Double Fine Productions has built a career on games that nobody else would think to make. Psychonauts turned platforming into a journey through troubled minds. Brutal Legend fused heavy metal with real-time strategy. And now Kiln, arriving April 23 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Steam, and day one on Xbox Game Pass, asks a question that has never been asked in the history of video games: what if you sculpted a pot on a pottery wheel and then sent it into battle?
It sounds absurd. It is absurd. And based on the open beta that ran on Steam earlier this month, it is also surprisingly deep, wickedly competitive, and the most fun multiplayer experience Double Fine has ever created.
Make the Pot, Be the Pot
The core loop of Kiln is unlike anything else in multiplayer gaming. Before each match, you sit at a virtual pottery wheel and sculpt a ceramic vessel. The shape, size, and proportions of your pot directly determine your character's abilities in combat. A tall, slender pot might be fast and agile but fragile. A wide, squat pot could be a tank that absorbs hits but moves slowly. A pot with exaggerated handles might gain special grappling abilities. The system is intuitive enough that casual players can throw together something fun in seconds, but deep enough that competitive players will spend hours perfecting their builds.
Once you are satisfied with your creation, you decorate it — glazes, patterns, stamps, all of it purely cosmetic but enormously satisfying — and then you bring it to life. Your pot sprouts legs, gains a personality, and charges into arena combat against other players' creations. The arenas themselves are inspired by ancient mythology, with stages themed around Greek, Japanese, and Egyptian ceramics traditions, each with unique environmental hazards and interactive elements.
Team-Based Chaos With Cross-Platform Play
Kiln supports online PvP multiplayer with full cross-platform support across Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam. The primary mode is team-based combat, where squads of pottery warriors clash in arenas that reward both individual skill and coordinated strategy. The 4v4 mode, showcased in a recent IGN Fan Fest preview under the name Athena's War Room, demonstrated the game's surprising tactical depth — teams composed of varied pot shapes covering different roles played fundamentally differently from teams of identical builds.
Between matches, players can visit The Wedge, a shared social space where you can admire other players' pottery creations, experiment with new designs, and prepare for the next fight. There is a shared creation system that lets you browse and appreciate the community's most creative (or most ridiculous) pots, and Double Fine has already been highlighting staff favorites from the open beta on their blog.
A New Direction for Double Fine Under Xbox
Kiln represents a significant pivot for Double Fine. The studio has been known primarily for single-player narrative adventures, and this is their first foray into competitive multiplayer under Xbox Game Studios. The game carries a standard price of $17.99, with a Fired Up Edition at $29.99 that includes additional cosmetic content. The PEGI 7 rating means this is accessible to younger players, which aligns with the game's colorful, family-friendly aesthetic.
The minimum system requirements are reasonable — an Intel i5-9400, 16GB of RAM, and a GTX 1650 — and the game requires an Xbox Live account on all platforms for online play. Pre-purchase discounts of 10 percent are available through April 30.
Kiln arrives at a time when the multiplayer space is dominated by shooters, battle royales, and MOBAs. A pottery brawler from the studio behind Psychonauts is exactly the kind of left-field entry that could carve out its own niche, especially with Game Pass lowering the barrier to entry. Whether it develops a lasting competitive scene or becomes the go-to party game of the summer, Kiln is the kind of game only Double Fine would make — and that alone makes it worth watching when it launches on April 23.