The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator where robed followers ride pig‑backed vehicles, unleash machine‑gun fire, and ultimately confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One element that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake‑gun, a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was born from a child’s off‑hand suggestion. "One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool for weapons, so within half an hour I built a gun that actually fired snakes. The kid was blown away, and we kept it in the game," Dietsch recalls.
This anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox survival game where players can recruit AI followers or friends into a 1970s‑style cult. It also highlights the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has enabled a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a much larger staff. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: "We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone, ‘We don’t need a hundred people; twelve can do this.’ Most people laughed, thinking it was impossible." Their confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to punch far above their budgetary weight.
After 80 pitches, the studio finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in Wolf Haus. 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 originated from Dietsch’s experimentation with Unreal Engine.
"I discovered Unreal was free to download and started learning from YouTube tutorials," he explains. Though he had never built a game before, he managed to create a few small prototypes before deciding to tackle something bigger: a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, showed it to Abbott, and the concept was quickly taken to Dooma for further development.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before moving into games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, which supplied writing 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. He was impressed by Dietsch’s demo and agreed to join, eventually bringing on former Warner Bros.
Games VP Reid Schneider as a strategic advisor and recruiting Ubisoft Montreal veteran Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. Funding proved challenging amid a broader industry downturn.
The team began pitching in summer 2023, receiving positive feedback but facing a tight market. After partnering with CAA in Los Angeles and refining their pitch throughout 2024, they closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits the CAA connection and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand for helping secure the deal.
Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us is being built by only 13 full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team model preserves a collaborative atmosphere where every voice matters and each person can directly influence the creative direction. To make such an ambitious project feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset. "Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single developer," Dietsch says.
The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the internal tools that would keep the open‑world from collapsing under its own weight. The equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike allowed Wolf Haus to self‑fund the game’s development, with only a modest portion of project finance earmarked for marketing. This structure aligns investor incentives with the studio’s long‑term value creation, encouraging the team to continue building reusable tools for future titles. 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," Dietsch explains. "We use AI only for mundane tasks like calendar management and email replies, never for designing assets or writing dialogue." Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, explicitly required that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio.
The commitment to handcrafted content is evident in the game’s six‑kilometre‑square map, which was built entirely by hand, and its 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors. Dietsch stresses that preserving this level of artisanal detail was a core principle, even for a modest indie operation. Transitioning from film to games offered Dietsch a new sense of immediacy. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring countless approvals and the involvement of high‑profile talent.
In game development, an idea can be prototyped within hours, allowing creators to see their vision in real time. Wendschuh notes that while film production is front‑loaded with intense, high‑stakes set work and a reliance on star power, games face fewer gatekeepers, making it easier for small teams to achieve success without celebrity backing. Both mediums, however, share a common creative impulse: storytelling and immersive experience. Dietsch reflects on his childhood fascination with both cameras and code, concluding that whether one is making a movie or a game, the goal remains the same—to engage an audience and tell a compelling story.
The journey of Wolf Haus demonstrates that with the right blend of Hollywood know‑how, entrepreneurial grit, and bespoke technology, a tiny team can indeed produce a large‑scale, unforgettable game without leaning on generative AI.