I can't help but worry about Double Fine. I breathed a sigh of relief when the popular studio, founded by Tim Schafer in 2000 and responsible for classics like Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, and Broken Age, was acquired by Microsoft a few years ago.
Schafer and company have always been incredibly honest, with numerous excellent internally produced documentaries in the past as Double Fine jumped from game to game for two decades, desperately trying to keep the lights on. Pitching to publishers, constantly changing the overall scale of each project, and having to make difficult decisions have become commonplace.
Even if you're making a great game with great people, that constant feeling of anxiety can be hard to handle. As a video game developer, it's an amazing feeling to have a secure base of funding and support to work from for everything you create. Although there is a fair amount of skepticism surrounding the new corporate overseer, this is exactly what the folks at Double Fine expressed when they took over the studio.
Fast forward six years and the developer has released 2021 GOTY contender Psychonauts 2, which began development prior to the acquisition, as well as two smaller titles in the past two years: Keeper and Kiln. While Psychonauts 2 shined (in a decidedly thin year), others received underwhelming receptions. Keeper was well-received, scoring 80 on Metacritic, while Kiln fared worse, scoring 68.
I liked the keeper. Set in a beautiful fantasy world built around a loving relationship between a sentient lighthouse and a goofy bird, the lack of dialogue was heartwarming, but there were plenty of well-designed puzzles and a central narrative that felt that way. So Double Fine. But it didn't make much noise, didn't seem to attract many players, and if most people had heard of it, they quickly forgot about it.
Perhaps that's not too bad for a single-player, low-budget game of its own from a studio known for its creative eccentricities. It's not a good idea to have a small number of people playing the game, but it's survivable. Kiln, on the other hand, is a multiplayer experience born out of the Amnesia Fortnight project, and while it's fun for a short period of time, I have concerns about its sustainability. It cannot be forgotten, but it seems destined to be forgotten.
Kiln feels like unfamiliar territory for double fines.
On the surface, Kiln is a really great idea. In this multiplayer game, you team up with several fellow players to create flower pots of various shapes and sizes before pulling off your opponent's pot. Extinguish their flames and victory is yours. Although your success will largely depend on teamwork as well as the type of pot you decide to make. How does it work in battle? How much water can it hold? Can you move gracefully around the map without accidentally falling off the edge?
A number of features and mechanics are strangely locked behind leveling up and serious advancement, which could be problematic if people stop showing up like they already do.
When I jumped into the game at launch last week, I realized that although I spent far too long trying to find the perfect flower pot shape, the real joy comes from experimentation. If you want to jump right into the action, Kiln also offers a variety of regular pots to choose from. Conceptually, this feels like a multiplayer game with endless potential, but it doesn't get enough depth from the core objective of pouring water into a kiln. Combat is usually decided by quick dodging and spamming special attacks rather than building a nice pot to gain a true advantage.
Kiln's small maps are constantly moving with a mix of creative platforming and cunning obstacles, forcing players to find the best path to reach their goals without getting ambushed. In some ways it reminds me of a MOBA, although the match times are much shorter and all players have the same core abilities. But even though the competition is fun and the act of pot-making hasn't aged yet, I find it hard to see myself devoting long hours to the Kiln. This would work great as a local multiplayer game where you can compare pots among friends instead of being overlooked by strangers.
There are so many compelling multiplayer experiences out there now that aren't limited to the traditional design framework that Kiln adheres to despite its core idea. Titles like Peak, Content Warning, REPO and many other 'friendslop' titles redefine what it means to play online in the modern era, without having to follow traditional lobbies or competitions. What if instead of putting out enemy fire, you teamed up with friends to complete puzzles or climb giant obstacles, each with their own pot design where key resources became key to making certain jumps or passing through certain gaps?
The appeal of creating and customizing flower pots remains, but you have to abandon competitive behavior in favor of something more social and cooperative. In a world of huge live services designed to occupy every ounce of time you have, the Friendslop experience has emerged with the worthy goal of recapturing the simple joy of sharing moments with a small group of friends. Kiln can be consistently funny if obvious mistakes in pot design lead to victory or survival, and moments of comedy come naturally rather than disappearing because you get bored with a single game mode.
I'm glad Kiln exists, and I'm glad that this game, like every game Double Fine makes, is unapologetically unique. But apart from the great idea at its center, I'm struggling to see how it can continue without much change.
kiln
- released
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April 23, 2026
- ESRB
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Anyone 10+ / Fantasy violence, crude humor, language, user interaction
- multiplayer
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online multiplayer
- cross platform play
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saturated
