The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation where robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and eventually confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One detail that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that originated from a spontaneous idea by a team member’s child.
As Joe Dietsch, CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, recounts, "The kid asked, ‘Can there be a snake gun?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool, so within half an hour I built a gun that actually shoots snakes. He was thrilled, and the weapon stayed in the game." That anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, sandbox‑style gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world survival experience set in a 1970s‑style cult where players can recruit AI followers or invite friends to join the madness.
It also highlights the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a small group of developers to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger crew. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, explains the team’s philosophy: "We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone, ‘We don’t need a hundred people; twelve is enough.’ Most people thought we were crazy." The founders’ confidence stems from a history of achieving big results on modest budgets.
"We come from indie film backgrounds and are used to punching well above our weight," Abbott says. 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 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 Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us began as a side project for Dietsch while he was experimenting with Unreal Engine. "Unreal Engine is free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a huge barrier to actually building something," he explains. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few tiny prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the concept quickly gained momentum.
The studio’s narrative director and CFO, Dooma Wendschuh, started his career as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing writing services 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 roughly C$430 million. After a brief retirement on a remote Canadian island, a call from his old Hollywood‑hill roommate Michael Abbott pulled him back into game development. Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh recruited former Warner Bros. Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and brought in Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer.
Funding proved challenging amid a market downturn. The team began pitching in summer 2023, faced repeated rejections, and eventually partnered with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) to refine their approach. In 2024 they closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh notes that CAA’s representation, which also includes titles like 007: First Light, and the presence of seasoned veterans such as Schneider and Chartrand were instrumental in winning investor confidence.
Despite the high ambitions, Join Us is being built by just 13 full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team culture is intentional: "Everyone has a voice, everyone touches the creative side, and the game feels like it was made by a tight‑knit group." To make a large, open‑world game feasible with such a lean crew, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling early on. "Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch says. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the internal tools that would later allow the world to expand without collapsing under its own complexity.
This tool‑centric approach was financially supported by the equity investors, who preferred a self‑funded development model. "Krafton and Lifelike gave us the capital to finance the game itself, and we only use external project finance for marketing," Wendschuh explains.
When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not rely on it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential.
Using AI to generate assets would defeat why we get up every morning," Dietsch states. Wendschuh adds that while they may use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management, none of it touches the artistic side of development. Interestingly, Krafton, which has branded itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring similar stances taken by other Krafton‑owned studios. The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s massive six‑kilometre‑square map and its 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors.
Dietsch believes this authenticity is crucial, even for an indie title. Comparing film and games, Dietsch finds games offer a speed and immediacy that film cannot match. "In film, you write a script, wait years for green‑light, then finally shoot.
In games, you can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly," he says. Wendschuh notes that while film production is front‑loaded with high‑profile talent negotiations, games have far fewer gatekeepers, making it easier for small teams to achieve success without A‑list names. Both mediums, however, share a core creative drive: storytelling and immersion. Dietsch reflects, "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games.
It boiled down to a coin toss and a camera for Christmas. I learned to program on a TI‑83, so the love for both has always been there.
Whether it’s a film or a game, you’re delivering an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience. That fundamental goal never changes."