Amnesia Fortnights are semi-annual game jam events that Double Fine holds internally with members of its studio. Here they’re given a limited amount of time, a fortnight (two weeks), to turn the inkling of an idea into a playable game – this is when Derek pitched his idea to bring Kiln to life. “I played a lot of action games at the time, and I wanted to make my little clay characters fight someone else’s little clay characters. I was thinking that’d be fun — and so that was in the back of my mind — but didn’t know how to do that on a controller.”

One of the many fun details Derek revealed was that as development started to kick off in earnest, the team at Double Fine started to take pottery classes in real life, which contributed to understanding all the different elements involved in the making of pottery. That’s when the ideas really started to flow.

“There are a whole world of techniques and processes and so much raw material to pull into the game, that once we were like, ‘Okay, you can sculpt a character,’ there’s so much more you can do with clay. And all those ideas just piled on,” Brand explains. “We spent a long time talking about your basic shape, but now I want to dip it into glaze — to glaze a pot you take a pair of metal tongs and you dunk it into a bucket of glaze — and really trying to pull those pieces of real-life pot making into the game and introducing those ideas to players.”

From there, more ideas came about in terms of how a player could customize their pot beyond its basic shape. From sticking on handles, lids and spouts, and even getting a little sillier by adding stickers, there are countless different ways you can take a basic clay pot and really make it your own. “It all came down to research and ideas from people on the team and then having a pile of those ideas and whittling them all down to something that is coherent and well designed,” Brand says.

But how do you translate a difficult hobby like clay pot making into a competitive multiplayer game? Ensuring it’s as approachable as possible. “After the Amnesia Fortnight prototype, we got through that part and a lot of the initial ideas of, ‘I can make a character on the wheel like a pottery wheel’ — that initial thought was naive on my part. I had taken ceramics in college and learned a little bit about pot making, but it was more of a way to fit character creation onto a controller.”

By using a controller, you can move your little spirit hands up and down the shape of the clay as it rotates on a virtual turning wheel. In addition, you have access to several shaping tools that can bring another level of detail to the pot creation. As I touched on in my first look at the game, it didn’t take long for me to get the hang of it – it all felt very natural when given a few minutes of time with clay molding tools. I get the impression players will be able to engage with this creative aspect of Kiln just as easily.

When asking Derek if he had any tips for the budding clay pot maker in all of us, it was simple. “Don’t be scared. Don’t be precious with it,” he tells me. “Try a bunch of stuff and figure out what you like because there’s not a lot of limits put on you in terms of what you can shape and how many things you can try. So really experiment with the tools. If you like really straight lines, there’s tools for that. And if you like more curvy, wiggly things, just go with your gut or your heart.”

Another one of those iterative ideas to occur during this time was adjusting the player’s viewpoint. “We have this mantra on the team that the pots are the star of the game. When we started pulling the camera out, and the lens got longer, you could see all the weird creations that people were making together and see teams as units on the battlefield. And it just felt like a better choice for the way that we wanted to present these cool player creations.”

Having played a few rounds myself, I can see what Brand is talking about. Part of Kiln’s appeal, beyond being pick-up-and-play friendly, is seeing everyone’s creativity on full display – both on your team and on your opponents’. Also, seeing more of the pathways of the level layout above your character is vital to effectively navigating through both the battlefield and the fights that surround your pot.

If it wasn’t clear just by looking at the screenshots and gameplay, the pot making in Kiln is what really helps it stand out amongst other party brawlers – nowhere else can you have this level of deep character customization to bring into a multiplayer battler. The sheer variety of pots you’ll face off against in the game, when factoring in glazes, shapes, and stickers, is practically limitless. This helps give Kiln a singular, personal touch because these fighters really make you feel like you’re contributing to the game in real time. And that’s pretty special.

Having all these playable spirits create and discover clay bodies for each other is a key component to your time with Kiln. But don’t feel pressured to have to go to battle. As Derek tells me, if you want to really focus on the pot making, you can hang out in the lobby and just pull up a chair. “There’s no limit to how many times you can throw clay on the wheel, and you can just experiment and make all sorts of things and try out all sorts of combinations. We really want people to engage with the creation and destruction elements of the game. The theme of the game right now is you make and destroy, and it’s okay to get broken because you can just, you know, make a new thing.”

When you’re moving through The Wedge, the game’s social lobby, you’re also free to jump out of your pot and jump into someone else’s creation. And equally, someone could come along and take your shape as well and add it to their collection. “The name of the person who made it is always saved on that pot,” Brand explains. “So those pots can travel. They can go to different servers. There’s also a place in the lobby, these pedestals lined up around The Wedge, those are your favorite pots. And that will be displayed for everyone to try out and dive into. And if you see a pot that you really like, you can dive into it and save it to your collection.”

And this circles back to the mantra the team at Double Fine are bringing to Kiln in that the pots really are the star of the game – you will directly have a hand in shaping your journey within Kiln. “I’m excited for people to get excited for pottery,” Derek says when asked what he’s looking forward to now that Kiln has been revealed to be in development. “I think it’s an underrepresented art form. I just want to introduce more people to that craft. It’s super cool. It’s a super old, amazing art form. And there are very few games that leverage that cool activity.”

And with its day one arrival on Game Pass in Spring 2026, players who are curious about checking it out will have it right there at their fingertips. “My favorite part about Game Pass, I think it’s just the reach that you get. Anyone who’s just curious about this weird pottery game can load it up and try making a pot — then try smashing each other. I can’t wait for the game to be that accessible to such a wide variety of people. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Kiln is launching Spring 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Xbox Play Anywhere, Handheld Optimized, PlayStation 5, Steam, and with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Sign up at DoubleFine.com for a chance to play in the closed beta taking place in March 2026.