The Song of Calirum by Blizary
Environment
You are a traveller passing by the Calirum Desert. One night, you found a merchant that invited you to play the Song of Calirum, the most famous card game on the entire Desert. The night is calm and you decide to give that stranger a chance. But be careful, the Calirish have a very strange sense of humour.

The Theme
You start with nothing on a long journey of awareness. The player won't have any resource at the start but as time goes on he starts getting more and more resources to a point when they do more harm than help.
Game Objective
The objective of the game is to find a path and complete the challenges requested by this path. How do you find a path, you ask? Well, that is up to you to figure out.

Gameplay and General Rules
This is a game of choices. The player is presented with an event and a series of possible choices. The player will pick the most advantageous option regarding his/her strategy. This is also a game about managing a finite pool of resources and we are not only talking about physical resources (like gold or food), but also about psychological resources (like sanity or charisma).
In this representation of the board, you can see various game elements.
A: the event
B: the choices: selecting these choices is the only action the player can do.
C: your capacity: these pebbles show you how much inventory space you have left.
D: your resources: you can see here all the resources you gathered in your adventure.
E: The rule book: if you have any doubt during the game.
Credits: Programmer @blizary Artist @pedro-rosa Sound www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPK_QQuwKDI
| Youtube | https://ritarbapodev.itch.io/the-song-of-calirum |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/the-song-of-calirum |
Ratings
| Overall | 48th | 4.171⭐ | 87🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 71th | 4.018⭐ | 87🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 102th | 3.941⭐ | 87🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 255th | 3.747⭐ | 87🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 43th | 4.444⭐ | 74🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 58th | 4.053⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 257th | 3.371⭐ | 72🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 47th | 4.169⭐ | 73🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 116🗳️ | 125🗨️ |
I noticed a bug though:
If you spam click on a card, the card will be applied for every click (gain infinite resources, and generally breaks the game).
I noticed that you did opt out from all optional rating categories. Were there any particular reasons? Some card texts were really funny and I would have probably given a very high score in humor, as well as graphics.
The gameplay is super engaging and has a big exploration aspect to it. The large amount of choices and events give you the just-one-more-click feel because it was just fun to see all the different ways you can hone your resource counts. I feel like it's impossible to beat it on your first try because you don't have a sense of what cards to save up for, but then you lose and gain some experiences about what kinds of goals you want to reach next time, like 4 stamina for going on the mountain. So speaking of enlightenment it's almost like each time you play you're reincarnate with some knowledge of your past attempt and can do better this time. I'm probably looking too far into that intent but since I just played your game, it just sucked me into that whole world of sacrifice and enlightenment.
Seriously the presentation and polish is incredible. Are you guys pros? You guys may like the game I made this LD. It's a bit in the same vein in terms of decision-making and being system heavy. I actually built a similar mechanic where you gained resource tokens, juggled them, and prevented them from getting to 0. However, I nixed it because it was too confusing. That makes me appreciate your game even more because you pulled off what I couldn't. Also, did you have trouble balancing this game? I can't imagine what you could do other than just play it a ton.
@andreas-roschal thanks i didn't noticed that at all, thanks a lot.
For some reason Graphics, Humor and Mood where turned off.
@toad , @peachtreeoath,@celia14, @justcamh, @ojwk, @noahro, @julien-kuhn, @andreas-roschal, @sometimesghost, @nachtwitch, @chad-cable and @emiliabea
Can you please rank us on the other categories I am really sorry to bother you =(.
The ambiance is great, the art is beautiful and the gameplay is quite innovative. I loved it, great job !
We also made a card game in this Ludum Dare)
Hi @charitosdev thank you. You are really kind.
Hi @fcvalise, I am glad you like it.
Hi, @chad-cable thanks for your feedback. I am happy that you liked the artwork and the game flow.
Hi @nachtwitch, thanks :) I am pleased to know that you had some fun playing our game. That's the more important part.
Hi @sometimesghost, I am so happy to know that you are going to play more of our game. Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @julien-kuhn, thanks for your feedback.
Hi @noahro, hehe that world-building is a bit silly XD. I am so happy you liked it. Thanks a lot for reporting that bug it is game-breaking.
