Cairn's manual climbing system is like a 'vertical Death Stranding'

Cairn was the most brutal game we saw at Gamescom.

That's surprising in the sense that The Game Baker's Cairn is not a lot of game with blood, guts, or viscera. It also wasn't exceptionally difficult. But it nailed a terrifying sensation for anyone who's ever been rock climbing: the terrible strain put on your muscles as you're hanging dozens—or hundreds—of feet up in the air.

Playing Cairn is obviously safer for your real body than the real deal, and it's even safer than hitting your local gym. But the sensation is still there. Creative director Emeric Thoa explained to us after some time with the game that the studio was deeply invested in capturing the struggle and intense thrill real-life rock climbers experience.

To do that, it had to capture the pain and careful consideration that climbers practice when hauling themselves up a ledge.

Cairn is all about managing the limbs

Thoa joked in our conversation that Cairn is almost like a "vertical Death Stranding," making a comparison to Kojima Productions' debut title, which tasked players with methodically walking across a post-apocalyptic United States on a journey where every bump or crevice in the dirt could throw off the huge loads they carried on their backs.

Player character Aava has an easier time than Death Stranding's Sam Porter Bridges when she's navigating flat surfaces, but when it comes time to scale the walls of Mount Kami, she'll have to take on tasks his bulky arms couldn't possibly handle.

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This is how the game's controls work: once players are on the rock wall, they control each of Aava's limbs as she grips crevices, inclines, and even smooth surfaces. The game automatically cycles through her arms and legs, meaning players need to quickly decide if their limb is already in a strong position, or if they need to move it to reach the next incline.

This isn't possible with premade animations. Thoa explained that because hands and feet can be placed anywhere, the character needed to be animated using a mix of inverse kinematic (IK) rigs and procedural animation. "There is no human-made animation," he stressed.

Image via The Game Bakers.

An algorithm calculating those animations works in tandem with another one that measures how much effort each movement requires and how stable Aava's position is. Players can boost her stamina with snacks and drinks quickly slurped down on the cliffside, or by dropping a pinion in the cliffside to hang for a rest. "These things talk to each other until we break the code and have to fix bugs for two or three weeks," Thoa said in a deadpan tone.

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The stress and stability systems are what make Cairn so tense. Sure, at the surface level it's just a health bar that ticks downward based on how much pressure is being applied by Aava's body. But the shaking of her limbs and the sound design of her grunts and rapidly increasing breath begin really sell the pain of a tiring limb.

And if you're playing on a controller with rumble effects, that experience is cranked up to eleven and boy is it really unpleasant if you've ever strained a muscle in real life.

Encouraging players to think ahead is a key part of the climbing experience

The overall structure of Mount Kami resembles most other climbing games—combining flat surfaces that act as rest and exploration points for the player with tricky segments that need brain power to navigate. The walls aren't meant to have one correct path. Some will contain more easy-to-grip locations than others, but Thoa said the goal is to create interesting choices so players can plan their route.

That decision adds a subtle element to Cairn's gameplay loop: the planning. Other climbing games throw challenges at the player as they advance, but rarely ask them to plan their route (Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom might be an exception, but there are still obvious paths scaled against the player's stamina and others that can only be climbed by repeatedly downing restorative items).

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Image via The Game Bakers.

Demanding players assess the path and make an educated guess about what they can accomplish mirrors the real-life rock climbing experience. Apparently veteran rock climbers who've looked at the game have been surprised at how inspired by reality it is.

The Game Bakers' previous games all mixed strong narrative design with interesting gameplay hooks, and Cairn is no different. With this game, Thoa said the team is chasing the sensation climbers feel when they get to the top of a difficult cliff.

It's something that might be present if the team had just made a game they could have called "Rock Climbing Simulator," but he said it's in The Game Bakers' "personality" to experiment with narrative. "We love video games where gameplay has some kind of meaning. It doesn't have to be a hardcore story, but there is at least meaning that resonates...[with the player]."

Thoa trailed off here because we both looked at the monitor and saw Aava collapse from thirst before sliding off the cliff I'd just climbed. Neither of us had hit the "pause" button before we started our conversation. This was a moment that showed off the second half of Cairn's algorithm—the exhaust and stress Aava faces on her climb.

Through (my) neglect, it sent her falling over the edge, undoing the progress I'd made up the mountain.

Making innovative games takes time

Cairn's climbing system is unique, but it wasn't easy to develop. The game's been in the works for four years with a staff of 25 developers (some pushing updates for the company's last game Haven). The Game Bakers self-publishes and self-funds its titles. Developing a game under these circumstances is difficult, especially when the competition is so steep.

Thoa said experimenting with unique mechanics is the only way The Game Bakers stays competitive in a crowded market. Not all of its prior games took as long, but the company's "David versus Goliath" strategy is what's kept them going.

It's a friendly competition with the industry's Goliath, of course. He joked that the studio hopes Hideo Kojima will ring them up to consult on Death Stranding 3.