Howdy, Xbox Palians! A new chapter is about to begin.

On May 12, Palia’s biggest expansion yet – the Royal Highlands – launches on Xbox, inviting you to explore a massive new Adventure Zone alongside a brand-new story, more ways to customize and express yourself, and the introduction of a new traversal option: horses!

Let’s saddle up and take a look at what awaits in the Royal Highlands.

The Royal Highlands is our largest and most ambitious Adventure Zone to date – even larger than Bahari Bay. You’ll journey across sprawling sun-kissed rolling hills and windswept cliffs. We designed the map to feel expansive in a way that fundamentally changes how you move through the world.

For the first time, mounts arrive in Palia – and with them, a new rhythm to exploration. It’s traversal that feels faster, yes – but also more personal. Riding your horse isn’t just a matter of getting from point A to point B. We want you and your equine partner to feel calm and carefree while taking in all the sights and sounds the Highlands has to offer. And you’ll raise and breed your own horse through the Ranching skill on your barn, shaping their trait appearance and performance over time.

Wherever you travel with your trusty steed, there’s always more to discover. The Royal Highlands rewards curiosity with new fish to reel in, creatures to hunt, minerals to mine, and materials to gather.

You will likely stumble across some mysterious Amber Echo, a strange substance spreading across the Highlands that traps anything caught within it – freezing it in time for years, or even longer. As you explore, you’ll meet Eshelon, heir to the Bahari Dukedom, who’s been sent to investigate these unusual occurrences. Together, you’ll begin to uncover what’s really happening beneath the surface.

Back on your Home Plot, the expansion brings a fresh layer of expression. The Ancient Human Home Line introduces a more refined architectural style inspired by the Royal Highlands itself, alongside a third-story upgrade that quite literally raises the ceiling on what’s possible creatively. Add in expanded storage, new Decor sets (including the elegant Aristocrat Set and the playful Teapot Set!), and your home will feel more opulent, regal, and unapologetically luxurious.

Also, upgraded Clothing Dyes gives you more control over how you present yourself to the game world. From subtle changes to enthusiastic overhauls, applying colors you’ve unlocked to select outfits help you to make a statement for your in-game identity.

Before we open the gates to the Royal Highlands, we’re taking a moment to celebrate. Palia has surpassed 10 million players worldwide – a milestone shaped by millions of stories, homes, and shared moments across the community.

To mark the occasion, the 10 Million Player Celebration Event is live now through May 11. During the event, simply log in and complete daily quests to earn rewards, including event-exclusive Decor, Plushes, a commemorative Nameplate, and – for the first time – up to two completely free premium Mystery Outfits.

This is our way of saying ‘thank you,’ whether you’ve been with us since day-one, or if you’re just joining us today.

We’re also offering a limited-time 25% discount on the Starter Pack and Founder’s Pack, for anyone looking to jump in (or back in!) before we kick off the next chapter.

Your next Palian adventure is just over the hill and through the golden meadow, and you’ll be hoofin’ it (literally) with a community of more than 10 million players.

We’ll see you in-game today for the 10 million player celebration, and when the Royal Highlands expansion launches on Xbox on May 12.

Palia

Singularity 6

☆☆☆☆☆ 713

★★★★★

Get it now

Discover a welcoming world in Palia, a free-to-play fantasy life sim adventure where you can craft, explore, and create the life and home of your dreams. With nearly endless ways to make Palia your home, you’ll find relaxation and joy in every corner of this vibrant, heartwarming world. Live Your Fantasy Dream Life Dive into a world rich with adventure and lore. Complete quests that reveal the secrets of Ancient Humans, deepen your connections with Palia’s Villagers, and help shape the story around you. Craft, Build, and Make Memories Together Design your ideal space with near limitless possibilities! Craft items, place Building Blocks, and landscape with Yardwork Decor to create a home that’s uniquely yours, both inside and out. Display your creativity and join Home Tours to get inspired by the community's incredible designs. Discover the Secrets of Elderwood, an Ancient Magical Forest Explore a dense, magical forest filled with surprises around every corner. Discover new artifacts, creatures, insects, and more when you unveil Elderwood's mysteries with friends. Celebrate with Events and Minigames Join in on exciting in-game events and activities, such as the bustling Maji Market, or get cozy in the Underground Black Market playing the Hot Pot card game with friends. With events, minigames, and seasonal content year-round, there’s always something fresh to enjoy that will keep you coming back. Build Lasting Relationships Grow meaningful relationships with lovable Villagers or team up with fellow adventurers for unforgettable journeys. Chill out by collecting and trading irresistibly adorable Plushies, Potato Pods, and Stickers, fostering friendships one collectible at a time. Explore, Gather, and Thrive Wander through Kilima Valley, Bahari Bay, and the Elderwood to gather rare insects, forage for ingredients, and enjoy the scenic beauty of Palia. Tend to your home plot, nurture your garden, and live your dream life. Your Adventure, Your Way Whether solo or with friends, Palia is a place where you’re always welcome. Discover a cozy community filled with new friends, enchanting magic, shared adventures, and endless charm.

