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 clip, robed followers ride on pigs, wield machine guns, and the sequence culminates with a vision of colossal, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. What didn’t make the final edit was the infamous “snake gun,” a quirky weapon that has become a signature element of the game.
According to Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, the idea originated from a casual conversation with his team member’s son. "His kid asked, ‘What would a snake‑shooting gun look like?’ We had a modular weapon system that let us prototype a new gun in about thirty minutes. I built it on the fly and it stuck around.
It’s still in the final product," Dietsch recalls, laughing. This anecdote encapsulates the kind of off‑the‑wall, chaotic gameplay Join Us promises: an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or invite friends in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult empire.
Beyond the eccentric design, the project showcases Wolf Haus’s technology‑first philosophy, which has enabled a high‑fidelity, large‑scale title to be assembled by a remarkably small crew. Michael Abbott, the studio’s chief operating officer, summed up their ambition: "We set out to be disruptors.
Everyone told us you needed a hundred‑person team to pull this off. We proved them wrong with just twelve core developers." The team’s confidence stems from a history of achieving big results on shoestring budgets. "Our roots are in indie filmmaking, where you learn to punch well above your weight," Abbott explains.
After an arduous 80‑pitch marathon, Wolf Haus finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, both of which took stakes in the studio. Wolf Haus’s leadership team is steeped in Hollywood pedigree. 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 transition to Star Citizen.
Abbott later produced films such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a personal experiment for Dietsch in Unreal Engine. "I discovered that Unreal was free to download and thought, why not give it a try? I’d been a gamer my whole life, but the barrier to actually creating a game felt huge.
So I dove into YouTube tutorials and started tinkering," he says. Despite lacking formal training, he managed to ship a few small prototypes before committing to a larger vision: a doomsday cult simulator that fused his love of survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics. He built a proof‑of‑concept, expecting to hit a technical wall at some point.
When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter immediately took it to Dooma, a partner studio. Dooma’s CFO and narrative director, Dooma Wendschuh, had previously worked as a producer and screenwriter in film before moving into games in the early 2000s, contributing writing to titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins.
He later founded several tech ventures, including the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for C$430 million. After selling Ebbu, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire.
Yet a phone call from his old Hollywood Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, pulled him back. "Joe sent me a video of his prototype and it blew my mind.
I couldn’t stay retired," Wendschuh recounts. He then introduced the project to Reid Schneider, former VP at Warner Bros.
Games and now head of Raccoon Logic, who became a strategic advisor and recruited former Ubisoft Montreal programmer Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand as chief technology officer. With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was financing—a daunting task amid a market downturn in mid‑2023. Initial pitches generated interest but no commitments.
The studio eventually enlisted CAA (Creative Artists Agency) to represent them, returned to the pitch circuit in 2024, and finally closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton. Abbott credits CAA’s connections and the presence of seasoned veterans like Schneider and Chartrand for the breakthrough. "Our agent Derek Douglas had represented me for twelve years and previously ran the video‑game division at William Morris," says Wendschuh.
What truly sets Join Us apart is the production model: a full‑time roster of just thirteen people. "We entered the project with a clear understanding of scope and deliberately kept the team small so everyone could have a voice and touch the creative process," Dietsch explains. To make such an ambitious open‑world possible, the studio invested heavily in custom tooling from day one.
"Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single developer. We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across a massive map without the project collapsing under its own weight," he adds.
The equity funding from Krafton and Lifelike allowed Wolf Haus to self‑finance development, using the capital to perfect those tools rather than relying on external deadlines. "Our investors benefit from the studio’s increased enterprise value, so they encourage us to build robust tools even if it slows short‑term progress," Wendschuh notes.
This philosophy—solving problems by building internal tools—has become a cornerstone of the studio’s workflow. When asked about the role of generative AI, Dietsch gives a decisive answer: none. "We believe a game needs a human touch.
Hand‑crafting experiences is why we get up in the morning," he says. Wendschuh adds that the only AI they employ is for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting.
Even Krafton, which has publicly positioned itself as an "AI‑first" company, insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in creative pipelines, fearing it could diminish artistic value and threaten jobs for voice actors and artists. Indeed, the six‑kilometre‑square map in Join Us is entirely handcrafted, and the game features roughly 15,000 voice lines recorded by human talent—an effort the team considers essential, even for an indie title.
Dietsch reflects on the contrast between filmmaking and game development. In film, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring approvals, casting, and massive budgets before a director sees a set. In games, an idea can be prototyped within hours, placed directly into the engine, and iterated upon instantly. "That immediacy is exhilarating," he says.
Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded: securing a few high‑profile directors or actors is often the make‑or‑break factor for a studio’s green‑light. While anyone can technically shoot a low‑budget movie with a backyard camera, breaking through without marquee names is rare.
By contrast, the video‑game market has far fewer gatekeepers; a small team can reach a global audience without A‑list talent, making the odds of success considerably higher. Both mediums, however, share a core creative impulse: storytelling and immersive experience. "When I was six, I wanted to make movies or games—it boiled down to a coin toss and a Christmas camera," Dietsch reminisces.
He taught himself programming on a TI‑83 calculator, a hobby that later merged with his cinematic ambitions. "Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re delivering a story, an experience, and an emotional connection. The tools change, but the purpose stays the same." Join Us stands as a testament to what a tightly knit, technically savvy team can achieve without relying on massive headcounts or AI shortcuts. By leveraging Hollywood experience, strategic financing, and a commitment to handcrafted content, Wolf Haus is poised to deliver a uniquely bizarre, player‑driven cult adventure that could redefine how indie studios approach large‑scale game development.