The buzz around Join Us first erupted when its trailer lit up the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulator. The teaser showed robed followers riding pig‑mounted platforms, wielding machine guns, and culminating in a nightmarish vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. Yet the most memorable, and oddly whimsical, element never made the final cut of the showcase: a snake‑shooting gun.
Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, explains the origin of that bizarre weapon. "One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake gun look like?’ We had built a flexible weapon‑creation tool that could be iterated in minutes, so I whipped up a prototype in about half an hour. The kid went wild, and the snake gun survived into the final build. It’s a perfect illustration of the chaotic, player‑driven fun Join Us promises." Join Us is an open‑world sandbox survival game where players build and lead a 1970s‑style cult, recruiting both AI followers and human co‑op partners.
The title’s design philosophy is rooted in a technology‑first mindset that lets a very small team deliver a high‑fidelity experience. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed it up: "We set out to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build a AAA‑level game with a dozen people. Most thought we were crazy." The Wolf Haus crew draws heavily from indie‑film sensibilities, where small budgets demand creative problem‑solving.
"We come from indie cinema and we’re used to punching well above our weight," Abbott notes. After 80 pitches, the team finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving the studio the runway to finish the project.
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 films such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a personal experiment in Unreal Engine. "Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt blocked from actually making one," Dietsch recalls.
He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few tiny prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday cult simulator that merged his love of grindhouse cinema with survival mechanics. The concept grew into a proof‑of‑concept demo that caught Abbott’s attention, who then presented it to Dooma, a partner studio.
Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, started his career as a film producer and screenwriter before shifting to games in the early 2000s. He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative services for titles like 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. After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote Canadian island restaurant, planning a quiet retirement. That plan was upended when an old Hollywood‑hill roommate, Michael Abbott, called with a video game pitch that reignited his passion. Wendschuh brought the demo to Reid Schneider, former VP at Warner Bros.
Games and now 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 engineer, to serve as chief technology officer.
With this core team in place, the next hurdle was financing. Pitching began in the summer of 2023, a period marked by a broader industry downturn. "People liked what we were showing, but the market was tight," Dietsch says. The studio enlisted CAA (Creative Artists Agency) in Los Angeles, refined its pitch deck, and continued outreach into 2024.
Their persistence paid off when Lifelike Capital and Krafton closed a seed round, providing the capital needed to continue development. The partnership with CAA proved invaluable. Their representation includes high‑profile games like 007: First Light, and their network opened doors to seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand. "Derek Douglas, our CAA agent, had represented me for 12 years in games and even led the video‑game department at William Morris," Wendschuh notes.
Despite the heavyweight backing, Wolf Haus remains a lean operation—13 full‑time staff members at the time of writing. Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team model fosters a collaborative culture where every voice influences the creative direction. To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling early on. "Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single developer," he explains.
The first year of development was split between designing gameplay concepts and building the internal toolchain that would keep the project from collapsing under its own weight. Funding from Krafton and Lifelike is structured as equity, meaning the studio can self‑finance the core development while using a modest amount of project finance for marketing. This arrangement aligns investor incentives with the studio’s long‑term value creation. "When we hit a technical roadblock, we simply build a tool to solve it," Dietsch says.
"It may slow us down in the short term, but it empowers a tiny team to achieve something that would normally require dozens of engineers." A recurring headline in discussions about small‑team game development is the use of generative AI. Wolf Haus deliberately steers clear of AI‑generated assets for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential. Turning the creative process over to an algorithm would defeat why we get up every morning," Dietsch asserts.
Wendschuh adds that the studio only uses AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting, never for art, writing, or voice work. Even Krafton, which has publicly branded itself as an "AI‑first" company, insisted that Wolf Haus refrain from using generative AI in the game's creation.
This mirrors a broader industry sentiment where studios worry about AI displacing voice actors, artists, and other creative talent. "Our six‑kilometre‑square map is handcrafted, and all 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors," Dietsch emphasizes.
"That authenticity matters, especially for an indie title that wants to stand out." Dietsch reflects on the contrast between film and games. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, subject to studio approvals, casting, and scheduling. In game development, a concept can be prototyped within hours, allowing immediate iteration. "You can have an idea at breakfast and see it in the engine by lunch," he says, highlighting the immediacy that fuels his enthusiasm.
Wendschuh points out that film production is heavily front‑loaded: securing A‑list talent and green‑lighting a project often dominates the early months, whereas games have fewer gatekeepers. "Anyone can pick up a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without big names or distribution, it’s hard to break through. With games, the barriers are lower; you don’t need a Hollywood star to attract players," he explains. Both mediums, however, share a core creative impulse: storytelling and experience design.
Dietsch’s childhood ambition—to make either movies or games—ultimately hinged on a coin toss and a Christmas camera. He learned programming on a TI‑83 calculator, a skill that later merged with his cinematic passions. "Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re trying to give someone an experience, tell a story, and engage them. The tools change, but the goal stays the same," he concludes.
Join Us thus stands as a testament to what a focused, technically savvy, and creatively driven team can achieve without relying on massive headcounts or generative AI shortcuts. By blending Hollywood storytelling expertise, indie‑film resourcefulness, and a bespoke development pipeline, Wolf Haus is delivering a cult‑themed sandbox that promises both chaotic fun and meticulously crafted world‑building—all while keeping the human element at the heart of the experience.