Islands of the Caliph
Islands of the Caliph imagines an ancient, seafaring Middle Eastern empire, spanning several islands to which the player may venture and explore.
Set in a fictional Island civilization, Islands of the Caliph is a unique mash-up of the old school RPGs the developer played in the 1980s, and Middle Eastern folklore and religion.
Numerous mythical and dangerous beasts lurk in waiting as you explore and discover new lands. From giant spiders and scorpions, to more supernatural beings like ghouls and jinn, Islands of the Caliph will introduce players to some of the creatures of folklore of Arab, Persian and African cultures among others.
Weapons are an important tool you will need to overcome adversaries. Find new weapons while adventuring or buy them from a merchant. Each weapon has different stats, so paying careful attention will help you to equip the best items.
As you explore, your map with be updated automatically. Use it to keep track of your location and to discover new routes of exploration. A small mini map appears in the corner of the screen while exploring, but you can open it to view the whole area when needed.
Many hidden treasures are waiting to be discovered by a brave adventurer. Some chests have coins, while others may have items to take. You may also use treasure chests to store items you don’t need, but are not quite ready to sell.
The player must explore this open world and discover the game’s primary quest for themselves. The game seeks to capture some of the open-endedness of classic RPGs like Might & Magic, Ultima and Bards Tale, with some modern conveniences. The player will be offered quests by some of the game’s NPCs. Some of these quests will be required to make progress in the game’s main story, while others will be optional. It is up to the player to figure out which is which, though often it will be obvious in the context given.
Game Discussion
Steam User 21
I did not come close to completing this game, but I had a good time. I have no nostalgia for the era of gaming that Islands of the Caliph is harkening back to, and this is my first time playing a game of this style. The experience was enjoyable in its novelty, but I certainly miss the quality of life features included in modern rpgs. I started taking physical notes on paper to remember which islands sold which products and which towns had which merchants and skill trainers. There's certainly a charm to be had there, but it was not the experience I was looking for in a computer game. If you have nostalgia for this type of game, or just want to experience what the genre is like, I recommend purchasing this and giving it a try.
Steam User 24
I’ll save ya’ll the incoherent babble from a non game reviewer
Amazing game from a studio who genuinely cares about the content both lore wise and gameplay wise - I’ve never played a dungeon crawler like this yet it was extremely easy to pick up and get into.
10/10 I might be biased since I’m Arab
Steam User 13
SOFTLOCK: I prayed at the mosque in Shifa and it softlocked the game. This was immediately after learning prayers, and after using the prayer rug twice. Also it was at night. No idea if any of these things factor in, but it wiped out a bunch of progress. This ocurred on 2/26/25.
Some other feedback: I do not think keyboard only is a valid design choice. It forces every interaction with the game to feel like you're operating a machine, rather than playing a character. It makes navigating the inventory feel so much worse than it needs to feel.
Outside of the keyboard only thing, I think Islands Of The Caliph will be super interesting to folks who like retro blobbers, but maybe not to players who like more modern Grimrock-y stuff. The pixel art is lovely, movement feels fluid, and there's a real funk to the game that I haven't seen anywhere else in a long time. A lot of its design just isn't optimal---including the keyboard only controls---and sometimes this produces little avenues of design that feel like they could be expanded upon.
For example, you're constantly getting poisoned or diseased or getting blisters on your fingeys, and medicine is bulky and expensive. You have to carry a lot of different types, otherwise your condition starts building up on its own until its swallows your health bar. Poison in Islands Of The Caliph is just about the harshest I've seen in any game, and it (and the fatigue system, and the hunger system) introduces some real softlock potential. You can save anywhere---but because tiredness deals damage and sleep is only possible in certain locations, you *really* shouldn't.
Quests are also not easy to track, and it feels lowkey miraculous that the game even has an automap.
So you're managing your unwieldy overstuffed inventory and trying to remember where you took quests and if you save in the wrong place your entire playtime might be down the drain due to the game's single save slot per file, and this creates the feeling that you're actually doing logistics for some kind of jungle expedition. Expand the sickness and injury system, and I think it would be really interesting having to do precise and technical medicine on yourself in what is otherwise a straightforward old school dungeon crawler.
So why am I recommending Islands Of The Caliph?
Well, I'm going to play a bit further and update after I do, but for the time being I appreciate the risks Caliph is taking. It's built different. Sometimes wrong. But it has a ton of heart in it, and I don't think I've seen any other rpgs include complex mechanics around learning Islam. You can have a million designers doing industry standards and best practices, and if you only play their games you'll miss out on the cool stuff that people make when they ditch those best practices, lean into the jank, and design with reckless enthusiasm.
Also the soundtrack is frequently a bop. Great ambiance overall, and lovely vocals on the town track. When you're just standing still, not touching the keyboard, this is a great game to immerse yourself in.
Edit: Oh. It autosaves when you die. After it deducts most of your money. The money you need for the expensive boats to travel between islands. The money you have to slowly farm off of random drops if it gets too low. The money you spend a lot on traveling because the game is one big interlaced fetch quest with an unhelpful questlog and a clunky interface. I don't mind the ramadan fasting, the 4x daily prayer, the optional clunk that you voluntarily take on to progress the religion questline, but being stuck in a grindlock when the rest of the game is already a massive test of your patience is a bit much of an ask. I hope we get a sequel, and I hope it picks one or two fewer things to be clunky about, but I ain't finishing this. Support it if you have a *lot* of fondness for old school blobbers, or if you want more indie designers to be able to take weird risks (you should.) Wait for a deep deep deep deep sale if you don't have the patience of a saint, however.
