Xbox’s weirdest studio is on a roll

For a while there, it seemed like Double Fine might be struggling under the Microsoft corporate umbrella. The game studio led by Tim Schafer is beloved for offbeat titles like Brütal Legend and Broken Age, but after being acquired by Microsoft in 2019, its only new release for years was a long-awaited sequel to Psychonauts. Of late, though, Double Fine is on something of a roll. Last year the studio released the wonderfully strange Keeper, a game about a sentient lighthouse. This week, it launched Kiln, a multiplayer brawler with adorable spirits and a whole lot of pottery. It’s yet another oddball delight that could only come out of Double Fine.

At its most basic, Kiln is a four-on-four competitive game. The goal of each team is to gather water throughout a map, and use it to put out the fire in the opposing team’s kiln. Douse the enemy’s kiln first and you win. It’s sort of like a streamlined take on League of Legends, with a similar structure, but much more clear and obvious goals. There’s no leveling up, no minions, no farming XP. Just a bunch of people running around beating each other up, while trying to carry water across the level.

Layered on top of that simple core is a pottery theme that adds all kinds of interesting wrinkles. In the world of Kiln, each player is a cute little floating spirit that operates a bit like a hermit crab. In order to actually participate in matches, the spirits must inhabit a pot. The kind of pottery you’re inhabiting makes a big difference. They’re essentially character classes; big pots might be able to take a lot of damage while holding little water, while a fragile bottle-shaped pot is the opposite, making it great for offense.

The best part is that you actually sculpt these pots yourself using a virtual pottery wheel. It’s fun and tactile, as you use the joysticks to move up and down a clump of clay and shape it. As you progress in the game you’ll unlock various ways to customize them through little add-ons or colorful glazes. It’s really satisfying to take full control over how your character looks. You can craft a whole bunch of pots, but in each match you’re allowed to bring three with you that you can swap between whenever you respawn. That means there’s some strategy to having a good lineup of pots: they not only look cool, but also give you different skill sets.

As for the matches themselves, while the goal is straightforward, the experience is pure chaos. Even the most sturdy pots are still very destructible, so there’s a real (double) fine line between being aggressive and getting smashed constantly. The controls are pretty simple — you have one regular attack, one special, and you can both roll and jump — and things move very fast. You respawn after just a few seconds so there’s barely ever a moment to catch your breath.

Adding to this sense of chaos is the level design. The stages are all fairly small, so you’re never too far away from the enemy, and each is laid out differently so that where you collect health and water changes up. Each also has interactive elements that add some fun twists. One level has boats that rotate around the battlefield, letting you try to sneak to the opposing kiln, while another features a conveyor belt that introduces everything from explosive boxes to hiding places. My favorite is the level with a disco floor, where anyone caught standing on a tile at the wrong time will find themselves unable to do anything but dance for several important seconds.

While it’s not a shooter, the game Kiln reminds me most of is Splatoon. Both take an otherwise intimidating genre — online competitive multiplayer — and turn it into something playful and approachable. Both require a degree of teamwork, but you can get by pretty easily without voice chat. In Kiln, you just need to pay attention to where your teammates are so that at least somebody is focused on defending your kiln and somebody is splashing water on the opponents’ base. The matches only last a few minutes, but I usually find myself constantly running back and forth on offense and defense, sort of like a bizzarro game of basketball.

That said, there’s a lot of room to grow for Kiln. Right now there’s a single game mode that, while fun, might get stale. Not everything should be a full-on live-service game, but a bit more variety would be welcome.

Kiln is a solid game that manages to cram the highs and lows of a multiplayer game into a tight, concise package. But it’s really that sense of style and goofiness that elevates it. The game is just so silly, like you’re running around in a Saturday morning cartoon beating up your friends. And it’s another sign that, no matter where Double Fine is, it’ll always be weird in the best way possible.

_{Kiln is available now on the PS5, Xbox, and PC.}