Hi @ojwk, I am glad you like the art :)
Hi @justcamh, thanks for your kind words :) I am happy that you want to play more :)
Hi @celia14, Thanks for your feedback. I had that question as well, maybe the player will fill a bit lost in the middle of all events. I guess we need to give a clearer hint of what the player should be looking for.
Hi @andreas-roschal, thanks for the life saver feedback regarding the rankings. We didn't notice that at all. I glad you like the game.
Hi @peachtreeoath, thanks for the extensive feedback. About a quit game, I am glad you liked it XD. It seemed a good way of integrating a "quit game" button on the overall game esthetic. The game is technically possible to beat in the 1st time but it is practically impossible to beat at the 1st time XD. Since the game is about knowledge of the different paths and resources, it will be hard for someone to bit it in a 1st-time play. I love the interpretation you made. I am glad you like the presentation of the game.
Hi @toad, thanks for your feedback. Yes, I also had that concern about the font. Even though we try to use one font that seemed more middle eastern and with good readability but this was the best we found in the time we had.
Hi @tohubohu. I am glad you like the artwork and the game. Thanks a lot for the bug report.
Hi @mindtricks, hmm we will try to replicate that bug. Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @t-bo, I am glad you like the game. Thanks for your kind words =).
Hi @kanonix, thanks for your feedback. I am happy you liked the game and the art :)
Hi @ivananovakova), Thanks for your feedback :)
Hi @mikeorma, thanks for your kind words. That is something we could think of no dought. I glad you liked the game.
Hi @xakkar thanks for your feedback. I will for sure review all the game of everyone that gave us feedback.
Provide some tips/hints ,so that user can understand ,what to proceed next!!
otherwise the game is good*-*
The only criticism I can say, is that few times the jokes were braking engagement for me. Like the Biscuit temple and some other cards are somehow anachronistic, and feel a bit out of this world. I am not a spiritual person myself, but I like the vibe here very much, and those felt off a bit.
Hi, @ekin. I thanks for your kind words. I am happy that you liked the graphics.
Hi @drazhaar, I also think the music could be a bit less repetitive but that one was picked at the last minute. Thanks for the bug report, we are working on that.
Hi @el-fideo-rubio, Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @pestodesign, I am so happy you replayed the game 6 times :). Ok, I get what you are saying regarding the atmosphere and the jokes. I wanted to make something that was not too serious but I was also afraid what would break the environment. It is a serious concern that I have I am glad you point it out maybe we need to rethink some jokes. Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @ausstein, Thanks for pointing that out maybe we need to balance a bit the starvation part. It is for a lot of persons the ending point of our game. Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @gamesup-1st-year-promo, thanks for the bug report we are trying to solve that.
Hi @reneantunes, Thanks for your feedback. Yes, we tried to go our best on this game and we could only put half of the content we planed =p hehe.
Hi, @fax Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @annie-owl, yes the hovers hehe. We had that planned but we didn't have time. The truth is that we had a game-breaking at hours of the launch and all the time we had left was gone. The point is exactly what you said. The player needs to know that the resources have before he makes a choice. Thanks for your feedback.
The font is a bit off, I'm not sure what I mean by it. I know you were going for the arabian/medieval/old timey font style but this one made the text harder to read from me. Part of it may come from odd scaling, in places it feels pixelated and oddly stretched.
Below is what I mean, an an example of something much more readable. There should be a font out there somewhere that's clear like this, but in the style you wanted.
Edit: the screenshot is a bit zoomed in, the game is less pixelated on my screen obviously :D

ps: Font is a little hard to read.
very well done, and the music matches very well with the game,
for me one nice touch would be about the name of the cards, I know the colors but the name is in the center, so, when you have a lot of cards it becomes difficult to see what is each card that I have
Hi @artyom-volkov, we are going to lunch a 1.1 version with all the major bugs fixed in the next days. Thanks for your feedback :)
Hi @shelvid, I am so glad you played a lot our game :) We are going to make the game a bit easier so people can explore more of the world. Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @matt-rix, We are going to do that it makes a lot of sense. Thanks a lot for your feedback.
Hi @psiv, thanks for your feedback.
