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 pigs, wield machine guns, and eventually confront colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One of the most memorable, yet omitted, moments was the appearance of a snake‑shooting weapon. According to Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, the idea came from a team member’s child who simply asked, “Can there be a snake gun?” Thanks to an internal tool that lets the studio prototype weapons in minutes, Dietsch was able to code a functional snake‑gun in roughly half an hour.
The quirky weapon remains a permanent fixture in the final game. That anecdote encapsulates the chaotic, over‑the‑top gameplay that Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox survival experience where players can recruit followers—or friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has enabled a small crew to produce a high‑fidelity title that would normally require a far 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 all thought we were crazy.” The team’s confidence stems from a history of achieving big results on modest budgets. Many of them came from indie filmmaking, where they learned to “punch above their weight.” After 80 pitches, Wolf Haus finally secured equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in the studio. The founding members have deep roots in Hollywood.
Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of Mel Gibson, who now co‑founder of Wolf Haus. Together they co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie films 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 his shift to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx.
Join Us began as a personal experiment for Dietsch in Unreal Engine. “Unreal was free to download, and I’d always loved games,” he recalls.
“I felt there was a huge barrier to actually creating something, so I started learning from YouTube tutorials.” Without any formal training, he built a few small prototypes before deciding to tackle something larger—a doomsday cult simulator that blended survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He created a proof‑of‑concept demo, assuming it would eventually hit a technical wall. When he showed it to Abbott, the latter took it to Dooma, a partner that helped move the project forward. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s CFO and narrative director, started his career as a film producer and screenwriter before transitioning to games in the early 2000s.
He founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative work for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later he built several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million (about $330 million USD). After a brief retirement—buying a remote island restaurant in Canada—Wendschuh was lured back by an unexpected call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, who invited him to see a game Dietsch had made. “It blew my mind and pulled me out of retirement,” Wendschuh says.
Through his network, Wendschuh introduced the project to Reid Schneider, a former VP at Warner Bros. Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet. Schneider became a strategic advisor and recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as chief technology officer.
With the core team forming, the next hurdle was financing, a task made tougher by the industry downturn of 2023‑24. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, receiving positive but cautious feedback. After signing with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) in Los Angeles, they renewed their pitch efforts in 2024 and eventually closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Wendschuh credits CAA’s representation—also handling titles like 007: First Light—and the presence of veterans Schneider and Chartrand for opening doors.
Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us is being built by only 13 full‑time staff members. Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team philosophy is intentional: “Everyone has a voice, everyone touches the creative, and the game feels like it was made by a specific group of people.” To make such an ambitious open‑world title feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from the outset. “If a system exists in the game, it must be scalable and debuggable by a single person,” Dietsch explains.
The first year of development was split between ideating gameplay and constructing the internal tools that would later allow the project to scale without collapsing under its own weight. The funding model also gave Wolf Haus the runway to perfect these tools. Krafton and Lifelike’s equity investment was used to self‑fund the entire development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing. This equity‑first approach aligns investor incentives with the studio’s goal of building long‑term value, encouraging the creation of reusable tools rather than cutting corners.
When asked about the role of generative AI—a hot topic in game development—Dietsch gave a clear answer: the studio does not employ 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 says. Wendschuh adds that while they use AI for mundane tasks like calendar management and email drafting, none of it touches the creative pipeline.
Interestingly, Krafton, which markets itself as an “AI‑first” company, explicitly required Wolf Haus to avoid generative AI in the creative process, mirroring a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio. The team’s commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and audio. The six‑kilometre‑square map was built entirely by hand, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, not synthetic voices. This dedication to artisanal production reflects the studio’s belief that AI could jeopardize jobs for voice talent and artists—a concern they share with many creators.
Dietsch notes that one of the biggest advantages of game development over film is immediacy. In cinema, an idea can take years to materialize, requiring scripts, casting, green‑lighting, and lengthy production schedules. In contrast, a game concept can be prototyped in a single morning, placed into the engine, and instantly visualized.
This rapid feedback loop fuels the team’s creativity and keeps the development process dynamic. Wendschuh points out that film production is heavily front‑loaded: securing high‑profile directors or actors is often a prerequisite for studio approval. While anyone can technically shoot a movie with a cheap camera, breaking through without big names or distribution is rare.
Games, however, have far fewer gatekeepers. “You don’t need an A‑list actor or director to make a successful game,” he says, highlighting the democratizing potential of interactive media. Both founders agree that storytelling is the core driver, regardless of medium. Dietsch recalls that as a child he wanted to create either movies or games, and a simple coin toss—combined with receiving a camera for Christmas—set him on his path.
He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, merging his love for both film and interactive experiences. “Whether you’re making a movie or a game, you’re trying to give someone an experience, tell a story, and engage them,” he concludes, underscoring the shared creative impulse that fuels Join Us and the broader ambitions of Wolf Haus.