Psychonauts and Keeper developer Double Fine has a new game coming in spring 2026. It's called Kiln, and it's a rare competitive multiplayer game for a studio known for refreshing single-player oddities.
Kiln sounds to me like a mech game in disguise. Announced at today's big Xbox Developer Direct 2026 live show, and described in an Xbox Wire post featuring project lead Derek Brand, Kiln is essentially a team-based brawler where your battle suit is a clay pot. Rather than tuning and assembling mechs, you'll sculpt and shape clay to balance offense and defense. Pots have weight classes, different special attacks, and designs can be shared with other players to hop right into battles.
You'll be forging and firing your pot for yourself, too, as studio head Tim Schafer demonstrated in the reveal video. Double Fine has gone for accessibility over a painstaking pottery sim, but the sculpting looks surprisingly detailed, offering myriad tools and techniques backed by a smart system that fills in the blanks as you go.
"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 says.
Once you've made your ideal pot, you'll drop into PvP fights and work to shatter the enemy team. Quench looks like the classic 4v4 mode; as you whale on each other's pots, you'll race to carry water to the enemy's kiln. It sounds like a clever little application of the pottery motif, with the capacity of your pot affecting your movement, attacks, and ability to transport water. Likewise, some areas or tunnels can only be used with certain shapes or sizes.
Double Fine promises a variety of maps that flesh out the game's world. You play as a little spirit dwelling within pots, and the maps depict the domains of gods ranging from Greek to Egyptian theology. If you've been playing Hades 2, some of the theming may sound familiar.
"For example, Hermes has a map set in his shipping facility, where packages are constantly being sent out and treadmills going back and forth shooting packages you'll have to avoid. Then there's Dionysus' map, which is like a Boogie Lounge, which features a dance floor at its center – if you step onto one of the tiles, you're forced to dance, creating a dynamic battleground where some players are fighting while others end up dancing," Brand says.
Between rounds, you can hang out at a social hub called the Wedge, which has a mix of decorations, minigames. and an in-game store (that seems to deal exclusively in credits earned by playing the game). Double Fine says more content will be added post-launch.
Kiln is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC this spring following an upcoming closed beta.
