Cairn

Hi everyone,

The demo has been played by over 500,000 players now. We’re glad all of you are training to ascent Mount Kami in a few months now. We’re incredibly thankful that you’re enjoying the demo, and want to celebrate with you. How about a chance to win some Cairn merch?

Screenshot by Fs.Retro

Use the in-game photo mode to capture a screenshot, anywhere in the demo, an send your screenshot to fanart@thegamebakers.com before July 29 at 5pm CEST to enter. We can’t wait to see your pictures!

The merch to win: Cairn stickers and carabiners!

Note: Merch can ship to everywhere but Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Sevastopol, Yemen, Haiti.

We’re happy to confirm that survival-climber Cairn will release on PS5 November, 5 2025. You can attempt your first ascent with Aava today, as a demo is available now on PS5! Go and hone your climbing skills on the Tenzen mountain ridge before the ascent of unforgiving Mount Kami.

It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves

A cairn is a stack of stones piled up to mark a trail or as a memorial. It’s a very good representation of the idea “I made it this far”.

In Cairn, our survival climbing game, you will need determination and persistence to “make it this far”. When we decided to make a video game about alpinism, we were fascinated by the dedication and resolve shown by climbers. They are ready to risk everything because of how extraordinary it makes them feel: extremely satisfied and free. And that’s the emotion we wanted to replicate and make you feel, as a player. 

We spent 3 years of research and development to create our own way to climb. It’s completely unique and new. You’ve climbed already in video games, but most games use climbing as a traversal mechanic, to reach a different location. In Cairn, climbing is the actual challenge, it’s where you fail or succeed. It’s what will make your hands sweat. 

The pillars of our climbing gameplay are what make it unique: a simple yet deep climbing control, and total freedom to climb anywhere.

Easy to learn, hard to ma…ouch! my finger!

First, it is simple to climb. We made a deep simulation gameplay while keeping simple inputs. In Cairn you control each hand and feet individually, but with just the left stick and one button to grab the wall. Ninety percent of the inputs you make are just moving the left stick and pressing Square. Feels simple right? So does Gran Turismo when you steer and accelerate with the same two inputs, but yet you’ll be practicing for hours to improve your lap time by 3 seconds. In Cairn the challenge is not about the controls of the limbs, it’s about placing them tactically, and keeping your character in balance. 

We worked on an advanced movement system that makes your character move like a climber according to what you aim for with your hand or foot. The simulation calculates the body mechanic, but also the efforts, and your character gets tired and out of breath in consequence.  

The result is a very strong immersion: you only look at your character, listen to their breathing, feel their limbs shaking directly on your hands with the precise Dualsense controller vibrations. There is no UI feedback. You learn to read the exhaustion status of the climber. By practicing, you know what’s an impossible move, a bold one and a safe one. 

What’s great with climbing is that the goal is pretty clear: reach the next ledge, the next summit. You see your objective, you just have to reach it. And failing is pretty obvious too: you fall. This helps you focus on what’s important: your body, your movements, your stamina. And eventually, when you reach that ledge, relief and joy!

Route-finding is speaking the mountain’s language

The second revolution in Cairn is the freedom to climb everywhere. It’s not a path or a branching of paths designed by level designers, it’s a whole mountain and you can slip your hand into every crack you see. 

The mountain was built rock by rock by our design team (whom I thank dearly). And that brings incomparable feelings of freedom. Even our level designers don’t know where you’ll climb, what route you will choose. 

During our playtests, we noticed something quite interesting: video game players usually walked towards the wall and started climbing. While actual rock climbers looked at the wall before climbing, noticed cracks, holds, hoverhangs, jugs in the rock, and decided on a route. Planning ahead, adapting to the wall, pausing to breathe and rest, decrypting the rock… it’s part of the fun in Cairn. Every second you play, you’re facing a choice. 

Topping out

Cairn is not only a climbing simulation. It’s an immersion into a beautifully stylized nature, it’s hearing a storm rumbling, alone in the mountain, it’s surviving hunger, cold, thirst and pain. It’s about Aava’s journey as she attempts to reach the summit, and the people and places she will find on the way. It’s about her determination and sacrifices, her search for freedom. But we’ll let you know more about all these aspects of the game soon…

Hello climbers,

In our latest trailer, you’ve heard the first track Toxic Avenger created for Cairn! It’s time to talk about the standout collaboration behind the game music: The Toxic Avenger (Furi, Road 96) joins forces with Martin Stig Andersen (Control, LIMBO, INSIDE) and Franco-Brazilian singer and composer Gildaa for a powerful, atmospheric soundtrack. Here’s more about that collaboration.

THE TOXIC AVENGER

The Toxic Avenger is a French DJ and electronic music producer you might have heard in Furi and in many other soundtracks like Road 96 or The Crew.

We worked with The Toxic Avenger on Furi, for which he created some of the most iconic tracks (like My Only Chance or Make this Right). We absolutely loved working with him then, and we’re super excited to have him back for Cairn.

Martin Stig Andersen

In Cairn, you can also hear the amazing work of Martin Stig Andersen, the game audio director and composer, who is well known for creating the immersive soundtracks of LIMBO, INSIDE or Control.

Martin is composing the music you hear as you climb, weaving together the work from Gildaa, The Toxic Avenger and his own creation. We’re excited for you to hear it all in the final game.

Gildaa

Cairn’s demo is out now on Steam and PlayStation, and you can wishlist the game to support us!

Climbers,
Thank you for playing Cairn!
We have gathered most common questions and a list of known issues here.
Here’s a link to the FAQ: bit.ly/Cairn-FAQ

Enjoy the ascent, and see you on the summit.

You know how they say good things come to those who wait? Well, thank you for your patience, but wait no more: go and play Cairn’s demo right NOW

In the demo, you play as Aava, attempting your first ascent before heading to mount Kami. After a warm-up in the climbing gym, you climb to the summit of mount Tenzen. You have full freedom to explore the small mountain ridge, learn how to climb, forage, and survive in a low-pressure environment. It packs many of the features of the full game.

To mark the occasion, we premiered a brand new gameplay trailer, check it out:

Hi everyone,

We were at Gamescom last week – and we return with good news! Cairn won Best Game of Indie Arena Booth. Among 176 incredible indie games, that is no small feat.

It was the first time players could try Cairn, and it meant the world to us to win an award confirming that we’re really working on something special.

And would you look at that turnout? Absolutely packed!

We are pumped to share the demo with you soon and hear what you have to say!

Until then,
Lauranne