The Game Census
Californium cover art

Californium

Darjeeling · ARTE France · 2016-02-17

SteamGOG

AdventureCasualIndieSimulation

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: First person

Releases: Feb 17, 2016 (Mac), Feb 17, 2016 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

Taking the form of a first-person experience of a bad trip, Californium pays homage to sci-fi legend Philip K. Dick by transporting you into the life of a writer searching for his own identity. Explore, solve the riddles and conduct your investigation. Will you find what’s behind the simulacra ?

70%
positive of 412 reviews
Mostly Positive
steam's rating (official)
0–20,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
60/100
critic score (1 outlets, IGDB)
60/100
IGDB user rating (2 ratings)
silver
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Unknown
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: 0
$6.99
steam price (US)
Californium is an adventure game co-developed by Darjeeling and Nova Productions, and released in February 2016 for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux under Proton. Californium was developed as a tribute to science-fiction author Philip K. Dick on the 30th anniversary of his death. The player controls Elvin Green, a struggling writer dealing with family matters, as he discovers the means to manipulate reality, and explores several surreal landscapes.

Health check

Quiet
  • · 15 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~2/week).
  • · Review velocity down 12% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 22% of 27,262 Adventure games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 10k–25k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 412 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

Gamesplanet$0.65-91%
Steam$0.90-87%
Humble Store$0.99-90%
lowest across shops (ITAD)$6.99
GOG$9.99

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $0.55 at Fanatical (2023-09-18) · bundled 5×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $9.99 · on sale 142 of 152 observed days · $0.10 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
4420172026Week of 2017-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-09-01: 1 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Price history

$10.98$0.492016-02-112026-10-112016-02-11 — best price $9.062016-04-12 — best price $4.992016-06-30 — best price $9.992016-11-25 — best price $4.992017-06-19 — best price $3.482018-04-20 — best price $9.992018-12-17 — best price $4.002019-05-17 — best price $2.802019-08-14 — best price $2.792019-11-26 — best price $2.792020-01-21 — best price $2.792020-03-27 — best price $6.292020-06-24 — best price $2.792020-10-16 — best price $1.392021-01-05 — best price $6.992021-05-24 — best price $6.292021-10-25 — best price $6.992022-01-27 — best price $1.392022-06-18 — best price $2.002022-11-14 — best price $6.992023-02-14 — best price $0.692023-05-07 — best price $0.992023-07-28 — best price $0.692023-10-18 — best price $6.992024-01-01 — best price $5.942024-03-14 — best price $0.902024-06-18 — best price $0.692024-08-13 — best price $5.502024-11-15 — best price $0.692025-02-18 — best price $6.992025-06-17 — best price $4.932025-10-01 — best price $6.992026-01-05 — best price $6.992026-04-17 — best price $0.702026-07-29 — best price $6.992026-09-07 — best price $5.602026-10-07 — best price $0.652026-10-11 — best price $0.65
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

2112026-07-13 — 9 pageviews2026-07-16 — 6 pageviews2026-07-19 — 15 pageviews2026-07-22 — 5 pageviews2026-07-25 — 4 pageviews2026-07-28 — 9 pageviews2026-07-31 — 6 pageviews2026-08-03 — 6 pageviews2026-08-06 — 14 pageviews2026-08-09 — 8 pageviews2026-08-12 — 7 pageviews2026-08-15 — 1 pageviews2026-08-18 — 9 pageviews2026-08-21 — 10 pageviews2026-08-24 — 5 pageviews2026-08-27 — 4 pageviews2026-08-30 — 7 pageviews2026-09-02 — 6 pageviews2026-09-05 — 7 pageviews2026-09-08 — 12 pageviews2026-09-11 — 1 pageviews2026-09-14 — 7 pageviews2026-09-17 — 9 pageviews2026-09-20 — 13 pageviews2026-09-23 — 7 pageviews2026-09-26 — 5 pageviews2026-09-29 — 8 pageviews2026-10-02 — 5 pageviews2026-10-05 — 5 pageviews2026-10-08 — 2 pageviews2026-10-10 — 6 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

7
achievements tracked
52.5%
earned "Berkeley"
34%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSSingle-playerSteam AchievementsFamily Sharing

2 supported languages: English, French

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)58412%7

Players tracked by Exophase (achievement/trophy trackers) — a sample of the player base, not total sales.

Player tags

IndieCasualSci-fiSurrealColorfulAdventureAtmosphericExplorationPsychedelicExperimental

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

The Dark Eye: MemoriaUnavowedPLANET ALPHAApocalipsisDon't Escape: 4 Days to SurviveBad North: Jotunn EditionDegrees of SeparationPode

Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗Wikipedia ↗