The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, giving viewers a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation. In the clip, robed cultists ride atop pigs while brandishing machine guns, and the sequence culminates in a nightmarish vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One element that didn’t make the final edit was the infamous snake gun, a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the chief executive officer and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a child’s imagination.
"One of the developer’s kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new weapon in about half an hour, so I built it on the spot. The kid went nuts, and the gun stuck around in the final build," Dietsch recounts. That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival title where players can recruit followers—or friends in co‑op mode—to grow a 1970s‑style cult. The game’s design philosophy mirrors the studio’s broader approach: lean, tech‑driven, and deliberately disruptive.
Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, explains that the team set out to prove that a high‑fidelity, large‑scale experience could be built without a massive staff. "We told everyone we could pull this off with a dozen people. Most people laughed, saying it was impossible. But we’d already learned to punch well above our weight in indie film, so we weren’t scared of the odds," he says.
Wolf Haus’s founders come from deep Hollywood roots. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University, where he met 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 renowned makeup artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production company founded by Chris Roberts before he turned his attention to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx.
The seed of Join Us sprouted when Dietsch began tinkering with Unreal Engine, attracted by the fact that the engine could be downloaded for free. "I’d been a gamer my whole life, but creating something from scratch felt out of reach. When I finally opened Unreal and started watching YouTube tutorials, the barrier vanished," he says. After a few modest experiments, he decided to tackle a more ambitious concept: a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with the gritty aesthetic of grindhouse cinema.
He built a proof‑of‑concept prototype, ran it past 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 narrative work.
In the early 2000s he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing writing services for titles such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he launched several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis‑formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million). After cashing out, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet a chance call from his former Hollywood‑Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into development.
"I watched the demo Joe sent me and it blew my mind. It was the spark that got me out of retirement," Wendschuh recalls.
Through Wendschuh’s network, the studio recruited Reid Schneider—formerly a vice‑president at Warner Bros. Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, the makers of Journey to the Savage Planet—as a strategic advisor, and Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a veteran programmer from Ubisoft Montreal, as chief technology officer. With a core team of about a dozen full‑time staff, the studio began the arduous task of securing financing during a market downturn. Pitching started in the summer of 2023.
Despite the bleak climate, the team’s unique pedigree and compelling demo attracted interest. After initial outreach, they partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles, which helped refine their pitch and open doors to larger investors.
By early 2024, Wolf Haus closed a seed round with equity participation from Kraftor—an arm of Korean gaming giant Krafton—and Lifelike Capital. Both investors took an ownership stake and agreed to fund the project without imposing creative constraints.
Funding, however, was only part of the equation. To deliver a sprawling, high‑resolution world with such a small crew, Wolf Haus invested heavily in proprietary tooling from day one. "Every system we build must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," says Dietsch.
The studio spent the first year simultaneously designing gameplay concepts and engineering the internal toolset that would allow those concepts to scale across a six‑kilometre‑square map. This tool‑first philosophy not only kept the project from collapsing under its own weight but also laid the groundwork for future titles.
The equity model gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect those tools. "Krafton and Lifelike’s capital financed the entire development, so the game is essentially self‑funded.
We’re now only seeking modest project finance for marketing," explains Wendschuh. The investors’ alignment with the studio’s long‑term value creation encouraged the team to keep building bespoke solutions rather than relying on off‑the‑shelf shortcuts. When asked about the role of generative AI—an increasingly hot topic in game development—Dietsch is unequivocal: the studio does not use AI for creative work.
"Our process is fundamentally human‑centric. We love building games ourselves; handing that over to an algorithm would defeat the purpose of why we get up each morning," he says. Wendschuh adds that the team only employs AI for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting, never for art, design, or narrative. Krafton’s stance reinforced this decision.
Although the Korean publisher has branded itself an "AI‑first" company, its investment agreement explicitly prohibited Wolf Haus from employing generative AI in the game’s creative pipeline. This mirrors a similar position taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio, which publicly stated it would not adopt AI‑driven development.
The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s audio and world design. All 15,000 voice lines in Join Us were recorded by human actors, and the entire open world was manually sculpted, texture‑painted, and populated without procedural generation. Dietsch believes that preserving a human touch is essential for immersion, especially in a title that leans heavily on satire and dark humor. Transitioning from film to interactive media also gave Dietsch a fresh perspective on creative immediacy.
In cinema, a concept can take years to materialize, requiring approvals, casting, and extensive pre‑production. By contrast, a game idea can be prototyped within hours, tested in real time, and iterated upon on the spot. "You can have an idea at breakfast and see it in the engine by lunch.
That instant feedback loop is exhilarating," he notes. Wendschuh observes that the film industry is heavily front‑loaded, with massive budgets tied to securing high‑profile talent before production even begins. While anyone can shoot a low‑budget movie with a backyard camera, breaking through without star power or distribution is rare. In the gaming world, gatekeepers are fewer, and a small, passionate team can reach a global audience if the product resonates.
"You don’t need an A‑list actor or director; you just need a compelling experience," he says. Both Dietsch and Wendschuh agree that the core motivation behind movies and games is the same: to craft an experience, tell a story, and engage an audience. Dietsch reflects on his childhood, recalling that a coin toss and a Christmas camera set him on the path to both mediums. "Whether it’s a film or a game, you’re creating a narrative that pulls people in.
The tools change, but the goal stays the same," he concludes. Join Us thus stands as a testament to what a small, tightly knit team can achieve when they blend Hollywood storytelling instincts with cutting‑edge game technology—without leaning on generative AI.
The game’s blend of satirical cult‑building, open‑world chaos, and handcrafted detail promises to deliver a uniquely human experience, proving that size and trends aren’t the only determinants of success in today’s gaming landscape.