“We gave the old gods their own distinct personalities. For example, Hermes has a map set in his shipping facility, where packages are constantly being sent out and treadmills going back and forth shooting packages you’ll have to avoid. Then there’s Dionysus’ map, which is like a Boogie Lounge, which features a dance floor at its center — if you step onto one of the tiles, you’re forced to dance, creating a dynamic battleground where some players are fighting while others end up dancing.”

Brand tells me the team is really pushing for variation in each map, and less on the game modes for launch. “In post-launch, we really want to hear what the community responds to and what they like and have that dialogue. At launch we’re really committing to Quench mode and the lobby experience. We’re going to be shipping with several maps — they all have a unique gameplay hook to them — and they’re very different from each other.”

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.