We'd been hearing in the lead-up to today's Xbox Developer Direct 2026 showcase that a surprise game would be revealed during the event, and it turned out to be a new multiplayer brawler from Double Fine!
The game is called Kiln, and it sees you creating your own pot through an accessible and surprisingly in-depth character creation tool, and then taking it into battle across a series of game modes / maps.
Here's a bit about The Wedge — the pottery creation tool in the game — via Xbox Wire:
"Creating your own pot isn’t just a pleasant side activity – you’re quite literally handcrafting your pot from scratch, with your choices directly influencing how your character plays in the game. In talking with Project Lead Derek Brand, it’s these custom pottery creations that help bring the unique elements of Kiln to life. The team worked incredibly hard to balance the feeling of doing it yourself with an accessibility that allows you to jump into the game feeling as though you’ve made the right pot for the right job."
In terms of game modes, the main one is called "Quench" and sees you trying to douse your enemies' kiln with water, while map variation is said to be a big focus — the game will ship with a bunch of "very different" maps to each other.
You can check out more in the video you see up above, and we'll throw some extra details from the Xbox Wire article down below. Kiln will officially launch for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC and PS5 at some point in Spring 2026, with no specific release date having been revealed as of yet.
"My time with Kiln has been short, but I really like its unique approach to the multiplayer party brawler genre. Being able to wholly create your very own battler, mixed in with a variety of attacks, kept all my battles engaging and incredibly fun to participate in. There’s also a very strong strategic meta here underneath how charming it appears, with a large variety of special attacks, pottery shapes to consider, and unique maps to master, giving us a lot to look forward to when the game launches Spring 2026, as an Xbox Play Anywhere and Handheld Optimized title on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation 5, Steam, and with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate."