In Double Fine’s "pottery brawler" Kiln, you can skip the fights and just sculpt pots in peace

The surprise game reveal at last night’s Xbox Developer Direct was Kiln, a pottery-based multiplayer party brawler in the works at Double Fine. Combatants take the form of pots, vases, dishes, and urns, custom-sculpted and fired by players themselves, and will usually end up smashed into shards of tragic ceramic in the following online slapfights. Or maybe not, as there’s apparently nothing stopping you from simply playing Kiln as a nonviolent pottery sim by sticking to its clay-shaping component alone.

“The whole pottery part is such that it grabs people who might not want to jump into a multiplayer game,” project lead Derek Brand explained to Microsoft’s Xbox Wire. “Some people just want to try pot making.”

Judging from the reveal trailer, there is something enticingly simple about Kiln’s brown goop manipulation. I’ve only tried the real thing once and ended up with a crap bowl, but the two-button pulling and squeezing system that Kiln brings to the spinny table is clearly designed to make crafting finer vessels much easier. Regardless of whether or not you’re being canoodled by Patrick Swayze.

Sponges and scrapers are on hand for adding texture, and there’s also a selection of handles, glazes, and decorative patterns to adorn your pots with. Offbrand Le Creuset or offbrand Iron Fist Alexander? That’s up to you.

Brand did add that Kiln will at least try to tempt pacifist potters into the game’s fighty side, saying “…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.” Those who heed the call will join objective-led punchups where the design of their pots affects how they perform on the battlefield: tall vases, for instance, can carry more water (useful for the 4v4 ‘Quench’ mode where the aim is to douse the enemy team’s oven) but move slower and, because of their height, are less stable when they move.

Small plates, meanwhile, lack carrying capacity, but can unleash a special attack in which they bounce between enemies, chipping into them with sharp-edged rims. There are 24 of these moves in total, each dependent on a finished pot’s shape, and applying varying degrees of logic: sculpting a versatile mid-sized pot lets it shower enemies in a harmful rain of popcorn.

Yeah, I dunno. Do I have to put my pots in such mortal danger? I think I’d like my pots. Let my pots be, Kiln.

It’s out sometime in Spring 2026, PC and Game Pass included, and beta playtest signups are open now. Dedicated Double Fine followers may already be familiar with Kiln’s general homeware warfare angle, as it appeared as a prototype during the company’s Amnesia Fortnight game jam – broadcast on YouTube – all the way back in 2017. It’s evidently struck a more colourful, jolly tone than that of the original pitch, though Double Fine’s Bluesky account says it’s stayed free of generative AI in the intervening years.