Vampire Survivors took the world by storm in 2022, annihilating countless waves of enemies and hours of our time as it popularized the “bullet heaven” genre of auto-shooter and spawned dozens of imitators. Slay the Spire, which catalyzed its own genre explosion for roguelike deckbuilders back in 2019, is buzzy again with its sequel in early access, so there’s something appropriate about the timing of new spin-off Vampire Crawlers adapting the original Vampire Survivors into that beloved genre space.

That initially seems totally at odds—Vampire Survivors is a twitchy, fast-paced, hypnotic arcade game with minimal inputs and an overwhelming sensory rush from big, flashing numbers and gems flying everywhere, whereas roguelike deckbuilders are methodically turn-based, systemic, and decision-intensive. Vampire Crawlers deftly bridges that gap, translating the core mechanical and aesthetic ideas of Vampire Survivors into a roguelite deckbuilding dungeon crawler with both style and substance in excess.

Historically, genre-shifted spin-off projects like this tend to be of a smaller scale than the core game in the IP, but since Vampire Survivors was initially a solo project by poncle, Vampire Crawlers bucks that trend because it’s been developed by a whole team, and it shows. It’s quite a bit more fully featured at release than its progenitor, from the charm of its immersive first-person menus to the unfolding depths of its mechanical systems.

Up Close and Personal

In the original Vampire Survivors, you pick a character that starts with a particular item and stat modification/special ability, and move around a map in top-down 2D with your attacks automatically firing regularly. Waves of enemies of increasing number and strength come at you, dropping experience on death. When you level up, you select one from several items, either strengthening something you already have or adding a new item to your build. Then it’s a race between the increasing tides of ghoulies and your ability to construct a build that wipes them out at pace, until you either lose or 30 minutes pass and Death shows up to end your run.

Vampire Crawlers keeps that same overall shape, but changes perspective, makes it turn-based, and at every point injects more interesting decisions for you to make. It also reuses all of the items, icons, enemies, zones, stats, etc., from Survivors as its raw material, but so totally recontextualized that it feels both cozily familiar and fresh.

You navigate the run from a first-person dungeon crawling perspective akin to classic “blobber” RPGs like the Might & Magic and Wizardry series. Runs through a given level are typically broken up into 5 floors, which you can see on a map in the lower part of your screen labeling the locations of enemies, items, the floor boss, etc. Since you have full knowledge of each floor from the start, you can plot out the order in which you want to tackle things. In Vampire Survivors, certain upgrade locations are visible from the start, so Crawlers extends that into a more strategic way for you to break down the whole level.

The character you choose (here a Crawler) determines your starting deck of 4 cards, one of which is the Crawler themself. These are sort of akin to the eponymous commander cards from Magic: The Gathering’s most popular format. Crawlers have both an immediate impact on your stats when played and also stay out for a while with an ongoing effect that you typically want to build your deck around, such as drawing a card or boosting a stat whenever you play cards of a particular color.

Like Survivors, you can also spend gold earned during runs to unlock new Crawlers and buy permanent stat upgrades, along with new meta-progressions like adding additional improvement slots to cards you’ve unlocked, or selecting Arcana with powerful additional effects on your run.

