caligula13
Gold Member
Quite enjoyable game. It reminds me of Splatoon because you can kill other players but that is not the main mission.
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Kiln, the Double Fine pottery game just released on Game Pass
- Thread starter kpopSuperstar
- Start date
winjer
Gold Member
Looks like it wont even beat their last beauty. Terrible studio and complete waste of money. There's going to be random games like some dude making the millionth version of solitaire that sells better than what DF releases.
But give DF credit for grifting to stay alive. There's some reason always big money floating around in tech. And DF pulled it off getting MS to be corporate coffers. In terms of pure business sense, got to admit that was well played.
By the looks of it, their games sell so low that even if the game was made by only one person working PT hours and making minimum wage it'd still lose money. How the hell is that possible?
What I don't understand is how Microsoft decided to keep Double Fine going, but though that closing Tango Works was a good idea.
The sheer level of incompetence at Xbox is truly surprising.
IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Yeah. I'm surprised this was the best idea they could come up with.
It's certainly not my cup of tea. My son was looking for a new game to play with his mates and I showed him this. He watched the trailer and said "nah. Looks like ass".
100% agree with him.
Great if this is your thing, but I think most people are just not interested. Could be the last game we see from DF.
StreetsofBeige
Member
One thing's for sure this studio is losing big money. Their games sell so little it might as well be rounding error as zero units sold. The only reason I can think of why MS wants to keep them around is because they think big gaming companies (similar to Sony with Media Molecule) need that amateur hour studio to round out the division as an all encompassing department that spans AAA games and $20 indies. So cast the net wide and every gamer will notice and buy their games.
Well, it's obvious whatever indie-ish game DF makes doesnt resonate at all.
I skimmed a handful of solitaire games on SteamDB (type in solitaire and checked whatever games it spat out) and each one had higher CCU than Kiln and Keeper. The first one (whatever Faerie Solitaire is) even had 2,000 top CCU one time and it's $18 CDN.
StreetsofBeige
Member
Give DF credit. They got MS to treat them like charity. So make some good money making products nobody buys and worst thing that can happen is you get fired and get severance pay on top of it.
Big companies always have big money to dole out. If youre a person or small company looking for cash you dont go to Bob's diner hoping he'll toss you some free money. He's broke. You go downtown to a bank's head office and see if they got any special programs or charitable grants to give out helping the community. The marketing department will have shitloads of advertising and PR budget to float around any idea. And MS was that company that said yes.
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NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
Cool. I love that some studios are allowed to do stuff like this. The industry desperately needs creativity like this. I'd rather have this (and probably not play it) than % any of the 200+ million dollars woke/trend-chasing games being released to much fanfare (which I definitely will never play).
I wonder if a lot of posters in here has the same mindset when, I dunno, Parappa the Rapper released. Because if it were for people who think like you, games like Parappa would have never been a thing. I mean, who asked for a rhythm game about a 2D paper rapper-wannabe dog simp that's over in 20 minutes???
I wonder if a lot of posters in here has the same mindset when, I dunno, Parappa the Rapper released. Because if it were for people who think like you, games like Parappa would have never been a thing. I mean, who asked for a rhythm game about a 2D paper rapper-wannabe dog simp that's over in 20 minutes???
Magic Carpet
Gold Member
I've watched a streamer play on no commentary's video. Very slow game.
I love DoubleFine but this game is not for me.
I love DoubleFine but this game is not for me.
coachmcguirk91
Member
Side projects shouldn't mean the main project take 6+ years to develop for a studio that makes platformers
Haint
Member
Ironically them doing a modern Parappa ripoff would have been infinitely more successful than Keeper and Kiln combined.
Plague Doctor
Member
Yeah but that idea wasn't gay enough for Double Fine.
Modern Double Fine has standards to upkeep.
Roman Empire
Member
I hope someone make dick, we all know it will happen.
kpopSuperstar
Member
This game runs heavier on low with DLSS than Pragmata on my computer.
Come on Double Fine, these smaller games need to run well on all computers, it was the same with Keeper, you are limiting your audience like crazy releasing smaller games that run like triple-A games.
Come on Double Fine, these smaller games need to run well on all computers, it was the same with Keeper, you are limiting your audience like crazy releasing smaller games that run like triple-A games.
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
6 years is the minimum for any AAA game now (usually)
Double Fine is a relatively small studio
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
It's good for a studio to have creative freedom, and I like seeing games that dabble in unusual or genuinely new concepts... but I'm not going to reward them for the mere attempt. It still has to be interesting. This is completely unappealing to me at a conceptual level.
playbignbox
Member
I saw some live videos and the matchmaking is actually quite fast, less than a minute.
It seems like a casual party game; I don't know how long it will last, but it doesn't seem much better or worse than games like Kirby's Dream Buffet or Party Animals.
It seems like a casual party game; I don't know how long it will last, but it doesn't seem much better or worse than games like Kirby's Dream Buffet or Party Animals.
Hollowpoint5557
A Fucking Idiot
MS shuts down Tango Gameworks but keeps Double Fine on the bankroll. Make it make sense.
Edit - Oh, and they keep Compulsion around too. What a joke.
Edit - Oh, and they keep Compulsion around too. What a joke.
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NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
And that's fine. Like I said, I don't see myself going out of my way to play this, either.
It's just… we used to see a ton of crazy stuff in previous gens. Very few people played those games, even back then. But years later, we're celebrating the fact that we used to see so much crazy stuff, while today it's all focus grouped and homogenized. And yet we actively call these new original games a waste of resources. People celebrate PS2 for having tons of lesser games that like, a hundred people around the world played - and that weren't actually good. Yet people see Kiln today and they're like, just why??
coachmcguirk91
Member
Double Fine ain't AAA, lol. They make fucking platformers
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StreetsofBeige
Member
Compulsion is another one. Theyve got 3 forgettable games in their history. Contrast, We Happy Few and South of Midnight. Both Compulsion and DF have about 100 employees pending the source as per Google check.
