Chorin: Ora et Labora: Build a real medieval abbey, from 1258 to today

Hi Product Hunt, I’m Dan, the solo dev behind Chorin: Ora et Labora.

There’s a Cistercian abbey about an hour’s drive from Berlin, Kloster Chorin. I’ve been there several times, and it got me every time: red brick more than seven hundred years old, beech forests, lakes, and a lot of quiet. So in my spare time I made a calm idle game about its real history. It starts with the monks’ first huts on an island in 1258 and goes through the move to Chorin, the Reformation and the decay, to Schinkel’s rescue and the concerts of today. I wanted a game where you build instead of destroy.

What’s in it:

• every tiny monk is a named brother at his own craft, and you pick the craft when he joins;

• its own calendar: seasons and night change the work (at night the kiln is banked and the brothers walk to Vigils with lanterns);

• six dilemmas for the abbot, four of which come back as echoes in a later era;

• eight real moments from the region’s history, from a new protector in 1320 to the Oder flood of 1997, each one a small choice or a trial, with its source;

• 18 chronicle pages that cite their sources;

• free to start, the full chronicle is one purchase with every update included; no ads, no gems, no energy;

• eight languages, works offline, and it pauses when you close it.

I’d love your honest feedback, especially on the first ten minutes. And if you’re ever near Berlin, go and see the real one 💚