Summary
Cairn, the next project fromFuriandHavendeveloper The Game Bakers, was among the more interesting indie games revealed during this year’s Summer Games Fest. The game looks to befollowing in the toeholds ofJusant, aiming to provide players with an experience more akin to a rock-climbing simulation than a fast-paced, twitchy platforming experience likeCeleste, another indie darling built around climbing a mountain.
In addition to its charming, retro style and quasi-supernatural plot elements,Celestetakes a stylized approach with its design. Climbing feels good, fast, and natural; it’s easy to scale cliff faces, players can control their character in mid-air, and various dashes, power-ups, and environmental tools all combine for a challenging platforming experience that is tactile and intuitive. This is what makesCelestesuch an interesting point of comparison forCairn, as the latter seems to revel in the gritty, unromantic reality of such a Herculean task.
Cairn’s Reveal Trailer Highlights Its Distinct Approach to Grounded Platforming
Cairn Looks To Be About Psychological and Physical Struggle
In some ways,Cairnissimilar toDeath Stranding, weaving slow, traversal-based gameplay into a realistic, grounded setting. It’s clear fromCairn’s reveal trailer that it won’t be about high-speed maneuvers or dazzling feats of athleticism. Rather, it seems to hone in on the unkind and frustrating aspects of extreme endurance sports.
Cairnostensibly strives to provide a complete sense of movement—not just the most immediately satisfying and crunchy parts of it. Balance, posture, and forethought will all clearly play important parts in a player’s success, and the game could be more rewarding in the long term than in the short term, which will likely focus on methodical movement. Returning to theDeath Strandingcomparison,Cairnseems to be presenting a similar level of friction between the player and the game world, encouraging careful gameplay and planning more than split-second reactions or button skill.
Cairn’s player-character trembles with effort and cries out in frustration in the reveal trailer, further signaling the game’s focus on the not-so-pretty parts of mountain-climbing.
Cairn Could Be Something Special In the Emerging Climbing-Sim Space
As previously mentioned,Cairnmay be part of an emerging climbing sub-genre, asJusantmade a disproportionately large splash when it released last year, and mountain-climbing rogueliteInsurmountablesaw a fair bit of success when it released in 2021 as well. It’s hard to pin down exactly why developers are gravitating toward this subject matter, but it may be a response to climbing’s ubiquity in gaming: fromAssassin’s CreedtoUncharted, climbing is a gaming staple, but rarely does it have much depth or complexity. Most games' climbing mechanics boil down to pushing forward on the analog stick or “W” button, with negligible or nonexistent consequences for making a wrong decision. Perhaps studios like The Game Bakers saw this and realized that climbing has the potential to be the main course of a game, rather than a side dish.
Which brings the discussion back toCeleste. AlthoughCelesteisn’t realistic, it’s still rather challenging, and this level of difficulty reflects the protagonist’s own psychological struggle. The game fosters a connection between the player and the protagonist through gameplay, which is what makes it such an emotional experience. It doesn’t need photorealistic graphics, physics, or gameplay to be moving and effective. Instead, it leverages demanding platforming to tell a powerful story.
Mountain climbing is rife with symbolic potential. The metaphor of “climbing a mountain” can be applied to virtually any major accomplishment or trial in life, so it’s no surprise that the activity sits at the heart of so many stories, both real and fictional.Cairn’s gameplay, though remarkably different fromCeleste’s, could very well capitalize on the symbolic power of mountain climbing in a similar way. Indeed,Cairnmight be comparably realistic and slower paced, but it could have more in common withCelestethan one would assume.
Celeste
WHERE TO PLAY
Help Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight, hand-crafted platformer from the creators of multiplayer classic TowerFall.A narrative-driven, single-player adventure like mom used to make, with a charming cast of characters and a touching story of self-discoveryA massive mountain teeming with 700+ screens of hardcore platforming challenges and devious secrets.Brutal B-side chapters to unlock, built for only the bravest mountaineersIGF “Excellence in Audio” finalist, with over 2 hours of original music led by dazzling live piano and catchy synth beats.The controls are simple and accessible - simply jump, air-dash, and climb - but with layers of expressive depth to master, where every death is a lesson. Lightning-fast respawns keep you climbing as you uncover the mysteries of the mountain and brave its many perils.
