Cairn’s Demo Makes Climbing Feel Real — Plus a Developer Q&A on Pitons, Risk, and Rewind

A survival climb that treats every handhold like a real decision

As part of our Indie Game Showcase 2025 hub, we’re taking a closer look at Cairn — a survival-climber from The Game Bakers (Furi, Haven), built around route choice, stamina management, and that constant “do I commit to this hold?” tension. Here’s why this game might just be your next obsession.

If you missed our earlier coverage of the demo and the game’s delay, you can read more here: GOTW #23: Cairn demo + full game delayed to 2026.

Cairn — Gameplay Video

Video credit: Fix Gaming Channel

Developer Q&A — Cairn, the climb, and what the demo should leave you feeling

Answers provided by Emeric (via Lauranne).

What was the starting point for Cairn – the emotion of climbing, the realism of the movement, or something else entirely?

Cairn is the last entry in what we call our freedom trilogy, it follows in the tracks of our past games, Furi and Haven. In Furi you fight to “live free”, in Haven you fight to be “free to love who you want”.

This last entry finishes the thematic trilogy with a strong theme: overcoming your limits and achieving total freedom. That’s what alpinism is in real life too. Why do people climb mountains? What makes them feel the need to risk their lives to reach a summit? It’s always been exciting and fascinating to me, and it makes a great video game pitch in my opinion. It’s simple, but extremely concrete. You’re at the bottom, and you see the goal. It’s gotten the team excited as well, and it’s fueled us for the last four years.

Cairn tries to capture the stress and focus of real climbing without being purely punishing. How did you balance accessibility with that “every move matters” feeling?

It was not an easy task and it took us 5 years of iterating on prototype and balancing. But real climbing was helpful. In real life you have a rope and pitons. They act like checkpoints that players can choose to use when they feel appropriate, and it’s double fun as they are limited in supply. We also try to have different levels of failure. It’s not all binary. While climbing, you can climb peacefully or exhaust yourself, you can slip but not fall, you can fall but not too far from last piton, you can take a huge whipper and hurt yourself but not pass out, you can crash yourself on the ground and pass out but not die… All these stages of failure that are not a complete game over are interesting because they pave the way for a very satisfying come back. Additionally, we have lots of accessibility options (including a “rewind time after fall” option!).

When players finish the demo, what do you hope sticks with them the most about Aava and Mount Kami?

Well the demo is really just a tiny appetizer of what the main game is! I hope they are satisfied of climbing Tenzen and excited about giving the real deal, Mount Kami, a try! I hope the demo gives a little taste of the feeling of freedom in approach for climbing that the main game really improves on. The main game is also a bit more demanding on survival and offers a lot more on Aava’s story of course. I hope people realize it’s not a game just for people who love climbing, but also a real adventure game that goes beyond just climbing.

Cairn

Release: Q1 2026 (Demo available now)

Genre: Survival-Climber, Simulation

Developer / Publisher: The Game Bakers / The Game Bakers

Platforms: PC — Steam (wishlist), PS5 — PlayStation Store

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More Showcase coverage and updates: Indie Game Showcase 2025 hub.