Hi @marcin-j, You are completely right on your feedback. we are studying a new font, the difficult part is to balance a font with readability and the Arabic feel. Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @ahistyap, I am glad you liked it :)
Hi @cyrolis, we are going to think about that. Thanks :)
Hi @p-r I glad you like the graphics.
Hi @ahistyap, I am glad you liked our game.
Hi @bilalch213, Thanks for your kind words.
Hi @solah, I am glad you liked it :) Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @ferdi, Thanks for your feedback. We are already testing a new font :)
Hi @space-nomad, Thanks for your kind words, I really glad you like our game.
Hi @vincentvincent, Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @dodelov, I glad you liked the art style. Thanks :)
Hi @sharbelfs, you are completely right it is base on the concepts of underhand. I always thought that game style could be applied to a different environment =). Thanks for your feedback.
Great Solid Entry - Well Done!
Love the mechanics. I starve too much, so maybe some balancing is in order.
Given <3 though, I'd buy this on steam in a jiffy. 😁👍
I feel like it could have been a bit more directed, like I wasn't really sure what I was trying to do. Of course that could be a design decision as well because it did add to the mysticism of it all.
I also found the coloured circles a bit hard to connect to the resource. I eventual equated the colour to the resource but perhaps an icon or even the lovely art on the card could go in the little circle to make it easier to parse.
There's a bug where you click on the card multiple times and keep getting the reward for every click.
Very well polished, lovely animations, great card art. Just a lovely game all around.
Vocês são brasileiros?
Congratulations one more time!
This is our game:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/soundscapes
E nao exactamente somos portugues mas vai dar ao mesmo certo? =P
The art and the presentation is top notch for a game jam - color me impressed. I really enjoyed the gameplay and the choices seemed surprisingly well balanced for coming up with the idea on such short time.
The only thing I encountered that was a real problem is that I had the Starvation event a couple of times, and although my only option was to "Lose the game", the game continued on as if nothing. I eventually lost the game to exhaustion instead. Also, more events and cards would be fun - some of them seemed to repeat quite often.
I spent quite some time on this, and I was unable to beat it. Don't really know what I'm trying to achieve, but I think that is part of the fun with the experience. I've downloaded it and will be playing again (and again), until I beat it.
Fabulous work - this was right up my alley.
Hi @themista92, I glad you like our game. We tried to have a menu that is well integrated with the game narrative :) Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @nickzangus, Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @sam-dower, thanks a lot for your comment.
Hi @lars-erik, Thanks a lot man :). I am so glad you liked our game. For sure the game needs some balancing. Thanks for your support.
Hi @amerigo-gazaway, thanks for your feedback. We wanted to make some SFX but in the end, we didn't have time.
Hi @noobdev, you are really kind :) I am glad you liked our game.
Thanks for your support.
Hi @rebtf, I am glad you like the game. Regading the lack of information it was a design decision, so the player have a real sense of lost. But I also think there sould be a clear direction because the player dosent know what he should be looking for. Regarding the coloured circles I complitly agree with you a symble could be a good way to solve that problem. Thanks for your feedback.
Hi @euler-moises, Nós somos Portugueses :). Ainda bem que gostaste do jogo. Relativamente á música, sim era fixe se esta mudasse com a situação. Obrigado pela dica. No que diz respeito á fonte, também temos de testar uma fonte que seja mais facil de ler.
Nós estamos a avaliar todas as pessoas que comentaram no nosso jogo :) Obrigado pelo teu feedback.
Thanks a lot for your feedback :).
Hi @mrerdalural Thanks for your feedback
I played through three times before ultimately dying in each session. I loved the choices and having to balance different resources. I found some paths but many times I just didn't have the right resources, since it's hard to know which resources I will need for which random path that comes up. I ended up building a lot of Enlightenment, which I felt was a really useful resource to have, but that game I kept getting the same few events over and over which depleted my food and stamina, forcing me to use up my enlightenment. Then when I got a path that required enlightenment, I had none to give :(. I think some of the random events can show up less often if you have encountered them before (for example, the mountain with the guy who gives a riddle... I don't need to see that twice).
Finally, I found it frustrating to have to open to rulebook to see what resources I have. The cards could contain the names on the sides, or allow you to scroll over to read them.
The memories of those days still look like dreams. Where are you going now? https://tetrisonline.co https://scribble-io.online