The buzz around Join Us first erupted when its trailer lit up the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. The teaser showed robed followers careening on pigs, firing machine guns, and culminated in a nightmarish vision of Cthulhu‑like tentacles. Yet one of the most memorable moments—an absurd weapon that shoots snakes—was omitted from the public cut. "It started as a kid’s off‑hand suggestion," recalls Joe Dietsch, CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games.
"A team member’s son asked, ‘What would a snake gun look like?’ With our rapid‑prototyping tools we built it in about thirty minutes, and it stuck in the final game." This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title where players can amass followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. The project’s ambition is matched by the studio’s unconventional approach to development.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their philosophy: "We set out to be disruptors, to prove that a twelve‑person team could deliver a high‑fidelity, large‑scale experience without the massive staff most studios rely on." Skeptics initially dismissed the claim as impossible, but the team’s background in indie filmmaking gave them confidence. "We’re used to punching well above our weight," Abbott says, noting that the studio had already survived 80 pitch meetings before securing equity from Krafton and Lifelike Capital. Wolf Haus’s leadership is steeped in Hollywood pedigree.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University 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, a production company founded by Chris Roberts before his transition to the Star Citizen universe.
Abbott also produced films such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. This cinematic lineage informs the studio’s storytelling sensibility and its willingness to blend genre tropes from grindhouse cinema with interactive gameplay. The seed of Join Us sprouted from Dietsch’s experimentation with Unreal Engine.
"Unreal was free to download, and I’d been a gamer for as long as I could remember, but creating something felt out of reach," he explains. He taught himself the engine through YouTube tutorials, eventually crafting a handful of small prototypes. One idea kept resurfacing: a doomsday cult simulator that merged survival mechanics with the over‑the‑top aesthetic of 1970s exploitation films.
He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the concept quickly gained momentum. The studio’s financial chief, Dooma Wendschuh, brings a unique blend of film and tech experience. After a career as a producer and screenwriter, he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. He later built a cannabis‑formulation company, Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million.
Following that windfall, he purchased a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet a call from his old Hollywood‑hillroommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the game industry. Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh re‑entered development, recruiting former Warner Bros. Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and Ubisoft veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer.
Securing funding proved challenging amid a broader industry downturn. After initial outreach and a partnership with CAA, the studio pitched throughout 2023 and 2024, eventually closing a seed round with Krafton and Lifelike Capital.
Wendschuh credits the CAA connection and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand for opening doors that might otherwise have remained closed. What truly sets Join Us apart is the way the team has engineered its development pipeline. With only 13 full‑time staff, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from day one.
"Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," says Dietsch. The studio built a suite of internal tools that allow features to expand across the six‑kilometre‑square open world without causing the project to collapse under its own weight. This tool‑first mindset not only accelerated early iteration but also laid the groundwork for future titles.
The equity‑funded model gave Wolf Haus the breathing room to perfect these tools. "Krafton and Lifelike’s investment is essentially self‑funding for the game," explains Wendschuh. "We’re now adding a modest amount of project finance for marketing, but the core development has been covered by our equity partners." This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s ethos of building reusable technology rather than chasing quick, low‑cost shortcuts.
When asked about the role of generative AI, both Dietsch and Wendschuh are unequivocal: the studio does not rely on AI for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential to game creation," Dietsch states. The only AI tools they use are mundane productivity assistants for calendar management and email drafting. Interestingly, Krafton—publicly positioning itself as an “AI‑first” company—specifically required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, echoing similar stances from other Krafton‑owned studios.
All voice work in Join Us, amounting to roughly 15,000 lines, was recorded by human actors, and the expansive map was handcrafted. This commitment to artisanal craftsmanship reflects the team’s broader philosophy of preserving creative jobs in an era where AI threatens to automate many artistic roles. Dietsch finds the immediacy of game development liberating compared with the protracted timelines of filmmaking.
"In film, an idea can sit on paper for years before it ever sees a set," he notes. "In a game, I can conceive a mechanic this morning, drop it into the engine by noon, and instantly see it in action. That instant feedback loop is exhilarating." Wendschuh adds that while film production is front‑loaded with high‑stakes negotiations for A‑list talent and studio approval, games face far fewer gatekeepers.
"Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without big names or distribution, success is rare. By contrast, a small team can release a polished game directly to players worldwide," he observes. Both founders agree that the core creative impulse—telling a story and delivering an experience—remains the same across mediums. "Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re crafting an experience that engages and moves the audience," Dietsch concludes, reflecting on his childhood fascination with both cameras and code.
"That shared purpose is why the transition between film and games feels natural for us."