The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous cooperative cult simulation. In the clip, robed followers zip around on pig‑back, firing machine guns, before the screen erupts into a vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What didn’t make the final cut was the infamous "snake gun," a weapon that originated from an off‑hand suggestion by a team member’s son.
According to Joe Dietsch, CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, the idea was simple: “Can there be a snake gun?” Using an in‑house tool that allows rapid weapon prototyping, Dietsch whipped up a functional snake‑shooting firearm in roughly thirty minutes. The novelty impressed the youngster so much that the weapon remains a permanent fixture in the game. That anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us.
The title is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build and lead a 1970s‑style cult. The game’s design philosophy is rooted in a technology‑first mindset, enabling a small team to deliver a high‑fidelity, expansive experience that would traditionally 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 could build this with twelve people, and they thought we were insane.” The founders’ background in low‑budget, high‑impact indie filmmaking gave them confidence.
"We come from indie films and we’re used to punching well above our weight," Abbott explained. After 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity financing from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in the studio. Wolf Haus’s leadership team is steeped in Hollywood history.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University, where he befriended 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 veteran makeup artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, the production company founded by Chris Roberts before his transition to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch’s experiments in Unreal Engine.
"I discovered that Unreal Engine was free to download and started learning from YouTube tutorials," he said. Despite having no formal game‑development background, he built a few small prototypes before committing to a larger vision: a doomsday cult simulator that fuses survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics.
The proof‑of‑concept was handed to Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma, a partner studio. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, began his career as a film producer and screenwriter before transitioning 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, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million (approximately $330 million USD).
After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet a chance call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into development. Impressed by Dietsch’s demo, Wendschuh re‑entered the industry, bringing on Reid Schneider—former Warner Bros. Games VP—and recruiting Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, an ex‑Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer.
Funding proved challenging amid a market downturn. The team began pitching in summer 2023, receiving positive feedback but encountering a cautious investment climate.
After partnering with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and refining their pitch, they secured a seed round from Lifelike Capital and Krafton in 2024. Wendschuh credits CAA’s representation—also handling titles like 007: First Light—and the involvement of seasoned veterans Schneider and Chartrand for opening doors. What truly sets Join Us apart is its development model: a core staff of just 13 full‑time employees. Dietsch emphasized that the team deliberately kept the group small to ensure every member could influence creative decisions.
To make a large‑scale open world feasible with limited personnel, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from day one. "If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explained. The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and building the underlying toolset, a strategy that also prepares the studio for future projects.
The equity partnership with Kraftor and Lifelike allowed Wolf Haus to self‑fund the majority of development, only turning to project finance for marketing later on. This arrangement aligned investor incentives with the studio’s long‑term value creation, encouraging the continued development of proprietary tools.
While this approach can slow progress, it empowers a tiny team to deliver a complex, polished product. When asked about generative AI, Dietsch gave a clear answer: the studio does not employ it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential for games. Handing development over to an AI would defeat the purpose of why we get up every morning," he said.
Wendschuh added that the only AI usage in the studio concerns mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting. Interestingly, Krafton—despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Krafton‑owned Neon Giant. The commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s massive six‑kilometre‑square map and its 15,000 voice lines, all recorded by human actors. Dietsch stresses that this level of manual effort was crucial, even for an indie title, to preserve artistic integrity and avoid the job‑displacement concerns associated with AI‑generated assets.
Comparing his experiences in film and games, Dietsch notes the immediacy of the latter medium. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring approvals, casting, and studio backing before a single frame is shot.
In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped in a matter of hours: "You can have an idea in the morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly. That immediacy is exhilarating." Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with intense, high‑budget set‑ups and a reliance on star power to secure financing. While anyone can technically shoot a backyard movie, breaking through without marquee names or distribution is rare.
Game development, by contrast, has far fewer gatekeepers; a small studio can reach a global audience without A‑list talent. This democratization fuels Wolf Haus’s confidence that a modest team can create a hit.
Both founders trace their passion back to childhood. Dietsch recalls wanting to make either games or movies at six years old, a decision that ultimately hinged on a Christmas camera and early programming on a TI‑83 calculator. He concludes that, regardless of medium, the core mission remains the same: to craft experiences, tell stories, and engage audiences.
Join Us embodies that philosophy, merging cult‑themed narrative, survival mechanics, and a distinctive, hand‑crafted aesthetic—all built by a lean, Hollywood‑savvy team that deliberately eschewed generative AI in favour of human creativity.