Exploring the Creative Journey Behind Double Fine's Kiln Brawler

By  Published Apr 21, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT Chris is a Gaming Editor at ScreenRant. He has been a professional writer since 2009, and has written for top TV, comics, movie, and video game outlets like Engadget, Polygon, Destructoid, and more. He brings with him an expertise in every game genre, no matter how niche or mainstream.

You may know him as the former Managing/Reviews Editor of Destructoid, where he published hundreds of game reviews across every genre, including MMOs, sports games, and Metroidvanias.

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Double Fine has been at it for quite a while. While they were technically founded in the year 2000, some of their developers, including the legendary Tim Schafer, have been in the industry longer than that. As a result, it's hard to predict exactly what the studio is doing at any given time, and now that they're owned by Microsoft, everything will be coming to .

That includes Kiln, which is set to launch on April 23. While there are a this week, Kiln is a fascinating game: an online multiplayer brawler centered on pottery. You'll craft your own character using a variety of options (including size differentiators), which dictate your speed, power, and playstyle.

It sounds extremely promising, especially after our chat with the team. We spoke to Kiln's director, Derek Brand, about how things have progressed from the idea's inception through rigorous testing, and what it has in store for fans after launch.

How Kiln Went From A Game Jam To A Game

Double Fine Is Still Fostering Talent

Getting into it, I wanted to learn more about how Kiln evolved from a simple game jam idea (specifically Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight prototyping event) into a fully-fledged release.

Brand was happy to oblige: "Yeah, I mean, it kind of goes way back to 2017, which is weird to think about, because it's, it's been a minute, but we try to take time occasionally to do a game jam. We call it Amnesia Fortnight, and that's where it started with Tim. He encourages everyone in the company to pitch a game. And then we take two weeks, and just make it. And so I had this idea. My background is in concept art, and that means, like, you know, a lot of drawing and painting, and at Double Fine, that means drawing a bunch of weird little guys, you know."

He continues: "And so I had this idea of, like, I wish there were more games where I could, like, make my own little, weird little guy, and I wanted my friends to be able to make their own weird little guys, and I wanted them to fight each other. And I felt like there weren't enough games like that that felt like they encouraged that kind of creativity, and especially action games. So I pitched this game for Amnesia Fortnight, and we ended up developing it and making a prototype. And that's where it all starts, that prototype."

From there, the proof of concept was so sound that Tim Schafer took notice: "We made the game that came out of that, which was really fun, you know, for a two-week prototype, a lot of people were playing it and having a good time. And Tim decided, 'Oh yeah, maybe we should make this thing.' And so, like, after Rad was done...I had a small team that started on it in 2019, and then the very early research we did, which we all took part in, we went to a pottery studio and learned how to make pots and learned the whole process."

Amazingly, this whole journey led to a real-life pottery jam, which only helped development: "That was like, when we all fell in love with pottery, like the original pitch had pottery in it, but it was, it was more of an excuse to make characters. But when we started learning about pottery, we just, like, all fell in love with it, and like, that's when we started to, like, really use it as this, like, rich source of reference and inspiration, and try to push as much of that into the game as possible."

Kiln isn't just a silly combat game, though. There's depth to it, and the freedom to play different roles. I got Brand talking about his current favorite way to play, and I ended up discovering quite a bit about Kiln's longevity in the process: "The dog bowl meta is what I'm into now [laughs]. Currently, I really love playing a tank defense build, which is basically a large plate. So you can, you can choose how much clay you want to use, and depending on how much clay you use, like a small ball of clay, medium amount of clay, or large amount of clay, and depending on how much clay you use, determines your base stats. So like, if you use a little bit of clay, you're going to be fast, but you can't go fast, but you can't carry that much water, and you do pretty good DPS."

Given the silly art style, it's natural that Kiln will be accommodating, even for newcomers to the brawler genre: "So we've built the progression system to really help you understand, and we spent a lot of time on the tutorial and the way that you unlock things early on. To kind of introduce you slowly to each of these concepts, because it is, we understand it is a strange concept that, you know, there are a lot of things to learn. You have to learn about pottery, and you learn about builds, and you learn about all the abilities you can unlock."

You won't get completely lost, though, Brand explains: "But, and that's like, actually an area that we've had a lot of help with, like closed betas and open betas about feedback, and we've gotten a lot of feedback about how we really want to introduce you to the game. You should feel like you can make anything you want and just try out what these shapes do and how they act. And then, as you progress, you unlock XP. You get an opportunity to unlock these different clay sizes really early in the game, but it is just a way to introduce yourself gradually."

More Content For Kiln Is Already Planned

Expect An Update After Launch Too

I dug into what plans Double Fine had for the future of the game, and it seems like the team is keen to keep it updated as long as they possibly can: "I think we could keep updating it for...I would love to just keep updating it forever. You know, I don't know if it needs a sequel, per se. I think there's just, like, a depth of possibility that is pretty much endless. We could keep, you know, keep adding stuff."

As for what they have planned for launch, it seems comprehensive out of the gate, but there's also another update coming a few weeks after launch, and another in the summer: "Yeah, we're shipping with five maps, including the lobby map, which is like a hangout space where you can make pots. So there are technically six, plus the tutorial map. Then two weeks after launch, we're introducing a new map, so that'll be six maps. And then in summer, there are two more. So we'll have eight by summer."

Based on my conversation, Kiln is in good hands. Once again, it seems like , as Brand explains: "Yeah. I mean, for me, I love working at Double Fine, because you don't know what you're going to work on next. I've worked on a bunch of different types of games at this point, and I never quite realized it would be like a multiplayer pottery party brawler, but here we are. Tim [Schafer] is all about going with really interesting ideas."

Kiln is on PC (including Steam), Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5. It's also going to be a day-one Xbox Game Pass title (Ultimate and PC).

Like Party Game Systems Released April 23, 2026 ESRB Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, Crude Humor, Language, Users Interact Developer(s) Double Fine Publisher(s) Xbox Game Studios Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Cross-Platform Play Full Number of Players 1-8 players 5 Images Close

Genre(s) Party Game, Expand Collapse

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