Ale Abbey Steam Charts & Stats

Bought this on release. It was good then and even better now with the updates! If you have any interest in brewing you will enjoy this. You will enjoy it even more, if you like the deep history of the many delicious Abbey Ales of ol' Europe

I knew 10 minutes into the demo that this game would probably be my favorite game to come out this year, now 10 hours into the full game and I'm just blown away. I have so much to say about this so the TL;DR is; If you have interest in chill, creative, management gameplay, than pour yourself a pint and buy this game right f****** now! Gaming in 2025 has gotten so dull and expensive I've begun to think that I just don't like videogames anymore. AAA devs are cranking out wallet eating garbage, and half the indie devs that made actually good games took the money and ran leaving unfinished potential never to be seen. But Ale Abbey makes me feel like I'm a tweenager playing games I found on my dad's steam account. This game feels like it's from a completely different era of gaming in the best way possible. 10/10 Creative-inspiring and chill gameplay with the perfect amount challenge to keep you on your toes.

I don't think I can recommend this game in its current state. Maybe I'm just really bad at it, but I found myself constantly struggling to stay afloat in a way that seriously frustrated me and made me want to stop playing. I only played for a couple of hours, but I kept finding myself totally out of money and unable to brew anything. I was at the mercy of the Bishop's quests to get enough money to keep brewing, but eventually the tutorial was over and the occasional quests weren't even giving money most of the time. I kept seeing a message that the game was being nice to me and not giving me any consequences for running out of money while having a loan out (side note: I never found out how to pay that loan back), but it WAS giving me consequences! The consequence was that I had zero florins and couldn't brew anything! If the intention is for this game to be cozy and relaxing, with no consequences for failure, then they need to introduce a way to obtain either ingredients or money for free, even if it takes ages, because as of now the only way to crawl out of a money hole is to sell your furniture for half price. Am I really the only one having this problem? It completely sucked all the fun out of my experience.

Ale Abbey is an unexpectedly tricky but fun balancing act. The core gameplay loop revolves around brewing batches of beer to satisfy orders that come in once every day or two, but you can also sell batches directly for profit, or store them in your cellars to sell later, have your monks drink them to improve morale, or use them to bribe bandits. Much like in real life, you need to be sure to watch your margins: it took the first hour or so for me to realize I was selling beer that actually cost me more to brew than what I made from selling it. Unfortuantely this often means that you actually get more money's worth out of selling cheap swill than the creative beers you make up (as the owner of a bar I can attest that this is realistic, however). Fortunately though sometimes a really high quality beer will be very requested and that IS satisfying. It's stressful goings at first but once you get yourself into the green you fall into a bit more of a grind which is sustainable. Also, be sure to always negotiate up your contracts lest you be leaving money constantly on the table. Main gripes are: -Progression is slow, sometimes a little too slow. I had researched all of the available tech tree long before the second main "Monastary phase" was unlocked allowing further progression, which means I was just sitting around with research points until a story quest arbitrarily allowed me to upgrade the monastary. -Bandits aren't really a threat, more just a tax you have to keep satisfied so it doesn't add or subtract much from the game. -It's also a little disappointing that there is very little micromanagement around some tasks like brewing. For example you can't interrupt orders once they've been given and you can't interact with other stations like the herbal gardens in any meaningful ways (they just grant passive buffs even without anyone assigned to them). I don't think the gameplay loop and management aspects are quite as deep, satisfying or fun as some other games like Newstower, but it's still fun to see the monastery grow and thrive and to develop an archive of recipes of different brews you've created. No major bugs, though I did encounter one pretty funny one where early on I got congratulated for succeeding at a really onerous quest concerning the adoption of an alcohol-drinking goat by just clicking out of and ignoring the quest notification whenever it popped up. Overall a good game that I would recommend checking out, though I wonder if it has the shelf-life of an Old Ale or just a pale blonde.

It's a fun little time waster! expand your monastery, decorate, hire nuns and monks, create recipes, brew and sell and brew and sell and... Developers are active on their discord, frequently communicate news and future plans.

🍻 Unusual pixel management game, mixes medieval monastic life with the art of brewing beer. Simplified, but detailed brewing system is intentionally good core mechanic. 👍 10/10 would brew again. ⚠️ game in early access found no bugs or difficulties

What an amazing game this is. Truly one of its kind. I feel that as a Belgian (aka from Belgium, the country famous for its abbeys and ales) I feel this game does justice to argueably our biggest export product: A-class Ale. Can&t wait to see how this game develops. If you're wondering if you should get it: just buy it bro and thank me later

This game is an absolute masterpiece in the making. If you like brewing beer or a good tycoon game this game is perfect. I'm excited to see how the game evolves!

game is nice and fun and also dev team is super supportive. i had an issue with the gameplay and they helped me in a few hours

As an amateur brewer, who loves tycoon games, this is a dream come true. The gameplay scratches a lot of itches - there's always something to work towards and I found a lot of satisfaction in trying to find the perfect balance between quality and costs. There's a surprising amount of beers that can be brewed, which help prevent the game from feeling stale. You're constantly working your way up, making higher quality beers at greater quantities. Before you realise it, you're running a monastery full of 16 monks and nuns and there's a surprising amount going on constantly. The art style and the music are just fantastic. Everything is so unbelievably polished in game and is just relaxing to look at and listen to. Some of the little animations the in-game sprites do made me laugh out loud at times. The dev is extraordinarily active and it's clear to see a lot of effort and passion has gone into this game. I'm impressed that this is still early access and can't wait to see what makes it into the final game.