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 preview, robed followers charge on pig‑back, wielding machine guns, before the screen cuts to a massive, Cthulhu‑like tangle of 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 was a snake gun?’ We had a modular weapon system that let us prototype a new gun in about thirty minutes.
I built a snake‑shooting weapon on the fly, and the kid was thrilled. It stayed in the final build," Dietsch recalls.
That anecdote captures the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. It also illustrates why the studio’s technology‑first mindset matters. By focusing on reusable tools and rapid iteration, Wolf Haus has managed to produce a high‑fidelity, large‑scale experience with a surprisingly small crew. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed it up succinctly: "We wanted to be disruptors.
We told ourselves we could deliver a AAA‑ish game with a dozen people, and everyone else thought we were crazy." The team’s confidence stems from a history of achieving big results on modest budgets. "We come from indie film backgrounds, so we’re used to punching well above our weight," Abbott explains. After 80 pitch meetings, the studio finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus.
Wolf Haus’s founders have deep roots in Hollywood. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, the son of Mel Gibson, who later co‑founded the studio and 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 originally founded by Chris Roberts before his shift to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. The genesis of Join Us traces back to Dietsch’s early experiments with Unreal Engine.
"Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a huge barrier to creating my own," he says. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, built a few tiny prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday cult simulator—a concept that merged his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the idea quickly gained momentum. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, entered the picture after a varied career that spanned film production, screenwriting, and video‑game writing.
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 a 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. A call from his old Hollywood‑hill roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into game development when he saw Dietsch’s demo and was “blown away.” Wendschuh then recruited Reid Schneider—a former Warner Bros. Games vice president now heading Raccoon Logic—and Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as strategic advisor and chief technology officer respectively.
With a solid leadership team in place, the studio turned to funding. Pitching began in summer 2023, a period marked by a market downturn that made investors wary. Nevertheless, after refining their pitch with CAA representation, Wolf Haus closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton in 2024.
The partnership with CAA proved crucial. "Derek Douglas, our agent at CAA, had represented me for a dozen years and previously ran the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh notes.
The agency’s clout helped open doors that might otherwise have remained shut. Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us remains a product of a lean team—13 full‑time staff members at its core.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small size is intentional: "We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership of the final product." To make such an ambitious title feasible with a tiny crew, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. "Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explains. The studio built a suite of in‑house tools that allowed designers to iterate quickly and prevented the project from collapsing under its own weight as the open world expanded. This tooling philosophy also aligns with the investors’ expectations.
"Our equity partners want us to build reusable tools that increase the studio’s long‑term value," says Wendschuh. "When we encounter a problem we don’t know how to solve, we build a tool for it. It may slow immediate progress, but it empowers a small team to achieve big things." When asked about the role of generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not use it for creative development. "We believe a game should retain a human touch.
Hand‑crafted voice lines, hand‑modeled environments, and hand‑tuned gameplay are core to our identity," Dietsch states. Wendschuh adds that the only AI they employ is for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting. Interestingly, Krafton—an “AI‑first” company—specifically required that Wolf Haus not rely on generative AI for artistic work, echoing similar stances from other Krafton‑owned studios.
The result is a six‑kilometre‑square map built entirely by hand and a script featuring roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by real actors. This commitment to handcrafted content reflects the studio’s belief that authenticity resonates more strongly with players than cheap, AI‑generated assets. Dietsch also reflects on the contrast between filmmaking and game development.
In cinema, a concept can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent. In games, an idea can be prototyped in a single morning, placed into the engine, and instantly experienced. "That immediacy is exhilarating," he says. Wendschuh agrees, noting that while film production is front‑loaded with intense, short‑term bursts of activity, games allow for a more iterative, continuous creative process.
Both mediums share a common goal: delivering an experience that tells a story and engages an audience. Dietsch’s childhood ambition—to make either movies or games—ultimately led him down the path he follows today.
"Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re crafting an experience and a narrative. The tools and distribution channels differ, but the creative impulse is the same," he concludes.
Join Us therefore stands as a testament to what a small, focused team can achieve when they combine Hollywood storytelling sensibilities, entrepreneurial experience from unrelated industries, and a dedication to building the right tools. It proves that, even in an era where generative AI dominates headlines, a handcrafted, human‑centric approach can still produce a bold, ambitious game that captures the imagination of players worldwide.