Californium on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

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 ?

Californium is a psychedelic, sci-fi and experimental game developed by Darjeeling, Nova Production and ARTE France and published by ARTE France.
Released on February 17th 2016 is available on Windows and MacOS in 3 languages: English, French and German.

It has received 383 reviews of which 269 were positive and 114 were negative resulting in a rating of 6.7 out of 10. 😐

The game is currently priced at 0.77€ on Steam with a 87% discount.


The Steam community has classified Californium into these genres:

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Californium through various videos and screenshots.

System requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows
  • OS *: Windows 7 or Higher
  • Processor: Intel Core i3 2.00 GHz
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: DX9 (shader model 2.0)
  • Storage: 2 GB available space
MacOS
  • OS: 10.8
  • Processor: Intel Core i3
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: ATI Radeon 2400 or higher / NVIDIA 8600M or higher
  • Storage: 2 GB available space

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Feb. 2025
This is a "yes" with a LOT of asterisks next to it... It would be 100% recommend if it were given an update and some love after launch. To start with the good: - I enjoyed exploring the game, and unravelling the story. - Cool take on a hidden object/walking sim game - Quite satisfying to solve the puzzles - Philip K Dick references all over the shop! :) - Such a brilliant unique art style and premise! I really did sit going "how the heck did they do that" at times. - The world created, and seeing it through the lenses of each reality absolutely nailed the PKD science fiction approach, it was awesome seeing it in an exploreable environment. - I'm thrilled this game exists and couldn't put it down. And now for the less good things that could definitely have been fixed: - Made my relatively beefy PC struggle with frame rate and cranked my fans up to full... for reference, I can play GTA V at 60fps without an issue. - I needed a guide to do some hidden object puzzles, as quite a few were things I had found, but I just couldn't get the icon to appear without vanishing when I turned to click on it. I was using the guide as a "yes, you did find it, try standing in this really specific spot and looking at this angle" (sometimes this still didn't work and I'd end up doing weird things to make it work or reloading the level) - Needed to reload at a really climactic part of the game because the thing used to progress the level.... didn't actually appear until I reloaded. Kind of took me out the game a bit having to look that one up. - One of the achievements is flat-out broken (talk to all NPCs) - people tend to edit their save files to get this achievement. - You slide down stairs when standing stationary on them (I'd imagine this is quite an easy thing to fix depending on how movement is handled) So... all in all... I paid £0.67 for a really fun evening! Sure I have some hang-ups about how nice a patch would have been to resolve the things that irked me, but... even at £6.00 I'd have not felt cheated. I had a blast. :) Admittedly I'm a massive Philip K Dick fan, and love his books, but I'll be coming back to this more than once I think. :) You can see the conflict I have, as technically no probably not a great experience for people... but I had a ball. :)
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Dec. 2024
Californium is a good adventure game with a great story, a weird ambiant and some colored deisigns. For his low price, I recommend it!!! ❤️
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Dec. 2024
Two times in the span of an hour I paused the game and accidentally restarted the level when I wanted to just unpause. So that's enough of that game, lol.
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Dec. 2024
“Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then.”
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Nov. 2024
i didn't find issues with controls like others have. i enjoyed the experience of finding and solving visual puzzles.
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Data sources

The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.

Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.

Last Updates
Steam data 11 April 2025 06:24
SteamSpy data 11 April 2025 14:27
Steam price 13 April 2025 12:45
Steam reviews 12 April 2025 00:07

If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Californium, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.

  • SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Californium
  • SteamCharts - Analysis of Californium concurrent players on Steam
  • ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Californium compatibility
Californium
6.7
269
114
Online players
1
Developer
Darjeeling, Nova Production, ARTE France
Publisher
ARTE France
Release 17 Feb 2016
Platforms
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