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 cultists zip around on pig‑mounted platforms, wielding machine guns before the screen fades to a massive, Cthulhu‑like tangle of tentacles. What didn’t make it into the public preview was the infamous snake gun, a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the chief executive officer and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a child’s off‑hand suggestion. "One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new firearm in about thirty minutes, so I built one that actually fires snakes.
The kid went nuts, and we kept it in the final build," Dietsch recalls with a grin. That anecdote perfectly captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a retro‑styled 1970s cult. The game’s wild design is only one side of the story.
Behind the scenes, Wolf Haus has taken a decidedly tech‑first approach, allowing a small but highly skilled crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, describes the team’s ambition as a deliberate attempt to overturn industry expectations.
"We kept saying, ‘We don’t need a hundred‑person studio; twelve talented people can do this.’ Everyone else told us it was impossible. But we’ve spent our careers punching well above our weight in indie film, so we knew how to stretch a limited budget," Abbott explains. After a marathon of 80 pitch meetings, the studio finally secured equity investment from both Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving Wolf Haus the financial runway needed to bring the project to life.
The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University in California alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director 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 his transition to the Star Citizen universe. Abbott’s own résumé includes producing the Jamie Foxx‑led action drama Fight for ’84.
Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine. "I discovered that Unreal Engine could be downloaded for free, and that removed a huge barrier for someone like me who had spent a lifetime watching movies but never built a game," he says.
He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, eventually creating a few modest prototypes before committing to a larger vision. The core concept—a doomsday cult simulator that fuses survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics—kept resurfacing in Dietsch’s mind.
He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, anticipating that at some point a technical wall would force him to abandon the idea. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and introduced it to Dooma, the studio’s early‑stage incubator. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, brings a unique blend of film and tech experience.
He began as a producer and screenwriter before moving into games in the early 2000s, founding Sekretagent Productions, which supplied narrative work for titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he launched several tech ventures, including the cannabis‑formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million). After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet, in classic Hollywood fashion, a call from his old roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into the industry.
"I was ready to spend my days on the beach with my dog, but when I saw the demo Joe had built, it blew my mind and convinced me to come out of retirement," Wendschuh recounts. He then connected the project with Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros.
Games vice‑president now heading Raccoon Logic, and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a veteran programmer from Ubisoft Montreal, as chief technology officer. With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was funding—an especially tough challenge given the industry downturn of 2023‑24. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, initially without representation. After signing with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, they resumed pitching throughout 2024, eventually closing a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh credits the CAA relationship and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand for smoothing the path. Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us remains a boutique effort, built by just thirteen full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional: "We wanted a studio where every voice matters, where everyone can touch the creative process, and where the final product truly feels like the work of a tight‑knit group." To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible with a lean crew, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from day one.
"Every system in the game had to be scalable and debuggable by a single person. We built a toolkit that lets one developer iterate quickly without the project collapsing under its own weight," Dietsch explains. This tooling philosophy not only supported Join Us but also laid the groundwork for future projects.
The equity‑funded model gave the studio the breathing room to perfect these tools. "Krafton and Lifelike’s investment essentially self‑funded the development. We’ve only taken on a modest amount of project finance for marketing purposes," says Wendschuh.
He notes that because the investors’ returns are tied to the studio’s enterprise value, they encourage the team’s tool‑building ethos, even if it slows short‑term development. When asked about the role of generative AI—a hot topic in game development—both Dietsch and Wendschuh are unequivocal: the studio does not employ AI for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential.
Using AI to generate assets would undermine why we get up each morning to make games," Dietsch says. Wendschuh adds that while they may use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management, it never touches the artistic side of production. Interestingly, Krafton, which has publicly positioned itself as an “AI‑first” company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline. This mirrors a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio, which clarified that it does not partake in the parent company’s AI pivot.
The team’s commitment to handcrafted content is evident throughout Join Us. The six‑kilometer‑square map is entirely hand‑sculpted, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by professional actors—no synthetic voices. Dietsch stresses that even as an indie title, preserving that human element was non‑negotiable. Comparing his experiences in film and games, Dietsch highlights the immediacy of interactive media.
"In film, you spend years developing an idea before you ever see it on set. In games, you can have a concept this morning and see it in the engine by afternoon. That instant feedback loop is exhilarating," he says. Wendschuh points out that filmmaking is heavily front‑loaded: securing a few high‑profile directors or actors is often the gatekeeper to greenlighting a project.
By contrast, the video‑game industry has far fewer gatekeepers, allowing small teams to reach audiences without marquee names. "You don’t need an A‑list star or director to launch a successful game," he notes. Both agree that the core drive behind movies and games is the same—to craft an experience, tell a story, and engage an audience. Dietsch reflects on his childhood, recalling how a coin toss decided whether he’d pursue games or movies, and how early exposure to programming on a TI‑83 calculator set the stage for his dual passions.
"Whether it’s a film or a game, the goal is to immerse people in a narrative and make them feel something," he concludes. Join Us, with its off‑beat humor, cult‑themed chaos, and a development story rooted in Hollywood heritage, indie‑film resourcefulness, and cutting‑edge tooling, stands as a testament to what a small, focused team can achieve when they reject shortcuts like generative AI and double‑down on human creativity.