How Cairn Makes Every Climb Feel Like Life or Death

For anyone fantasizing about scaling a mountain without the risk of physical injury, they will get their wish playing Cairn. The studio behind the games Furi and Haven , The Game Bakers, has recently created this survival-climber that puts the player in the role of Aava, who is trying to climb Mount Kami by managing pitons and resources to survive climbing a mountain filled with various ways of conquering.

Aava is an alpinist who is a skilled mountain climber who tackles high, technical, icy peaks. Emeric Thoa, the creative director of Cairn, had a vision of the game to tell the story of how an alpinist ascends a mountain.

"The initial goal was to make a game about an Alpinist's ascent," said Thoa. "The experience would create strong tension, satisfaction and a sense of freedom. The story would talk about the search of ultimate freedom and the sacrifices to reach it. This has not evolved much during development. What took us more than 3 years of prototyping is the climbing system and the way to build a mountain that works with it."

Thoa and his development team drew inspiration by working with professional guides from Chamonix in the Alps and consulting renowned French climber Élisabeth Revol, the first woman to climb Nanga Parbat. That groundwork directly shaped the game's climbing mechanics, blending realism with survival elements.

"It came quite naturally," said Thoa. "The game's core challenge is moving around and reaching places. The mountain is quite open, you can climb anything. And survival is part of the alpinism experience. So, having to reach places to gather survival resources that you then spend to reach new places is a nice working game loop. With the summit as a goal of course!"

Thoa and his team set out to ensure Cairn remains, at its core, a roughly 12-hour adventure. Working with comic book author Mathieu Bablet — known for science fiction titles Shangri-La and Carbon & Silicon — they shaped a narrative centered on the motivations behind climbing, the sacrifices it demands, and why those closest to the climbers often see that passion as absurd.

"Mathieu was part of the team from the beginning and brought a lot to the story and of course to the art," said Thoa. "He designed the characters but also a lot of the mountain. He usually sent a sketch of an area, with a very strong visual idea, and the level design team would then make it in the game, and then we would twist it to make it as good as possible for gameplay. But it's really great to have someone on the team who's able to draft strong ideas of mountain shapes very quickly. He actually lives in the Alps, so I guess he has inspiration close!"

Instead of battling enemies, Cairn turns each climb into a boss fight. Players can tailor the challenge through three difficulty modes: Explorer, Alpinist and Free Solo. In Explorer mode, the game offers added assistance, including more pitons, reduced survival pressure, additional save points, and a fall-rewind feature that lets players reverse time to a point before a fall.

Despite Thoa generally not being a fan of realism in gaming, he explains how it was important to convey the realism, challenges, and dangers of what climbers experience.

"I am usually not a fan of realism in video games, so I wouldn't say it was a goal per say," said Thoa. "But in this game, it made sense to be very close to reality because it adds tension. Climbing is by nature an interesting game, with interesting rules (like using pitons as checkpoints). It was also interesting as a subject to stick to realism because the pain and efforts of climbers is part of what fascinated us and made us want to make Cairn. Over the whole ascent, you become close to the character because you share her pain and joy as a player, because it's you who falls and climbs. Aava and the player are living the same story."

Most games limit player control, but Cairn puts every move in the player's hands, requiring precise calculation of each of Aava's limb movements.

"To make it simple, the climbing system is split into two different brains," said Thoa. "One controls the body and what it's allowed to do. For instance, if you're moving your left arm, it's going to pull the wrist, then the elbow, then the shoulder… if you pull even more, it might make the hips rotate, and if you pull even more, it might even release your right foot from its hold. The movements while climbing are not animation files; it's maths! The second brain of the system is what we call the 'stability solver.' This part calculates all the efforts and how exhausting it is. It says if a limb is holding a lot of weight or not, and what happens if we try to move it. It's also what decides if we fall."

In order accomplish this, developers focused on making the controls simple and making the game easy to play while managing Aava's resources, such as stamina, food, and water. Players will see the range of Aava's emotions from her triumphs to her frustrations of trying to master the challenges of the mountain. She's accompanied by a climbing bot, who helps Aava manage her resources and gear.

Thoa said players are rewarded for conquering each wall, but reaching the wonders of Mount Kami requires keeping Aava hydrated to ensure her best chance of success.

"The biggest challenge by far was that because you progress slowly by climbing, and because you can't really know what's ahead, you need a lot of time to react to a survival struggle," said Thoa. "For instance, if you are in a dangerous thirst condition, it might still take you a lot of time to finish climbing the wall you are on, then explore a new area, maybe locate a water source, then reach that water source. We didn't want players to die because of thirst without knowing what they can do to find water. But we fixed it by adding more gameplay phases that are quite epic and can make for some nice gameplay stories. You start to get thirsty, then dangerously thirsty. You still have time to react, but then if you still didn't find water, you end up passing out… but you're not dead yet. You wake up in a critical state, but can still explore and find water. Then your actual life starts to decrease and this gives you more time. It's good to plan ahead, but if you're in a tricky position, there's often a way to get out of trouble."

Critics and players who have had a chance to play Cairn have given the game high marks, with IGN and Gamespot rating the game with a 9 score and Steam rating the game as "Very Positive". While Thoa was surprised by the positive response, he is appreciative that players have been able to enjoy the climbing elements of the game.

"I really don't want to brag, but the thing I was the most surprised about was the 99% positive reviews," said Thoa. "I really expected the game to be more polarizing. We are aware games like Furi or Haven are not for everyone, and I expected the same with Cairn. But a frequent comment was, 'I was not very much interested, but tried the demo out of curiosity and loved it.' We realized it was not only a climbing game but an adventure game that creates thrills. The other thing we improved is probably the manual controls, which is important for a minority of players."

Cairn is currently available for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam , Epic Games , and GOG .

Related: 5 Best Climbing Games Available in 2025

This story was originally published by GameDaily on Feb 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add GameDaily as a Preferred Source by clicking here.