Rising Action

The biggest increase in complexity from Survivors to Crawlers comes in combat. The broad outline will be familiar to anyone who’s played Slay the Spire and its ilk: each turn you have a finite amount of energy with which to play out a hand of cards, discarding any unplayed cards at the end of the turn and drawing a fresh hand, reshuffling your discards back into the deck whenever you run out. Cards include both the familiar weapons of Survivors (daggers, holy water, garlic, etc.) doing damage in various configurations, and the other stat upgrades (candles, books, spinach, etc.) doing things like boosting your stats, but also drawing cards, regaining mana, and the like.

The big, juicy, mechanical hook that really makes combat and deckbuilding sing is that you want to play cards in ascending order of cost. Each time you do, you tick up a multiplier that amplifies the effect of nearly every card you play, so playing 0- and 1-cost cards first means that big, climactic 2-cost attack will hit a lot harder. This is easy to optimize when your deck is just the same few cards that you see every turn, but gets increasingly tricky to maintain and scale up as your deck necessarily bloats with new,  more powerful cards to meet the rising challenge (cards that draw, add mana, and/or have a wild cost that’s both free and lets you continue the chain with anything are your best friend).

Vampire Survivors felt most satisfying when you managed to line up synergistic build choices and watched the hordes just crumble in front of you. Vampire Crawlers still gives you that macro satisfaction of making an effective build, but also the turn-by-turn pleasure of executing it. The finite card and energy economy and predictable rhythm of playing cards with successively higher costs means that you don’t have to agonize too much over how best to play most turns, but it feels really good when you start stringing together longer chains.

For all my talk about decision-making, Vampire Crawlers also keeps the spirit of its forbear by playing smoothly and as blazing fast as you want. Animations stack as you play cards, so you can just blitz through every hand once you’ve built a well-oiled machine (or just play impulsively fast and loose from the start, though you might run into a wall as the challenge ratchets up). Like the original, the complexity and variety of options at your disposal increases over time as you find relics that add new systems and work your way through a long list of in-game achievements that unlock new items, crawlers, gems to slot into cards, etc., to populate future runs.

Vampire Crawlers is both a fun twist on Vampire Survivors and an interesting roguelite deckbuilder in its own right. I put a lot of hours into Survivors when I mostly wanted to turn my brain off, but I suspect I might put quite a few more into Crawlers in the long run because of how pleasantly it engages my mind while still scratching a similar basic itch.

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors is available today on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Play Anywhere, and Game Pass.

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors

Poncle Limited

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$9.99

Get it now

PC Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass

In a dark world, a new adventure begins. Explore maps, level up powers, kill monsters. Find treasures. From the somehow triple-BAFTA‑winning creators of Vampire Survivors, Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors turns the snowballing thrill of Survivors into a hyper turn‑based, card‑driven BLOBBER with rogue-lite elements. Build busted decks, explore familiar dungeons from a new perspective, and unleash world‑ending combos. Either take your time and be tactical, or play turns as fast as you humanly can: The outcome is always accurate, we call it hyper for a reason! What is this game about Snowballing, turn‑based carnage: Play cards in ascending mana order to land combos; each step multiplies the next card’s effect. Use Wilds to extend the stack and keep going to 10, 20, 30… Can you reach infinite? Pick your pace: Either take your time and be tactical, or play turns as fast as you humanly can: The outcome is always accurate, we call it hyper for a reason! Deck-Building: Accumulate experience and level up to gain new cards, headbutt chests for customization gems and power‑ups; chase weapon evolutions and summon survivors to trigger cascade of effects and break the game. Crawling: Explore multi‑floor dungeons packed with something seldom seen in Vampire Survivors: functioning walls. And then all sorts of unique treasures and interactions. Find the shovel to dig into the next floor, that will most likely take place in the clouds! Starting Tips: – Try different Crawlers, each one changes your deck. – Visit the village after every run and remember to buy Power-Ups. – Play cards in ascending mana to trigger combos.

Starting today, Game Pass Ultimate drops from $29.99 to $22.99 a month. PC Game Pass will also drop from $16.49 to $13.99 a month. Prices may vary by region.

