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 clip, robed followers charge on pig‑back while wielding machine guns, and the sequence culminates in a nightmarish vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles.
What didn’t make the final cut, according to Joe Dietsch—CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games—was the infamous "snake gun." "One of the team members’ kids came up with the idea and asked, ‘What if there was a snake gun?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new weapon in about thirty minutes. I built a gun that fires snakes on the fly, and the kid went nuts. It’s still in the game today," Dietsch recalls. This anecdote perfectly illustrates the chaotic, improvisational gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or teammates in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire.
The development philosophy behind the title is equally unorthodox. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, says the studio set out to be “disruptors.” "We told everyone, ‘We don’t need a hundred‑person studio; twelve talented people can do this.’ Most people laughed and said it was impossible," he explains. Their confidence stems from a background in low‑budget, high‑impact indie filmmaking, where they learned to punch far above their financial weight. After 80 pitches, the team finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus.
The founders’ Hollywood credentials run 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 renowned 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.
These connections gave the team a unique blend of cinematic storytelling and production savvy. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s early experiments in Unreal Engine.
"Unreal Engine was free to download, and I’d always loved games, but the barrier to creating something felt huge. I started learning from YouTube tutorials and built a few tiny prototypes," he says.
Although he had no formal game‑dev experience, Dietsch managed to create several small titles before deciding to tackle something bigger: 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 idea quickly gained momentum.
Dooma Wendschuh, the studio’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 services for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins.
In the 2010s he launched several tech ventures, most notably 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, intending to retire. Yet a call from his old Hollywood‑Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into the industry. "When I saw the demo Joe had built, it blew my mind and convinced me to come out of retirement," Wendschuh says.
He then 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 veteran programmer from Ubisoft Montreal, to serve as chief technology officer. With this leadership team in place, Wolf Haus turned its attention to funding—a daunting task given the industry downturn of 2023‑2024.
Initial pitches generated interest but also skepticism. After partnering with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and re‑pitching in 2024, the studio finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. The involvement of CAA proved crucial.
Their representation, which also includes titles like 007: First Light, opened doors and lent credibility. "Derek Douglas, our agent at CAA, was also my agent when I was making games for twelve years.
He previously headed the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh notes. What truly sets Join Us apart is how it is being built: a 13‑person core team that handles everything from design to programming, art, and audio. Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team model was intentional.
"We wanted a studio where every voice matters, where everyone can touch the creative process, and where the final product feels like it came from a tightly knit group," he says. To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible with limited manpower, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. "Any system in the game has to be scalable and debuggable by a single person.
We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across a massive map without the project collapsing under its own weight," Dietsch explains. The first year of development was therefore split between ideating gameplay concepts and engineering the tools that would bring those concepts to life.
This tool‑first approach also serves future projects, allowing the studio to reuse and extend its pipeline. The funding structure reinforced this philosophy. Krafton and Lifelike’s equity stakes meant the studio could self‑fund development, using the capital to perfect its tools rather than rushing to market.
"Our investors are aligned with our goal of building enterprise value, so they support us in spending time on tool creation even if it slows short‑term progress," Wendschuh says. The studio has also begun modest project financing for marketing, but the core development remains fully funded by the equity partners. In an industry increasingly obsessed with generative AI, Wolf Haus deliberately avoids it for creative work.
"We don’t use generative AI in the game’s creation because we believe a human touch is essential. It would defeat the purpose of why we love making games," Dietsch states. Wendschuh adds that the only AI tools they employ are for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Interestingly, Krafton—publicly branding itself as an “AI‑first” company—specifically required Wolf Haus to refrain from using generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio. The team’s commitment to handcrafted content is evident in the game’s scale. The six‑kilometre‑square map is entirely hand‑built, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, not synthetic voices. "That level of human craftsmanship matters to us, even as a small indie studio," Wendschuh emphasizes.
Dietsch reflects on the differences between film and games, noting the immediacy of interactive media. "In film you write a script, wait years for green‑light, then shoot. With games you can prototype an idea in the morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly. That rapid feedback loop is exhilarating," he says.
Wendschuh adds that film production is heavily front‑loaded, requiring big‑name talent to secure financing, whereas games have far fewer gatekeepers. "You don’t need an A‑list actor or director to make a successful game; the barriers are lower," he observes.
Both mediums, however, share a common creative impulse: storytelling and experience design. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games. It came down to a coin toss and whether I got a camera for Christmas. I learned programming on a TI‑83, so I’ve always been drawn to both," Dietsch muses.
He concludes that regardless of the platform, the goal remains the same—to craft an engaging narrative that resonates with an audience. In summary, Wolf Haus’s Join Us stands as a testament to what a small, focused team can achieve when it blends Hollywood storytelling expertise, savvy tech development, and a refusal to rely on generative AI.
The result is a richly detailed, chaotic cult simulator that promises players a uniquely handcrafted experience, all built by a dozen passionate creators who chose to disrupt the traditional game‑development model.