Cairn

Cairn is a 2026 simulation adventure video game developed and published by The Game Bakers. Players control Aava, a professional mountaineer who seeks to summit the mysterious Mount Kami. While her journey is mostly solitary, she encounters other climbers and inhabitants on the mountain and uncovers remnants of past expeditions along with a long-lost civilization. As a simulation game, players manually control each of Aava's limbs. The game also features elements commonly found in survival games, with players being tasked with managing Aava's hunger, thirst, and temperature. It also features a weather system and a day-night cycle, both of which affect gameplay difficulty. Development of the game started in 2020. Emeric Thoa served as its creative director, while comic book artist Mathieu Bablet was its art director and lead writer, and Martin Stig Andersen was its audio designer and co-composer. The Game Bakers described the game as a conclusion to its "trilogy on freedom", following Furi and Haven. The development team was inspired by climbing documentaries and the manga series The Summit of the Gods. They also consulted alpinists and visited Aiguille du Midi to learn about mountaineering. While The Game Bakers described it as a "survival climber" and compared Mount Kami to a long boss fight, the game was not designed to be punishing, with the team introducing various accessibility options. The game had a budget of €5 million. Announced in June 2024, the game was released on 29 January 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Windows. The game received generally positive reviews, with critics praising its simulation gameplay, story, and art direction, though Aava's characterization and the game's technical issues were criticized. The game sold over 200,000 copies in three days. The Game Bakers planned to support the game with free downloadable content packs under the banner "On the Trail", with the first update, "Deep Water", set to be released in mid 2026. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is scheduled for 2027.