Beginning this year, future Call of Duty titles won’t join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. New Call of Duty games will be added to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass during the following holiday season (about a year later), while existing Call of Duty titles already in the library will continue to be available.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will continue to have access to hundreds of games on Xbox console and PC including current Call of Duty titles, in-game benefits, online console multiplayer, unlimited Xbox Cloud Gaming, and major day one releases. You can find more details on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, Game Pass Essential, and PC Game Pass plans here, and manage your account here.

Our players cover a wide breadth of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there isn’t a single model that’s best for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far. We’ll continue to listen and learn.

Thank you for being a part of the Xbox community.

Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first DLC, Prophecies of Ash, is coming to Xbox Series X|S on April 23. In this builder game set in a world inspired by ancient Rome, players build cities, manage production chains and trade routes, forge diplomatic ties with other governors or wage war for supremacy.

With Prophecies of Ash, the first of Year 1’s three DLC, the province of Latium is expanded with new islands and the continental island of Cinis – the largest island in the history of Anno games. New content also includes a new deity, Vulcan, and a new resource, obsidian, which is tied to two new production chains. Aside from vast stretches of land waiting for you to the build the city of your dreams, however, there is also the old volcano looming in the distance…

Volcanic eruptions are one of the core elements of the DLC. At certain intervals, the volcano will erupt and players will have to deal with its different phases and the issues and advantages tied to them: from tremors damaging buildings, fiery rocks falling from the sky, and ash covering all the islands to a bloom phase when the fertilized soil boosts the productivity of farms.

Now, how do you, as a player, best deal with these challenges? Read on for several tips directly from the dev team:

Tip 1 – Set up your experience

Before the volcano even starts grumbling, you can tweak the settings for the volcano gameplay a bit: decide how strong the initial tremors should be, if falling rocks contain any obsidian, and if you prefer a tutorial guiding you through the new content. This way, you can tune some of the upcoming challenge to your personal preferences.

In the same screen, you can also familiarize yourself briefly with the main aspects of Prophecies of Ash.

Tip 2 – Fire Stations

When rocks and fire are raining from the sky during the eruption, it doesn’t hurt to have some fire stations on your island to limit some of the fire damage.

You can also use boons from deities to your advantage; with enough fervour to either Neptune or Vulcan, you can unlock their shrines, which will increase fire safety in the area.

The biggest lesson here is, however: there is no fighting nature. The volcano’s eruption and the volcanic winter phase will damage and destroy parts of your cities and disrupt your economy. While you can’t prevent that, you can prepare for it.

Tip 3 – Stockpile resources

More than the limited destruction, the production debuffs to mines, farms and fisheries will be your biggest enemy. Luckily, you can prepare.

At the core, you will want to make sure to have full warehouses of the essential needs of your population. These stockpiles will come in handy during the volcanic winter phase. Upgrade your trading post and build depots to store more goods.

Additionally, make use of specialists as well as the bonuses of devoting yourself to the different deities to increase overall production:

• Vulcan helps with production of mining goods
• Ceres with production of farming goods
• Neptune with production of fishing goods

Tip 4 – Mine precious obsidian

The volcano doesn’t just leave destruction in its wake: after every eruption, the obsidian deposits in pits and quarries refill and can be exploited if you have the necessary technology researched.

Obsidian is used in two new production chains providing additional bonuses to your population, which makes you more resilient to the debuffs of the volcano phases.

Additionally, you can trade obsidian for new specialists at the harbour of the trader Caecilia. These specialists provide allow the production of farming, mining and fishing goods that otherwise wouldn’t be available on an island. This increases your flexibility and allows to produce more of every needed good in order to fill your warehouses.

Tip 5 – Maximize the Bloom Phase buff

After every eruption, the volcanic ash fertilizes the land, increasing its soil level, and provides a productivity buff to all agricultural buildings. In fact, this bonus increases with every endured eruption – up to 50 percent!

This means that you get stronger and more productive with every eruption through the increased soil level, as well as the obsidian you can use for various purposes outlined above.

Tip 6 – Putting the volcano to sleep (disabling the mechanic)

If this all sounds too disruptive, because you just want the biggest city ever on the continental island of Cinis: don’t worry, we got you!

Via the settings mentioned in Tip 1, you can also completely disable volcanic eruptions. No more rocks destroying your precious temples and markets; no more ash blanketing everything and messing with your farms.

Do note, though, that obsidian deposits do not refill this way, meaning you will have to do without the new production chains and the new specialists.

