The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. In the teaser, robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the sequence culminates with an ominous image of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
One detail that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous “snake gun,” a weapon that originated from a simple, off‑hand suggestion. Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounts the moment: “One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us scale a weapon in minutes, so I built a snake‑firing gun in about half an hour.
The kid went nuts, and the weapon stayed in the game.” This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. The game’s development philosophy mirrors that spirit. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, says the studio set out to be “disruptors.” “We told everyone we could build a AAA‑quality experience with just twelve people. Most people laughed and called it impossible,” he explains.
Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where small crews routinely punch far above their weight. After eighty pitch meetings, the team 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 alongside Louie Gibson, the 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 shift to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx.
The genesis of Join Us can be traced back to Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine. “Unreal Engine was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a huge barrier to creating something myself,” he says. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, built a few tiny prototypes, and eventually gravitated toward a doomsday‑cult concept that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics.
He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming it would quickly hit a technical wall. When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and introduced it to Dooma, a production partner. Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, began 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 company 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. “I thought I’d just walk my dog on the beach,” he says, until a call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back.
Abbott told him a friend had made a video game, and after watching Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh was convinced to re‑enter the industry. He brought on Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros.
Games vice‑president and current head of Raccoon Logic, as a strategic advisor, and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer. Funding proved to be the next hurdle. The team began pitching in the summer of 2023, a period marked by an industry downturn. “People liked what we were building but the market was tough,” Dietsch recalls.
The studio eventually partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, which helped refine their pitch strategy and secure a seed round from Lifelike Capital and Krafton in 2024. Wendschuh notes that CAA’s representation, which also includes titles like 007: First Light, and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand were crucial to winning investor confidence. Despite the high ambitions, Join Us is being built by a lean crew of just thirteen full‑time staff. Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team model is intentional: “We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership over the final product.” To make such a scope feasible, the studio invested heavily in internal tooling from the outset.
“Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” he explains. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the tools that would later allow the world to expand without collapsing under its own weight. The equity funding from Kraftor and Lifelike gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools. “The money we received was used to self‑fund the game,” Wendschuh says.
“We’re now adding a modest amount of project finance for marketing, but the core development was entirely covered by our investors.” Because the investors hold equity, they are incentivized to support the studio’s long‑term value creation, which includes building reusable tools for future projects. When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not employ it for any creative tasks. “We believe a game needs a human touch,” Dietsch asserts. “Turning development over to an AI would defeat the purpose of why we get up every morning.” Wendschuh adds that while they may use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management, it never touches the artistic side of the work.
Interestingly, Krafton—despite branding itself as an “AI‑first” company—specifically required that Wolf Haus not rely on generative AI for content creation, echoing similar stances from other Krafton‑owned studios such as Neon Giant. The commitment to hand‑crafted content extends to the game’s massive six‑kilometer‑square map and its 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors. “That was a non‑negotiable for us, even as a small indie,” Dietsch notes. Dietsch also reflects on the contrast between filmmaking and game development.
In film, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, casting, and studio green‑lights. In games, an idea can be prototyped in a single morning and instantly visualized in the engine. “You can take a concept, drop it into Unreal, and see it come alive right away,” he says, describing the exhilarating immediacy of interactive media. Wendschuh points out that movies are heavily front‑loaded with high‑profile talent and extensive pre‑production, making it difficult for newcomers to break in without major names attached.
By contrast, the gaming landscape has fewer gatekeepers, allowing small teams to achieve success without A‑list actors or directors. Both founders agree that storytelling is the core driver, regardless of medium. “When I was six, I wanted to make games or movies—it boiled down to a coin toss and getting a camera for Christmas,” Dietsch recalls.
“Whether it’s a film or a game, you’re trying to give someone an experience, tell a story, and engage them. The tools change, but the purpose stays the same.”