APRIL FOOLS!

You’re getting a March newsletter on the first day of April! Ha ha ha! It’s definitely a silly little prank, and definitely nothing to do with the fact that we collapsed into a heap after an action-packed PAX East and couldn’t lift a single finger to our keyboards due to sheer post-con exhaustion. *looks around nervously*. Yes. Definitely not that second thing.

That being said, it’s time for the March roundup of all things Double Fine. It was a jam-packed month filled with conferences, beta tests, and more; let’s not waste any more time, and jump into it like a kid doing a cannonball at the local public pool. SPLASH!!!

Kiln Launches April 23, 2026

We’re just a few weeks away from the launch of our newest game, Kiln. This month we announced a slew of details: The game launches officially on April 23, 2026 on Xbox/Steam/PS5, will have standard and deluxe editions, and will be available to pre-order starting April 9. We’ve got loads more details in our blog post about launch—definitely check that out if you’re interested.

Kiln Open Beta Info

The most pressing info is that we’re hosting a KILN OPEN BETA THROWDOWN on Steam from April 9-11! That’s right, you’ll be able to get some time on the wheel sculpting your first batch of battle pottery, smash up some friends, and help us test the network load—all before launch day.

Get in there, crocksmiths! You get to invite three friends, too, so if you can get a full team going, your chances of victory will surely increase. Get thee over to our Steam page and get added to the play test (and wishlist us while you’re at it, pretty please).

PAX East 2026

It’s been SIX YEARS since we last attended PAX East, and we made our triumphant return this past weekend! There was definitely a bit of rust to shake off (and a few technical hiccups at the start of the show), but much like riding a unicycle, we were back up and running like old pros in no time. Spaff, Rocio, TJ, Naoko and I bravely faced freezing temperatures in Boston to put on a great Double Fine booth experience for fans, and nothing—not even the Mortal Kombat theme song on repeat every 15 minutes at a neighboring booth driving us to the brink of madness—could stop us from our mission to bring Kiln and Keeper to the PAX masses.

We were blown away by the love and support attendees gave us at the show, and we’d like to thank them in return for stopping by and sharing their happiness with us! It was a great weekend filled with smashing pots, walking lighthouses, and joy for all.

GDC 2026

Earlier this month, we also took part in GDC festivities (and hosted some of our own). Seth Marinello, James Collins, Nick Maksim, Kevin Johnson, Moira Marr, Kee Chi, Rebecca Taylor, Jason Morales, Fiona Gallagher, Aaron Jacobs, and Tim Schafer himself either gave talks or participated in panels about the games industry at this year’s conference—please give them a huge round of applause. Right now, actually. Stand up at your desk and clap!

Our studio was also host to many group tours for industry organizations like Girls Make Games, Gay Gaming, and more. We even hosted a really fun Women in Games mixer, where industry folks could come network, play Kiln, and decorate mini pots! It’s been a while since we’ve had so much happening at the studio, and it felt really good to be able to host industry friends and colleagues in our space while they were in town for GDC.

Day of the Devs 2026

Of course, we can’t forget to shout out Day of the Devs: SF Edition, which kicked off GDC week in spectacular fashion. We counted 68 indie games at the show, and the turnout was fantastic. People seemed to really enjoy getting their hands on a huge bunch of creative indies across genres, and we applaud every developer who submitted their game for consideration, and celebrate the indies who were able to bring their games to the show and let the public play them.

We also brought the first publicly playable version of Kiln to DOTD, and it filled us with great joy to see so many attendees having fun making and breaking pots! One fan even brought Kiln’s Project Lead Derek Bran a 3D-printed vase that could be shattered and re-assembled over and over again, which was amazing. She also made a real bit of ceramicware with our studio logo and the Kiln logo on it, which was even more impressive!

What's next?

We’re in the home stretch for launching Kiln, so expect lots of great content around that this month; we know this newsletter is a long one, but there’s just so much happening these days! Thanks for reading, be good humans (or aliens, a pluribus hive mind, a literate honey badger who loves Psychonauts…look, we don’t know who’s actually reading these things but we don’t discriminate), and we’ll catch you in the next D.F.A.N.~