Double Fine Productions announced a release date for Kiln, the studio's upcoming online multiplayer pottery focused party brawler. According to a new post by Xbox Wire, Kiln will be released on April 23, with a beta running from April 9-11.
Kiln was first seen in 2017 when it was one of the creations during Double Fine's "Amnesia Fortnight" game jam event. This game jam runs for two weeks and allows the members at Double Fine to produce various prototype game ideas that could end up being made into full games, just as Kiln was. It wasn't until early 2026 during an Xbox Developer Direct that we saw Kiln again, this time as a more fully fleshed out product.
The idea behind Kiln is relatively simple: You shape different sized clay balls into pottery items. Then you send those pottery items out into battle in some chaotic multiplayer mayhem. The size and shape of the pottery item you create determines its stats such as health and speed. It also determines their special abilities. You can customize and decorate your creations with glazes and cosmetic attachments. Just don't get too attached to your creations though because they're probably going to end up smashed at some point during the fight.
Two teams of four pottery items go up against each other to try to gather water and extinguish the opposing team's kiln. Do this three times during a round and you win. Of course, all players will attempt to break the opposing team's pottery items, including the larger water carrying pots.
The Kiln beta will be available through Steam only starting on April 9th. The full game will be released on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Steam, Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud. It will be an Xbox Play Anywhere title and will be optimized for handheld.
Double Fine says that they will use the beta to get information about server capacity and settings. They also want to use feedback from players in the beta to see what people will want most in future content releases or what may need to be changed or tweaked.
