as much about building those tools as it was about designing gameplay." The equity funding model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools. "Krafton and Lifelike’s investment essentially self‑funded the development," Wendschuh states.
"We’re now adding a modest amount of project finance for marketing, but the core development was covered by our equity partners." One of the benefits of this structure is the freedom to prioritize craftsmanship over speed. "Our investors want the studio to increase its enterprise value, so they support our tool‑building ethos," Wendschuh adds. "Whenever we encounter a problem we can’t solve, we build a bespoke tool. It may slow us down in the short term, but it enables a small team to deliver a game of this scale." In an era where many studios tout generative AI as a shortcut, Wolf Haus deliberately steers clear of it for creative work.
"We don’t use generative AI in game development because we believe a human touch is essential," Dietsch says. "We love making games, and handing the creative process to an algorithm would defeat the purpose of why we get up each morning." Wendschuh concedes that the studio uses AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting, but not for any artistic decisions.
Interestingly, Krafton—despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, echoing similar statements from Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. Both founders stress that the decision is rooted in respect for creative professionals. "AI threatens jobs for voice actors and artists, and that’s not a risk we’re willing to take," Wendschuh asserts.
The six‑kilometre‑square world of Join Us is handcrafted, and the game features 15,000 voice lines recorded by human actors—a point of pride for the tiny indie studio. Dietsch also highlights a key advantage of games over film: immediacy. "With movies, you write a script, wait years, secure financing, assemble a cast, and finally shoot. Games let you prototype an idea in the morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly.
That rapid feedback loop is exhilarating." Wendschuh notes that filmmaking is heavily front‑loaded, requiring big names to greenlight projects, whereas games have far fewer gatekeepers. "Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without star power or distribution, success is unlikely. In games, you don’t need an A‑list actor or director to reach an audience," he explains.
Both mediums share a core creative drive: storytelling and experience design. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games; it boiled down to a coin toss and whether I got a camera for Christmas," Dietsch reflects. "I learned to program on a TI‑83, so both worlds have always felt natural to me. Ultimately, whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re trying to immerse someone in a story, and that goal doesn’t change." In summary, Wolf Haus’s journey illustrates how a small, Hollywood‑infused team can leverage custom tools, strategic partnerships, and a steadfast commitment to human‑crafted content to produce a large‑scale, high‑quality game without relying on generative AI.
Their story underscores the evolving landscape of game development, where creativity, technology, and a willingness to defy conventional wisdom can converge to create something truly unique.