Anyone doing any kind of napkin math to figure out sales, costs and profits would show these studios are so unprofitable, it's amazing a money grubbing company like MS would bother keeping them around. But they must assume the indie vibe they give off helps boost their gaming library.
The sales they get from their games are so low, it literally wouldnt even be worth having a jr analyst making 60,000/yr out of university to analyze the studio's financials. The guy's daily wage would be more than the daily revenue these games earn making it a pointless money sink.
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ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
their last small & experimental games, absolutely, but not their last big title -- Psychonauts 2 back in 2021. I don't have final numbers but it was reported over 2 million sold (for a single-player only, traditional full-priced game... not bad?) around 2023 and likely still produces a trickle of income, has "overwhelmingly positive" review rating on Steam.
Microsoft bought them late in that game's development, to make it an official MS / Xbox Game Studios title. At least that part was relatively successful. The big question mark for me is whether they're working on another big title behind the scenes or not.
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StreetsofBeige
Member
Fair enough. But not just their recent experimental games. Aside from P2, if you look at the games released before it spanning a bunch of years those games will be small sellers too.
StreetsofBeige
Member
There's probably more people at a bingo hall than 152. And that 152 spans globally. Crazy.Holy shit, this game is now at 152 players.
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ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
They did originally build Kiln in a week long game jam
This was it, in 2017:
It's their "Amnesia Fortnight" which was a big recurring event for DF back in the day--they'd film and stream a lot of the happenings during a 1-week rush where everyone at DF forms groups, pitches a game, builds it in a few days to show off at final event.
I'm not sure that they even added all that much to it besides online multiplayer or something. It makes me wonder if they'll start releasing more of their long backlog of small concept games like this, from the days when it was a yearly thing.
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Fbh
Member
This always looked like it was going to struggle finding an audience and be dead in a month.
I don't want to be mean because I like DF and this seems like a passion project, but this seems like a complete waste of money and an overall poor look for DF.
In this "quirky multiplayer" genre in particular we are seeing seasoned devs like DF with nice offices, dozens (hundreds?) of employees and big bucks backing them being left in the dust by random super small studios making games like Repo, RV There yet, Super Battle Golf, Peak, Lethal Company, etc.
I don't want to be mean because I like DF and this seems like a passion project, but this seems like a complete waste of money and an overall poor look for DF.
In this "quirky multiplayer" genre in particular we are seeing seasoned devs like DF with nice offices, dozens (hundreds?) of employees and big bucks backing them being left in the dust by random super small studios making games like Repo, RV There yet, Super Battle Golf, Peak, Lethal Company, etc.
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StreetsofBeige
Member
Google check says DF has about 100 people working there. And games like Keeper and Kiln are what they make lately.
These are the kinds of games made by a small indie "studio" where their studio is actually their basements. And somehow random indie studios on Steam can make games that are better and sell exponentially more copies with nothing more than some YT trailers.
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neo raider
Member
Played the beta and thought it was fun
Might get the game on a sale
Might get the game on a sale
Yes, Keeper was literally Double Fine making a game that they said would probably never get approved in the past with a traditional publisher
They talk about it here
"What's the most impitchable idea that I could present to Microsoft, who are stuck with us"
It is pretty sad that Keeper doesn't run well on Steam Deck, and I guess Kiln won't either. But they don't seem to care
mopspear
Member
Will Wright coined the acronym TTP or "Time 'til Penis" to describe how long it would take for someone to make an object like that in a game. I'm leather-hard already.
demigod
Member
I have good news for you. It's already discounted by 10% on steam, $17.99. The bad news is, folks ain't buying this turd.
Sebastian1295
Member
Double fine are an overrated studio who make games that don't appeal to anyone besides the minority which isn't enough to keep the lights on. They need new management and leadership.
Orbital2060
Member
God damn, this is great!
Gonna have a lot of fun with this
Gonna have a lot of fun with this
kiphalfton
Member
Next AAA game?
They've never made one to begin with.
Their best game (i.e. the original Psychonauts) came out ~20 years ago and even the sequel didn't compare.
Sounds like you have unrealistic expectations Tim.
Dr. Samuel Hayden
Member
Try making an actual game next time instead of le quirky bluesky bullshit.
Orbital2060
Member
Its got the energy of something Nintendo would make.
Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
This studio needs to drop the frou frou bullshit already and make something like Brutal Legend again, even Psychonauts 1 had an edge to it they've been lacking for ages.
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Plague Doctor
Member
Modern Double Fine's coporate culture has a conservative allowance of testosterone in which is permitted at any one time.
The janitorial staff in their office already hits that quota, sadly.
Thems the rules.
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being an exclusive point n' click adventure studio would brought them much more financial success too.
they became the game-jam studio, releasing turd after turd.
kinda incredible ms of all companies keeps them around still. probably means they have one more of these bombs in the works. lets hope it reaches 1k ccu
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Problem is this is their second side project. And I liked Keeper. It's an ok but beautiful looking game albeit forgetable.
And making an big game next doesn't mean they are safe. Xbox killed studios with already announced games.
ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
I do feel this, even as someone who mostly likes the studio... the edge is gone after the team grew and became more corporate/progressive-safe. You could feel it happening across the development of Psychonauts 2 if you watch the documentary. The core people involved in these projects went from the old archetype of Ron Gilbert types -- or even younger-Schafer when we was a bit more brash, even if ultra kind -- to a new archetype of 'diverse' teams and a whole lot of women.
Orbital2060
Member
Psychonauts 2 is brilliant.