Well, governors, with these tips you should be well-prepared to face the moods of the volcano and weather its eruption phases: stockpile resources and make the most out of the new mechanics and those fires will soon only be a distant memory.

Anno 117: Pax Romana Prophecies of Ash releases on April 23 on Xbox Series X|S. It will be available for individual purchase, or is included with Anno 117: Pax Romana’s Gold Edition or Season Pass. You can also play Prophecies of Ash with a Ubisoft+ Premium subscription.

Anno 117: Pax Romana

Ubisoft

☆☆☆☆☆ 136

★★★★★

Get it now

Pre-order Anno 117: Pax Romana today to obtain the Builder Pack! Shape the Roman Empire in this genre-defining strategic builder game. Build cities while expanding your influence through Roman provinces. Govern using your economic prowess, diplomatic skills, or military might. BUILD, TRADE, EXPAND Experience the premier builder and design the cities of your dreams at the peak of the Roman Empire. Optimize your economy while balancing your people's needs with the relentless demands of the emperor. Build upon the land that you see, from the beautiful heartland of Latium to the mysterious Celtic wetlands of Albion… where no civilized Roman wants to be. BECOME A ROMAN GOVERNOR Grow and extend your authority across a vast and dynamic world with unmatched detail, flexibility, and scale. Improve your production efficiency and military opportunities as you explore the discovery tree. Build diplomatic alliances across the empire, navigate political intrigue, or showcase your might through land battles and naval combat. You may even defy the emperor himself – but not without consequences. CHOOSE THE FATE OF YOUR PROVINCES Every decision you make matters. Craft your empire from scratch as you face the true challenge of what it means to be a great governor. Will you honor local Celtic culture or enforce Roman traditions? Choose a deity to worship for each island to inspire faith among your people and earn different gameplay bonuses. Internet connection, Ubisoft account and Microsoft Account required to access online features. Internet connection, Ubisoft account, Microsoft Account and Game Pass Ultimate or Core (subscriptions sold separately) required to access online multiplayer/features.

After a long ride through dense forests, icy mountains, and humid swamps, a city emerges ahead of you, teeming with life. You look around at the people here. Some ride oxen laden with valuable resources. Some carry gleaming weapons etched with the scars of battle. Some barter at the marketplace, next to strange beasts that you’ve never laid eyes on before. And some seem to be going on a fishing trip.

This is the world of Albion Online, a renowned MMORPG that’s available on Xbox Series X|S for the first time today.

For those who aren’t familiar, Albion Online is a massive open-world MMORPG set in a medieval fantasy world. Developed by German studio Sandbox Interactive, it’s been around since 2017 – and arrived for Xbox on PC last year – gradually building up a following of devoted players across the globe. With three servers (Americas, Europe, and Asia), fifteen supported languages, and full cross-platform playability across PC and mobile, it’s a genuinely thriving world. Now, Xbox Series X|S is being added to the mix.

So what can players expect when they start playing Albion Online? A massive open world to explore. A player-driven economy where almost every item is crafted by players from resources gathered and traded on the game’s network of marketplaces. Classless combat, where your abilities are determined by the gear you choose. Massive, coordinated battles between powerful guilds. Islands, where you can farm your crops in peace before selling them at the marketplace… the list goes on.

Albion Online’s world is truly vast, offering PvP (both full-loot and more forgiving varieties), PvE, economics, exploration, gathering, and a whole lot more.

The console release is an extension of Albion Online’s cross-platform offering. No corners have been cut, and the whole game is playable in all its glory from the comfort of your sofa, with the same servers shared across platforms. New players can jump straight in with their Xbox account, while existing players can just hop over to their console and continue their journey without losing any of their character’s progress. And Albion Online’s cross-platform playability means that you can jump from Xbox, to PC, to phone as you please without skipping a beat.

The team have worked hard on developing controller for this release to make it a smooth, seamless experience. Key UIs have been redesigned for console play, new accessibility options and radial menus have been added, and combat has received particular attention to make sure console players are competitive on the battlefield. And if you prefer to use a keyboard and mouse, that’s supported for console, too – just plug them in and away you go.

