Amnesia Fortnights are semi-annual recreation jam occasions that Double Wonderful holds internally with members of its studio. Right here they’re given a restricted period of time, a fortnight (two weeks), to show the inkling of an concept into a playable recreation – that is when Derek pitched his concept to convey Kiln to life. “I performed a lot of motion video games on the time, and I needed to make my little clay characters combat another person’s little clay characters. I used to be considering that’d be enjoyable — and in order that was at the back of my thoughts — however didn’t understand how to try this on a controller.”

One of many many enjoyable particulars Derek revealed was that as growth began to kick off in earnest, the workforce at Double Wonderful began to take pottery courses in actual life, which contributed to understanding all of the completely different parts concerned within the making of pottery. That’s when the concepts actually began to circulate.

“There are a complete world of methods and processes and a lot uncooked materials to drag into the sport, that after we had been like, ‘Okay, you possibly can sculpt a character,’ there’s a lot extra you are able to do with clay. And all these concepts simply piled on,” Model explains. “We spent a very long time speaking about your fundamental form, however now I wish to dip it into glaze — to glaze a pot you are taking a pair of metallic tongs and also you dunk it into a bucket of glaze — and actually attempting to drag these items of real-life pot making into the sport and introducing these concepts to gamers.”

From there, extra concepts happened by way of how a participant may customise their pot past its fundamental form. From sticking on handles, lids and spouts, and even getting a little sillier by including stickers, there are numerous other ways you possibly can take a fundamental clay pot and actually make it your individual. “All of it got here all the way down to analysis and concepts from folks on the workforce after which having a pile of these concepts and whittling all of them all the way down to one thing that’s coherent and effectively designed,” Model says.

However how do you translate a tough pastime like clay pot making into a aggressive multiplayer recreation? Guaranteeing it’s as approachable as doable. “After the Amnesia Fortnight prototype, we received by that half and a lot of the preliminary concepts of, ‘I could make a character on the wheel like a pottery wheel’ — that preliminary thought was naive on my half. I had taken ceramics in school and discovered a little bit about pot making, but it surely was extra of a technique to match character creation onto a controller.”

By utilizing a controller, you possibly can transfer your little spirit arms up and down the form of the clay because it rotates on a digital turning wheel. As well as, you may have entry to a number of shaping instruments that may convey one other stage of element to the pot creation. As I touched on in my first take a look at the sport, it didn’t take lengthy for me to get the grasp of it – all of it felt very pure when given a couple of minutes of time with clay molding instruments. I get the impression gamers will be capable of interact with this inventive side of Kiln simply as simply.

When asking Derek if he had any ideas for the budding clay pot maker in all of us, it was easy. “Don’t be scared. Don’t be treasured with it,” he tells me. “Attempt a bunch of stuff and work out what you want as a result of there’s not a lot of limits placed on you by way of what you possibly can form and what number of issues you possibly can attempt. So actually experiment with the instruments. In case you like actually straight traces, there’s instruments for that. And in the event you like extra curvy, wiggly issues, simply go together with your intestine or your coronary heart.”

One other a kind of iterative concepts to happen throughout this time was adjusting the participant’s viewpoint. “We’ve got this mantra on the workforce that the pots are the star of the sport. After we began pulling the digicam out, and the lens received longer, you can see all of the bizarre creations that folks had been making collectively and see groups as models on the battlefield. And it simply felt like a more sensible choice for the best way that we needed to current these cool participant creations.”

Having performed a few rounds myself, I can see what Model is speaking about. A part of Kiln’s attraction, past being pick-up-and-play pleasant, is seeing everybody’s creativity on full show – each in your workforce and in your opponents’. Additionally, seeing extra of the pathways of the extent structure above your character is important to successfully navigating by each the battlefield and the fights that encompass your pot.

If it wasn’t clear simply by trying on the screenshots and gameplay, the pot making in Kiln is what actually helps it stand out amongst different occasion brawlers – nowhere else can you may have this stage of deep character customization to convey into a multiplayer battler. The sheer number of pots you’ll face off towards within the recreation, when factoring in glazes, shapes, and stickers, is virtually limitless. This helps give Kiln a singular, private contact as a result of these fighters actually make you are feeling such as you’re contributing to the sport in actual time. And that’s fairly particular.

Having all these playable spirits create and uncover clay our bodies for one another is a key part to your time with Kiln. However don’t really feel pressured to should go to battle. As Derek tells me, if you wish to actually deal with the pot making, you possibly can hand around in the foyer and simply pull up a chair. “There’s no restrict to what number of occasions you possibly can throw clay on the wheel, and you’ll simply experiment and make all kinds of issues and check out all kinds of mixtures. We actually need folks to have interaction with the creation and destruction parts of the sport. The theme of the sport proper now could be you make and destroy, and it’s okay to get damaged as a result of you possibly can simply, , make a new factor.”

If you’re shifting by The Wedge, the sport’s social foyer, you’re additionally free to leap out of your pot and bounce into another person’s creation. And equally, somebody may come alongside and take your form as effectively and add it to their assortment. “The identify of the one who made it’s all the time saved on that pot,” Model explains. “So these pots can journey. They will go to completely different servers. There’s additionally a place within the foyer, these pedestals lined up round The Wedge, these are your favourite pots. And that might be displayed for everybody to check out and dive into. And in the event you see a pot that you simply actually like, you possibly can dive into it and put it aside to your assortment.”

And this circles again to the mantra the workforce at Double Wonderful are bringing to Kiln in that the pots actually are the star of the sport – you’ll instantly have a hand in shaping your journey inside Kiln. “I’m excited for folks to get excited for pottery,” Derek says when requested what he’s trying ahead to now that Kiln has been revealed to be in growth. “I believe it’s an underrepresented artwork kind. I simply wish to introduce extra folks to that craft. It’s tremendous cool. It’s a tremendous outdated, superb artwork kind. And there are only a few video games that leverage that cool exercise.”

And with its day one arrival on Sport Cross in Spring 2026, gamers who’re inquisitive about checking it out could have it proper there at their fingertips. “My favourite half about Sport Cross, I believe it’s simply the attain that you simply get. Anybody who’s simply inquisitive about this bizarre pottery recreation can load it up and check out making a pot — then attempt smashing one another. I can’t await the sport to be that accessible to such a extensive number of folks. I’m actually trying ahead to it.”

Kiln is launching Spring 2026, for Xbox Sequence X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Xbox Play Anyplace, Handheld Optimized, PlayStation 5, Steam, and with Xbox Sport Cross Final. Enroll at DoubleFine.com for a probability to play within the closed beta going down in March 2026.