Climbing Into Cairn: Sophia Eleni on Voice, Vulnerability & Vertical Worlds – Gaming Podcast

Video Gamers Podcast

Games, Video Games, Leisure

4.8 • 670 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gaming host John sits down with Sophia Eleni, the voice of Aava in the highly anticipated narrative climbing video game Cairn. In this heartfelt and informative interview, we dig into Sophia’s process, the emotional weight of her performance, and what it takes to bring such a grounded, intimate video game to life. We cover: Where Sophia pulled inspiration from for her performance The surprising (and hilarious) challenges of recording grunts, gasps, and falls in a video game How she connected personally with Cairn’s themes of perseverance And yes… we finally settle how to actually pronounce “Cairn” It’s an episode filled with laughs, insight, and community-submitted questions. All the behind the scenes gaming news and more, right here at Video Gamers Podcast! FOLLOW Sophie Eleni at: Insta: https://www.instagram.com/sophiaeleniofficial X: https://x.com/sophiaeleni FOLLOW Cairn at: Website: https://www.thegamebakers.com/cairn/ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1588550/Cairn/ Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, and Phelps Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/ Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1 Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the video gamers podcast.
0:14.9	Gaming provides players the opportunity to immerse themselves in worlds filled with adventure and peril.
0:21.1	It allows us to feel like we are climbing a mountain of progression or peering over the edge of a
0:26.2	cliff of danger.
0:27.6	Karen is an indie climber simulator that takes these scenarios quite literally.
0:33.0	Today we have on our show a guest who helped breathe life into the lead character of this
0:37.3	beautiful game, Sophia Eleni. Sophia, welcome to the show. Hello. we have on our show a guest who helped breathe life into the lead character of this beautiful
0:37.7	game, Sophia Eleni.
0:39.7	Sophia, welcome to the show.
0:41.4	Hello, John, and hello fellow gamers.
0:45.1	So the first thing I have to ask you is how do you pronounce the title of this game?
0:52.9	Okay, so it's pronounced can as in like a can of rocks.
0:58.9	So that's the name, can.
1:02.0	Okay, cairn, a cairn of rocks.
1:04.9	Yes, can you, can you provide the definition of that?
1:11.5	So, I mean, I wasn't there when they decided why they would call the game can.
1:17.4	But a can, if you were to see a can of rocks or stones piled on top of each other in the wilderness or on a mountain,
1:29.8	it would suggest that a human has been there, that humankind has been present at that moment and they have left their mark
1:35.8	or their territory to suggest. I mean, we've been doing it for centuries. So.
1:41.5	Okay. Well, then that makes a lot of sense for this game. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of
1:47.8	climbing up wilderness and, you know, altitudes and things like that. So yeah, it would, I think,
1:54.7	hopefully suggest, you know, that someone had been there. Yeah. Yeah. So this game is, uh, is currently in demo phase right now. The demo is available
	...

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