If you link your Xbox Game Pass account, there are even some exclusive rewards on offer to give your journey a boost. The ancient, imposing Elite Green Knight vanity bundle is only available for Xbox Game Pass players, along with three days Premium to get you started, and Fame books to develop your skills.

For MMO fans, Albion Online brings the real deal to Xbox. And if you’re just looking for something new to jump into, it offers a huge, thriving free-to-play world where you can write your own story. There’s no reason not to try it out, so set sail for Albion and see what legends await!

We are in the launch week of our hand-drawn tag team brawler, Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch, a passion project that we are proud of that has been in development for a “couple” of years now. The team has been resilient, sticking it out through ups and downs, marriages, births, illnesses, industry shakeups, and the BBL epidemic.

Since I have the space to share our experience I thought we would go deep like a Navy seal and talk about how it all started…

11 years ago on a sunny afternoon in Berkeley CA, I was sitting at a boutique pizza joint with a hot slice and a cold beer. Sitting across from me was a dapper gentleman with a vintage baseball cap, long hair and aviator glasses, also holding a brew. It was Trevor Fehrman, the actor who played Elias in “Clerks II,” who I met through a mutual friend at IGN.

We clanked dranks, took a sip, and started going in deep about video game history, gaming culture and our top 5 games of all time. He mentions that he is glad we connected because he wants to make an indie game and proceeds to drop the bomb on me…

“Hey so, my friend Kevin Smith gifted me the rights to make a Jay and Silent Bob video game, and I need some help to make this happen.”

I spit my drink out, my jaw dropped and hit the table, choking and coughing I took a moment and looked up. “Kevin, what?! That is amazing!”  

I was dumbfounded because my team and I have been fans of Smith’s work for a long time and think Jay is hilarious. While spending countless hours working on our last game and pushing through my master’s thesis, I would watch “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” “Mallrats” and the Evening with Kevin Smith Q&A sessions for creative motivation and mental comfort snacks to maintain my sanity.

So, Trevor and I talked for hours, met multiple times, became friends, and were determined to figure out how we could bring this game into existence. I told Trevor we would be down, but for my team to put effort into this project I would need Kevin to give us his blessings and rights to make a game with his beloved characters.

That next evening, I was sitting at my computer working through emails. I took a swig of Yerba Mate and after opening another message, my reflex kicked in again. I nearly spit it out when I saw an email from Trevor, with Kevin included saying we were all good to make the game!

That email was all I needed and we were off to the races. Trevor and I started working on the narrative design, story and opening dialog, and our Interabang team immediately clocked in to start the production process, design work, and concepting the most ridiculous character design ideas and gameplay for Chronic Blunt Punch.

The concept was to make a traditional arcade brawler with adult themes that match Kevin’s creative sensibility and our own humor and character design. The premise was that it is Dante’s Inferno but instead of taking place in hell, Jay and Silent Bob get trapped in a mysterious, mystical mall that escalates into madness the further the player gets through each level.

At this point we were self-funding the project independently, while doing work for hire on some AAA projects. To get this thing off the ground, we truly needed to find a way to fund the full production of the game.

While in the Double Fine Indie Workspace, then-COO Justin Bailey, who was rolling out a new crowdfunding and investment platform called Fig to help fund Psychonauts 2 and other big indie titles, pitched me on running a campaign through their platform. Fig would handle the marketing for the campaign and also invest in the game.

We had the team and our first investor. The next step was to meet with Kevin to share our plan and concepts. The meeting was at Kevin’s house. I stepped on his porch, pressed the doorbell, and anxiously awaited a maid or male servant to answer. To our surprise, Kevin answered through the ring camera and unlocked the door. As we entered, we followed Kevin up the stairs and into his tv room where we were surrounded by loads of fan art and memorabilia from movies and merchandise.

I came in ready to present a full pitch deck, but he cut me off and said, “you guys can fund this through the crowdfunding campaign, I don’t need a pitch; you’ve got this.”  Kevin even put in his own money. Relieved, we chilled, smoked, and then mapped out the campaign together.

Shortly after we strategized the nuts and bolts of the campaign, we launched and received incredible support. The campaign included touring with Jason Mewes, appearance on Kevin Smith’s podcast, and we even shot the crowdfunding video with Feargus Urquhart out of the Obsidian office.

