Double Fine’s Kiln will launch in April across PC and consoles, following a series of closed playtests and an open beta on Steam.
Kiln is a multiplayer party brawler where you create your own characters from pottery, and the latest idea from the team that gave you Psychonauts 2, Costume Quest, Brutal Legend and Stacking.
You can sign up now for a series of vaguely mysterious closed playtests (which you have a chance at joining) and the game’s general open beta on April 9-11, all of which seems to be Steam-only. After that, Kiln will launch fully across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on April 23.
Kiln began life back in 2017 as a game concept that Double Fine cooked up in a game jam, then popped on a shelf while it was busy making other things. Years later, the concept has been refired, and turned into a surprisingly deep-looking cartoony brawler.
We got a pretty detailed look at Kiln back in January, when it got a full reveal back during Microsoft’s most recent Xbox Developer Direct. Gameplay footage showed how you’ll be able to sculpt pots using a variety of tools: sponges, shapers, scrapers, your hands, all sorts of things.
You can make pots of all shapes and sizes and types, before sending them into a 4v4 battle mode (called Quench) where they’ll compete on teams with and against other pots to douse the opponent’s kiln. Based on the pot you’ve made, you’ll have different capabilities. Bigger pots can hold more water with which to put out the fire, but they move slower — and so forth.
Battlefields themed around the mythology of ancient socieities include tunnels and pathways limited to pots of certain shapes and sizes, and every pot will have different movement and attacks based on how they’re made. This even extends to different special moves, such as popping popcorn, turning into a sword, flinging pies, and more.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
