# Cairn (video game)

Cairn is an upcoming rockclimbing simulation adventure video game developed and published by The Game Bakers. The game is set to be released for Windows PC and PlayStation 5 in 2025.

## Gameplay

Cairn was described by the developer as a "survival climber". In the game, the player assumes control of Aava, a professional mountineer who aspire to become the first person to summit Mount Kami. Aava will discover the secrets of the mountain, and "decide the sacrifices she is willing to make" to achieve her dream.
In the game, which is played from a third-person perspective, players are tasked to read the rock face to chart out their climbing routes. Players must manually position each of Aava's limbs as she climbs up the mountain, and unlock checkpoints through placing pitons at regular intervals. Players have to be aware of Aava's posture and manage her stamina. If Aava is placed in an uncomfortable position for sustained period of time, overextending or overexerting one limb, she may fall, partially resetting the player's progress. The game has no user interface, and players must rely on observing Aava to gauge her level of exhaustion. If she was under extreme stress, she will breathe heavily, and her limbs will tremble. The game also features elements from survival games, as players need to rest and recover, eat and drink to lower hunger and thirst, and repair equipment following the completion of each individual ascent. In addition to the story mode, the game also features Expedition mode, in which players can choose their playable avatar (Aava or Marco), select their climbing style (alpine or free solo), and share their results with other players.

## Development

Cairn is currently being developed by The Game Bakers. A team of 25 people worked on the game, and development on Cairn started in 2020. It was described by the team as the conclusion of their "trilogy on freedom", following Furi and Haven. The team consulted alpinist Élisabeth Revol, who shared with the team her mountineering experience. The team compared summiting the game's mountain as a persistent boss battle, in which players use their skills and manage their resources in order to conquer it. The team compared it to Death Stranding and the Dark Souls series, though creative director Emeric Thoa stressed that Cairn was not a "rage game". The team also found several similarites between playing a video game and mountineering, as both had clearly defined rules and "instinctive success and failure consequences". Each rock face and its handholds are handcrafted by the team. Thoa added that the creating the game's technology was challenging, as the climbing movements were "controlled by maths, not animations", meaning that a small improvement to the level will bring about a cascade of other changes to other areas of a level. The team collaborated with Lukas Julian Lentz (known for his work on Cocoon), and Martin Stig Andersen (known for his work on Limbo and Inside) for Cairn's audio, while recruiting comic book artist Mathieu Bablet for the game's art direction and story.
The Game Bakers announced Cairn in June 2024. A playable demo for the game was released through Steam in December 2024. The game is set to be released in 2025 for Windows PC and PlayStation 5.