You may remember seeing the Join Us trailer during the Xbox Showcase in June. The clip introduced a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator where robed followers zip around on pigs, unleash a barrage of machine‑gun fire, and the finale hints at colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles looming in the distance.
What didn’t make the cut, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, the studio behind Join Us—was the infamous "snake gun." "One of the team members’ kids came up with the idea and asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooter look like?’ We had built a modular weapon system that lets us spin up new guns in minutes, so within half an hour I had a fully functional snake‑launching weapon. The kid was ecstatic, and the gun stayed in the final build." That anecdote perfectly 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 mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire. It also illustrates the studio’s tech‑first mindset, which has enabled a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity, large‑scale title. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed it up succinctly: “We wanted to be disruptors.” "We kept hearing, ‘You can’t build a game of this scope with just twelve people.’ Everyone thought we were dreaming.
But we’ve done big things on shoestring budgets before. Coming from indie film, we’re used to punching far above our weight." After an arduous 80‑pitch marathon, the team finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving Wolf Haus the financial backing it needed while keeping ownership largely in the hands of its founders.
The founders’ Hollywood pedigree runs deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson—son of 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 Star Citizen venture. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us began as a personal experiment for Dietsch in Unreal Engine. "Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a huge barrier to actually creating something. I started tinkering with tutorials on YouTube and built a few tiny prototypes," he recalls.
Though he had no formal game‑development background, Dietsch quickly moved from those bite‑size experiments to a more ambitious proof of concept centered on a doomsday cult—a concept that merged his love for survival mechanics, grindhouse cinema, and the storytelling potential of both games and movies. He presented the early demo to Abbott, who recognized its potential and passed it along to Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director. Wendschuh’s résumé reads like a cross‑section of Hollywood and gaming: he began as a producer and screenwriter, later providing narrative services for titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins through his own studio, Sekretagent Productions.
In the 2010s he founded several tech ventures, most notably 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, planning a quiet retirement. That plan was derailed when an old roommate, Michael Abbott, called out of the blue: “A buddy of mine made a video game.” Intrigued, Wendschuh checked out Dietsch’s prototype and was instantly blown away, prompting him to step back into the industry. He introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former vice‑president at Warner Bros.
Games and current head of Raccoon Logic (the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet). Schneider joined as a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, to serve as chief technology officer. With a core team taking shape, the next hurdle was financing—a task made tougher by a market downturn that began in mid‑2023. The studio’s first pitch cycle coincided with a cautious investment climate, but the team persisted.
They eventually enlisted the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) as representation, which helped open doors to larger investors. In early 2024, Lifelike Capital and Krafton came on board, providing a seed round that allowed Wolf Haus to continue development without compromising its vision. The partnership with CAA proved valuable not just for capital but also for credibility.
Derek Douglas, Wolf Haus’s agent at CAA, had previously represented Wendschuh during his twelve‑year stint making games and had headed the video‑game department at William Morris. This Hollywood‑meets‑gaming network gave Join Us a level of industry clout that belied its modest headcount.
Today, Wolf Haus operates with just 13 full‑time staff members. "We entered the project fully aware of the scale we wanted to achieve, yet we insisted on keeping the team small so every voice mattered and everyone could touch the creative process," says Dietsch. To make such an ambitious title feasible, the studio invested heavily in internal tooling from day one.
"Any system we build must be scalable and debuggable by a single person. That meant creating a robust toolkit that could handle the complexities of an open‑world map without collapsing under its own weight. A large portion of our first year was spent simultaneously designing gameplay and building the tools that would make that design possible." Funding from Kraftor and Lifelike was structured as equity, meaning the money was essentially used to self‑finance the game. "The investors have a stake in the studio’s enterprise value, so they encourage us to build reusable tools and infrastructure.
It may slow development in the short term, but it empowers a tiny team to deliver a AAA‑level experience," explains Wendschuh. When asked about the role of generative AI—a hot topic in game development—both Dietsch and Wendschuh were unequivocal: the studio does not rely on AI for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential.
Using AI to generate assets would undermine why we get up every 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.
Krafton, despite branding itself as an “AI‑first” company, also insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline. This stance mirrors comments from Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio that publicly distanced itself from the parent’s AI push. Both teams emphasize that their creative output—such as Join Us’s six‑kilometer‑square hand‑crafted map and its 15,000 human‑recorded voice lines—should remain a product of human craftsmanship. Dietsch reflects on the contrast between film and game creation.
In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring endless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent. In games, however, an inspiration can be prototyped within hours and tested directly in the engine.
"You can have an idea at breakfast, drop it into Unreal by lunch, and see it come alive instantly. That immediacy is intoxicating," he says. Wendschuh points out that film production is heavily front‑loaded: securing a director, casting A‑list actors, and obtaining studio green‑lights dominate the early phases. While anyone can technically shoot a low‑budget film with a consumer camera, breaking through without marquee names or distribution is rare.
By contrast, the indie game landscape is comparatively open; a small team can reach a global audience without needing celebrity endorsements. Both founders agree that the core creative drive is the same across mediums: telling stories and delivering experiences. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games. It boiled down to a coin toss and a Christmas camera.
I learned to program on a TI‑83, so the passion has always been there. Whether you’re crafting a film or a game, you’re shaping an experience, a narrative, and an emotional journey for the audience.
That essence never changes." Join Us is poised to launch as a testament to what a tight‑knit, tool‑centric team can achieve without leaning on generative AI. It blends absurdist humor, survival mechanics, and a lovingly hand‑crafted world, all built by a dozen‑odd developers who refuse to let size dictate ambition.