2nd Edit: Oh, you lose ITEMS when you die too. Really strongly recommend not doing saves and death the way you're doing them. Soulslike gameplay works because you don't really lose anything on death, just some univested exp, and you can usually recover it. You also don't have to constantly pay that exp to get on a boat. You don't lose vital equipment.
3rd Edit: It is beginning to seem plausible that the item I lost on death was the letter that I'm supposed to deliver to the other island leaders, which is why they're all refusing to meet with me. Stellar! I'm going to see if I can get it back by talking to the sultan again. I really like the islam mechanics, I haven't seen another rpg really make prayer and fasting and tithing part of its rhythm of play (apart from the solmenics in dragonlance I guess,) which is why I'm giving this thing third and fourth chances, but there's only so many times I can bang my head against a wall before something gives.
4th Edit: Unfortunately you have to go back to the sultan to get a new letter after every delivery, so my suffering is not ended yet. At this point I'd trade the automap for the ability to use map pins, since nothing is labeled and all the stuff that's behind doors does not show up unless you're currently on the other side of that door. "Thanks for delivering this recipe book. Come back and find me after I've finished reading it." No I won't. Your quest isn't even tracked anymore. You're gone into the aether. I will never remember your location. The map is a meaningless spill of runes and I am in hell.
5th Edit: Giving money to boatmen simulator.
6th Edit: Okay, so grinding out the loyalty quests for each island is immensely boring. Boat. Step. Boat. Step. Boat. Step. Sometimes a snake poisons you. Nothing is happening so prodigiously that you can read it on the richter scale. And if you do the lamp quest and free the jinn it's way worse, because for that you have to hit a perfect 360 no scoped SSS rank triple combo multiplier ultimate ramadan fast (you need to spam rest to advance the calendar until it is ramadan, then fast for seven days while maintaining correct daily prayers---basically, spam rest for like an hour if you started in the wrong part of the year) and then you have to find the kaba (an awful chore in its own right that seems to involve fishing in a specific pond under a crescent moon,) and we've fully hit the point of diminishing returns here. Some frustration and tedium in a game's design can force a player to lock in. This much frustration and tedium will cause them to lock out. I like some elements of Caliph, but I really hope the next game will try only doing good design instead of both good and bad design.
Steam User 11
Finally! An Islamic-inspired lore game of a high quality. Deeply appreciated various references, the atmosphere, the respect towards Islamic culture and the mystery entailed through such a set up. Wishing strongly for another game in the series and it has been a very pleasant experience.
Steam User 10
This feels to me like a classic adventure game wearing the skin of a dungeon crawler. Where some of the top dungeon crawlers like Grimrock, Might & Magic, or Wizardry have involved combat systems you need to master to progress, this one has a very simple combat system that you don't need to worry too much about, allowing you to focus instead on exploration and discovery of the world.
And unlike games like Minecraft which boast endless lands to explore, this world is relatively small but densely packed with carefully designed secrets to take note of. You start to see how abilities you acquire later could be used in earlier areas to surmount previously insurmountable obstacles, never mind learning which resources are available on each island so you can make some profit from trading. And there can sometimes be multiple ways to complete the quests you're given.
I will say you will want to keep your own notes as you play. There's a quest tracker, but it only tracks quests. Keeping track of routes between islands, notable obstacles, and the clues you pick up along the way are all on you as the player and will make your life easier.
If you're looking for a game with complex combat mechanics you will be disappointed, but if you mainly want a mysterious world that rewards careful observation and experimentation and immersing yourself in the setting, this is up there with the greats. Now I just want more dungeon crawlers in this style.
Steam User 10
*Played and finished offline*
An amazing game, with a masterfully created story, well done MKSchmidt, now I *have* to try your other games.
Disclosure: I'm 69 years old and have to resort to C.E. for playing games.
So, for those somewhat impaired like me, please don't pass the chance to fully play this gem: you'll be amply rewarded.
If the dev disagrees with this, just add a comment and I'll erase this hints :
I hope he agrees, as I fervently wish for this marvelous game to be played by young and old alike, the more the better !
*C.E. hints* (select to see)
Everything (health, stamina, xp, stats, items, Torch Burn Time , etc) is Type 4 Bytes, just multiply the value shown by 262144 and search for that result instead, change the values playing, search again till the precise address is found.
You can freeze values by ticking the empty squares, or in some cases replacing the value with a greater one:
Example: 26214400 will be 100, 262144000 will be 1000, etc.
*end hints*
Steam User 9
A very nice game influenced by Islamic tradition, there are few hiccups in terms of the guidelines on what to do next and how to move between quests.
My only main issue with the game is the lack of enemy variation, there are like almost 10-15 enemy variations where some of them (like the spiders) are just re-skins of others.
However, for a game made by a lone developer, I will look past these issues, and I look forward to a more expandable game in the future.