The campaign was a success, and we got to work. Starting development out of the Double Fine offices and then remote, we created animation and combat systems that worked similarly to fighting game engines. We dialed in the look and feel of the game and created production pipelines to expand and contract development as needed remotely.

Two years into production, there were some external investment changes out of our control, which slowed things down. We reacted by pivoting when given the opportunity to partner with LRG founders Josh and Doug who helped us fund a retro 8-bit brawler called Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl. Tomas Guinan and I teamed up and built the game in 9 months, released it in 12 months and gave our backers a dope game as a bonus while simultaneously raising finishing funds for Chronic Blunt Punch through sales instead of investment. It worked!

We grew our team with folks like Angry Metal, Toni Leys, Spoonybard and other creatives to boost production value and join us in the marathon to finish the game.

While we were in our stride to completion we connected with Digital Eclipse to help with QA, Porting and publishing. A year later, they joined with Atari, who have helped us get to the finish line through localization and porting with Alchemy.

It has been a crazy ride, full of tons of interesting zigs and zags, relationships, studio and personal evolution. But all in all, it has been a great ride, and we like what we have created out of love for each other and the culture of game development.

Blammo! We hope you dig our little game.

Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch

Atari, Digital Eclipse, The MIX GAMES

☆☆☆☆☆ 26

★★★★★

$19.99

Get it now

Brawl your way through the streets and mall in the View Askewniverse as Jay and Silent Bob where you unleash a dizzying array of irreverent combos, special moves, collect and summon assists, in this over-the-top beat ‘em up. You’ll need to harness every ounce of smoke-fueled creativity to get past the throngs of hockey-stick wielding teenage thugs, dookie demons, hipsters with babies, old grumpy danglers and massive, movie-inspired boss battles.  Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch combines incredible stylized, hand drawn animation, character design, and over the top combat and badass catchphrases in a side-scrolling, tag-team, beat-’em-up. Our heroes embark on an epic adventure from their humble, suburban New Jersey Quick Stop to an unearthed mystical mall that has unleashed an evil hold on the city. No matter if you play solo and tag swap between characters or with your hetero lifemate in couch co-op, you’ll be performing special moves and outrageous combos.  Developed with the full blessing, enthusiasm and voice-acting quips from Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith themselves, Chronic Blunt Punch gives players the ultimate, profound, and profane Jay and Silent Bob experience. Features – Hand-Drawn Art and Animation: Incredibly detailed, expressive and highly inspired hand-drawn animations. – Insane combos: Bust out a cornucopia of irreverent special moves and combos that link together to create explosive finishers. – Super Moves: Build up your super meter to launch video game inspired super attacks or save up your super meter and transform Jay and Silent Bob into Bluntman and Chronic to freeze time and deliver a devastating attack. – Local Co-Op: Play solo or with your hetero lifemate with two-player couch co-op. Tag you’re it, snackpack. – Cameo-palooza: During your journey, interact with cameo characters from the Viewaskewniverse and call them in to help you during intense moments.

I’ve always thought pottery feels a little magical. You’re taking an ordinary ball of clay and shaping it into something full of life, and with its own personality. In Kiln, that magic comes with a playful twist; the tool you shape with has a personality all of its own – a cheeky little spirit. 

This spirit helps you pull and push your ball of clay into something unique, and remarkably, it gets the work done by applying a prominent part of its body… Let’s just say it’s very appreciative of a good, round shape. 

The Team at Double Fine has once again brought their famous sense of humor to the pottery wheel, to imbue these cute spirits with a curious, mischievous, personality. That light-hearted cheeky energy has in-turn inspired something we couldn’t resist making: the ultimate gamer pottery set, ‘The Butt-iful Collection, By Kiln’

This collection features soft shapes and a cheerful, cartoon-like charm that’s more giggle than gasp. It’s designed to bring a bit of joy (and maybe an impish smirk) to your gaming setup.

Inside the box are two specially made controller cradles inspired by our lovable spirit, for holding your favorite controller nestled safely between two rosy cheeks. There’s a butt-iful snack bowl for replenishing energy in-between rounds of kicking-butt. And of course, the rear-view gaming mug, keeping your drink warm while giving you a playful reminder not to take things too seriously.

