The talent at Double Fine Productions is no doubt one of the most surprising to be part of an acquisition deal for Xbox. So when the team was working on Psychonauts 2 at the time, it was worrisome what could come with a new home for the developer. But, it soon came to realization that the creatives fueling the studio would be at the forefront as Microsoft fronted the bill for the game to incorporate boss battles.
And since then, there has been other creative-driven endeavors by the game studio that has shipped as a result of this deal. Last year, we saw the release of Keeper – a linear narrative that follows the tale of a sentient lighthouse. Elsewhere previously, there was also lingering details on an unannounced multiplayer project ‘Kiln’ that was in the works internally at Double Fine Productions.
Well at the Xbox Developer_Direct on Thursday, Double Fine Productions made a surprise appearance to unveil Kiln. You can watch the reveal trailer in the video below:
“The whole pottery part is such that it grabs people who might not want to jump into a multiplayer game. Some people just want to try pot making. And if we can, we just slowly ease them into the ‘I want to punch something now with this pot.’ We don’t want it to be a hard shift from those two things,” project lead Derek Brand explains about the decision for Kiln’s art direction leading to its gameplay loop.
“Making pots in real life is really difficult. It takes a lot of practice, and you can get good at it over time, but it is not an easy thing to just jump into. We wanted to make the pot-making super easy and accessible – it’s just a button and a control stick – and you can make any kind of shape you wanted. We wanted people to immediately feel like they’re masters at this craft.”
Brand also injected: “When we’re thinking about the world, we wanted to really incorporate this element of [an] old, ancient technology and art form that has been around forever; we wanted to really lean on that. […] And you’re this little spirit, this little bodiless floating sprite. But within this world, there are other gods that aren’t around, but they have these little floating islands of their old domains, and each map is based off ancient Greek or ancient Egyptian gods.”
Does Kiln pique your interests?
Kiln is listed to release for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC sometime in spring 2026.
Source: Xbox Wire
