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 preview, robed followers zip around on pigs, wielding machine guns, before the screen fades to an image of massive, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One of the most memorable, yet omitted, moments was the appearance of a "snake gun"—a weapon that fires serpents. Joe Dietsch, the chief executive officer and creative director at Wolf Haus Games, explained how that quirky idea came to life.
"My teammate’s son asked if we could make a snake‑shooting gun," Dietsch recalled. "We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us scale a weapon in minutes, so I whipped up a snake‑gun in about thirty seconds. The kid was thrilled, and the weapon stayed in the final build." That anecdote captures the chaotic, improvisational spirit that defines Join Us.
The game is an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to join a 1970s‑style cult. It also showcases the studio’s technology‑first philosophy, which has enabled a high‑fidelity title to be produced by a remarkably small crew. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: "We wanted to be disruptors. We told everyone we could build a AAA‑ish experience with just twelve people.
Most people thought we were crazy." The team’s confidence stems from a background in indie filmmaking, where they learned to achieve big results on modest budgets. "We come from indie film circles and we’re used to punching far above our weight," Abbott said.
After 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in the studio. The founders’ Hollywood connections run deep.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor 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 he turned his attention to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84 starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us originated from Dietsch tinkering in Unreal Engine.
"Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games but felt there was a huge barrier to actually creating something," he explained. He taught himself through YouTube tutorials, built a few tiny prototypes, and eventually settled on a doomsday cult simulator—a concept that merged his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo and showed it to Abbott, who then presented it to Dooma, a partner studio. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer 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, most notably the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million).
After that windfall, he bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. Yet a call from his old Hollywood‑hill roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back into game development.
"I was ready to walk my dog on the beach, but when I saw the demo Joe had built, it blew my mind and convinced me to come out of retirement," Wendschuh said. He then introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former Warner Bros. Games vice‑president now heading 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 programmer, to serve as chief technology officer. With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was financing—particularly challenging during the industry downturn of 2023‑24. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, receiving positive reactions but facing a cautious market. After initial outreach, they enlisted the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) as representatives, returned to pitching in 2024, and eventually closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton.
Wendschuh credits the CAA connection and the presence of veteran game industry figures for the successful raise. "Derek Douglas, our agent at CAA, had represented me for twelve years and previously ran the video‑game department at William Morris," he noted.
Despite the high ambitions, Join Us is being built by only thirteen full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasized that the small‑team model was intentional: "We wanted everyone to have a voice, to touch the creative process, and to feel ownership over the final product." To make such a scope feasible, Wolf Haus invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset.
"Any system in the game must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch explained. The first year of development was split between designing gameplay concepts and engineering the internal toolset that would allow those concepts to scale across an open‑world map without collapsing under their own weight. This tool‑centric approach also aligns with the investors’ expectations.
Both Krafton and Lifelike provided equity funding that covered the entire development budget, allowing the studio to self‑finance the game. "We’re now only taking on a small amount of project finance for marketing purposes," Wendschuh said. "The equity partners are motivated to increase the studio’s enterprise value, so they support our heavy investment in tools. When we encounter a problem we don’t know how to solve, we simply build a tool to address it.
It may slow us down in the short term, but it enables a tiny team to produce something of this magnitude." When asked about the role of generative AI, Dietsch was unequivocal: the studio does not use AI for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential. Turning development over to an AI would defeat the purpose of why we get up in the morning," he said. Wendschuh added that while they have a few AI subscriptions for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting, none are employed in art, design, or narrative creation.
Krafton, despite branding itself as an "AI‑first" company, also insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline. This mirrors Krafton‑owned Neon Giant’s public statement that it would not adopt the parent company’s AI strategy for its own projects. Both studios appear to be protecting the artistic integrity of their titles and the jobs of voice actors and artists. Indeed, Join Us features a six‑kilometre‑square map that is entirely handcrafted, and its 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human performers—a point the developers consider a badge of pride for an indie‑scale effort.
Dietsch reflected on the contrast between film and games: "In film, you write a script, wait years, secure a director, actors, studio approval, and finally get on set. With games, you can have an idea this morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly.
That immediacy is exhilarating." Wendschuh agreed, noting that film production is heavily front‑loaded, requiring high‑profile talent to green‑light a project, whereas games face far fewer gatekeepers. "Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without big names or distribution, it’s unlikely to succeed. In games, you don’t need an A‑list actor or director to make a hit; the barrier to entry is lower, and the chance of success is higher." Both founders trace their passion back to childhood.
"When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games. It came down to a coin toss and a Christmas camera," Dietsch recalled.
He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, merging his love of storytelling with interactive media. He believes that, regardless of medium, the core goal remains the same: to craft experiences, tell stories, and engage audiences.
In summary, Wolf Haus’s Join Us exemplifies how a small, tightly knit team—backed by Hollywood lineage, savvy investment, and a commitment to bespoke tools—can produce an ambitious, high‑quality game without relying on generative AI. Their journey underscores the power of creative autonomy, technical ingenuity, and the unique opportunities that the modern game development landscape offers to indie studios.