The bottom line is it’s all about celebrating creativity, humor, and the unexpected, just like the game itself.

To mark the launch, fans around the world can enter for a chance to win one of five full Butt-iful Collections by Kiln by following Xbox on X and reposting the official X sweepstakes post with the hashtag #KilnSweepstakes, or by following Xbox on Instagram, and commenting on the official Instagram sweepstakes post with the hashtag #KilnSweepstakes. (No purchase necessary. Open only to legal residents of Xbox supported regions (excl. Russia), 18+. Ends at 5:00 p.m. PT on June 21 2026. See Official Rules for full details.)

Kiln launches April 23, and I can’t wait for you and your friends to jump in, get creative, make some pottery magic of your own, and share a laugh or two along the way.

Bottoms-up everyone!

Kiln Fired Up Edition

Xbox Game Studios

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$29.99 $26.99

Pre-order

Pre-order Kiln now to get access to the Warrior-Artist Decoration Pack. The Warrior-Artist Decoration Pack includes two new glazes, two new stickers, and a new pot lid attachment, perfect for the artist-turned-warrior in all of us. The Kiln: Fired Up Edition pack includes the Battle-Hardened Decoration Pack and the Battle-Hardened Pottery Set, containing three shiny new glazes, five Kintsugi-base stickers, five new attachments fit for a warrior, and three developer-made custom pots. This pack is included with the Kiln Fired Up Edition and Fired Up Edition Upgrade. Double Fine Productions presents Kiln, a pottery power-fantasy that celebrates both Creativity and Destruction: the pleasure that comes from both making beautiful things, and then smashing those things to smithereens. Create your pot, grab your friends, and join a team of colorful spirits who face off against one another in online arenas, where the ceramic creations you sculpt on a pottery wheel become the bodies you bring into battle. The shape of your pots affect your attributes and your play-style. Will you be big, or small? Wide, or tall? Will you make a plate, a jug, a cup or a bowl? There are a multitude of different sizes and combinations to discover, each with unique abilities and attacks, along with new and surprising ways to play. Work together to find the best combination of pots and play-styles to break through enemy lines, and collect enough water to douse the flames of the enemy’s kiln — Does your team have what it takes to shape and smash your way to victory? As the battlefield becomes strewn with the shattered fragments of friend and foes alike, your brawling skills and some great teamwork will be required to assure victory. After the battle is won, head to The Wedge to practice your pottery prowess, decorate your pots to make them yours, then share your creations with others (and admire their handiwork, too). Create and Destroy Together – Making pots and breaking pots are both better with friends. Hang out, experiment with clay and share what you make, or jump right into multiplayer battles and start swinging! Become a Master Potter– Manipulate realistic clay to craft and decorate in an immersive pottery wheel experience featuring a variety of tools and techniques.

Kiln

Xbox Game Studios

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Get it now

Double Fine Productions presents Kiln, a pottery power-fantasy that celebrates both Creativity and Destruction: the pleasure that comes from both making beautiful things, and then smashing those things to smithereens. Create your pot, grab your friends, and join a team of colorful spirits who face off against one another in online arenas, where the ceramic creations you sculpt on a pottery wheel become the bodies you bring into battle. The shape of your pots affect your attributes and your play-style. Will you be big, or small? Wide, or tall? Will you make a plate, a jug, a cup or a bowl? There are a multitude of different sizes and combinations to discover, each with unique abilities and attacks, along with new and surprising ways to play. Work together to find the best combination of pots and play-styles to break through enemy lines, and collect enough water to douse the flames of the enemy’s kiln — Does your team have what it takes to shape and smash your way to victory? As the battlefield becomes strewn with the shattered fragments of friend and foes alike, your brawling skills and some great teamwork will be required to assure victory. After the battle is won, head to The Wedge to practice your pottery prowess, decorate your pots to make them yours, then share your creations with others (and admire their handiwork, too). Create and Destroy Together – Making pots and breaking pots are both better with friends. Hang out, experiment with clay and share what you make, or jump right into multiplayer battles and start swinging! Become a Master Potter– Manipulate realistic clay to craft and decorate in an immersive pottery wheel experience featuring a variety of tools and techniques.