Why Cairn’s prickly protagonist serves a robust objective – Gameplay, Leaks & Tech

Are you a sport developer in search of instruments to consider storytelling? Perhaps you are a sport author or narrative designer trying a house for brass-tacks dialogue in regards to the craft? Welcome, expensive readers, to Narrative Pocket book, my new column impressed by my facet work on the earth of indie video games.

I’ve a quite simple philosophy of storytelling in video video games: nice video games writing is all over the place in video games. We simply do not at all times have the instruments to identify it.

I’ve had alternatives up to now to gush about nice storytelling moments in video games, however they got here at one thing of an irregular cadence. That is made it trickier to debate broad subjects or preserve common observe of developments within the subject. I would like Narrative Pocket book to be a useful resource for everybody who wants a contact of storytelling—regardless of how massive or small—to make their sport particular. 

It will even be a house for narrative inspirations outdoors of video games. I wish to assist builders see tips on how to harvest feelings and themes from works outdoors the interactive world.

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We’re kicking off this sequence with a take a look at The Recreation Bakers’ sci-fi mountaineering journey Cairn. It is already destined to be one in every of my favourite video games of 2026. The sport’s climbing system and vertical stage design are technical and artistic wonders, and its gorgeous artwork route is a feast for the eyes. However what I used to be most stunned by was the story’s protagonist, Aava.

In video video games once we meet characters decided to perform an inconceivable job, they’re typically positioned as keen go-getters. However Aava is one thing totally different—a prickly individual typically impolite and abrasive to the individuals she encounters. She’s a case research in contrasts, and an amazing reference level for builders seeking to inform morally nuanced tales within the online game medium.

Aava is an athlete struggling to maintain her humanity

Spoiler warning – we’ll be discussing the plot of Cairn in nice element under.

After I spoke with The Recreation Bakers artistic director Emeric Thoa again in 2024, he described Cairn‘s emotional core as being impressed by the extreme rush that climbers really feel making it to the highest of a climb. 

Thoa described how this emotion knowledgeable Aava’s character in an interview in a December 2025 interview on the official PlayStation weblog. “She’s demanding, perfectionist, and might’t stand failure. And when she conquers a troublesome route, when she pauses for a second on a ledge with a panoramic view, she feels free. It is for moments like these that she climbs—that is her important drive.”

That “important drive” is extra overwhelming with Aava than in most different characters I’ve seen with related motivation. Because the story progresses, gamers are prone to be stunned by how little heat this fictional superstar solo climber reveals for anybody else within the story. She screams in anger any time her companion Naomi or handler Chris ship messages. She’s impolite to Marco, a youthful and less-jaded climber additionally scaling Kami and at first she reveals no affection for Climberbot, her cute robotic pal wordlessly supporting her journey up the mountain.

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This habits does not simply seem in cutscenes. A few of these interactions play out in barks that pop up in the course of the climb, and there are a couple of key moments the place the participant can solely proceed after they lash out at Marco. 

However Aava is not at all times like this. Like many gruff protagonists, she warms as much as Marco after initially telling him off. She’s somber and reflective when learning journals left by different climbers and a local tribe known as the Troglodytes. And her indifference to Climberbot turns to intense sorrow after she strikes it in a match of anger. 

In a conventional arc, this may be a narrative the place she lowers her guard and learns to let others in. However this isn’t a conventional arc. And Aava’s journey is not about love or heat—it is about looking for the one factor that may make her really feel alive.

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What occurs while you’re solely completely happy doing the inconceivable?

Cairn can be a implausible case research in subtext. Gamers are trusted to choose up on Aava’s emotional state via terse exchanges with different characters and the ignored messages from residence. However the subtext hits a peak when late within the sport, Aava sends a message residence attempting to precise her emotions and why she’s on this harmful journey—and she will be able to’t.

It isn’t simply due to exhaustion. Aava has misplaced a lot of her humanity seeking the climb. The factor that makes her really feel alive is the feeling of reaching the summit. Aava will solely be completely happy when she—and the participant—attain the mountain’s summit. However Kami’s atmosphere is like Mt. Everest on steroids. The our bodies of lifeless climbers litter the slopes all the way in which up, and to complete her journey is to threat life, not simply limb.

This turns into obvious after a devastating dream sequence halfway via the sport that makes use of Fleischer-era type animation solely not like the rest within the story. Aava has obtained information that may have despatched most individuals turning round to hurry down the mountain and luxury her family members—and as a substitute all she will be able to do about it’s have nightmares and proceed the climb.

Not for nothing, however what follows can be one of the vital difficult sequences within the sport. I muscled via it, refusing to reload an earlier save even after many failures, as a result of I didn’t wish to expertise that dream sequence once more.

Again in 2023 I requested Thoa why Cairn was a science fiction journey sport and never only a climbing simulator (which perhaps might have been a less-risky enterprise proposal), he mentioned the workforce at The Recreation Bakers loves video games with some sort of that means. 

Right here, that that means comes all from Aava’s shattering sense of self, and gamers should confront the query—what else is left for somebody like her after they summit the best peak in all of the land?

It is fascinating how Cairn pulls off this advanced story without having the subversive setpieces you would possibly discover in a sport like The Final of Us or Spec Ops: The Line. In my very own work, I’ve needed to interpret characters via the lens of the participant energy fantasy—Aava makes me ponder how writers can create advanced characters with out taking the participant’s consideration away from the enjoyable and rewarding components of a sport.

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As promised, I am leaving you with a brief checklist of works to have a look at outdoors of video video games, with some notes on what to concentrate to.

Till subsequent time—simply bear in mind: nice video games writing is all over the place.