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Watch trailer on Steam ↗The King is Watching
Hypnohead · Published by tinyBuild · Official site ↗
Very Positive — 89% positive (10,621 reviews) · 47 achievements
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
The King is Watching is a roguelite kingdom builder. Rule by the power of your royal gaze! Decide between producing resources, training armies, or balancing both, while adapting to unique events every run
£12.79
Lowest price we've ever recorded
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Price history
Indie, Strategy · 2025 · More £5 - £15 games
Discover the thrill of balancing resources and armies under constant royal scrutiny in The King is Watching. Each run brings new challenges as you adapt to unique events, shaping your realm through careful decisions.
About this game
Roadmap
About the Game
Ah, my glorious kingdom! A land where peasants toil, miners dig, and knights train... but only when I look at them! My gaze is law—progress thrives where I watch, but the moment I turn away? Laziness! Chaos! I must choose wisely: should I focus on the fields for food, the mines for riches, or the barracks for defense? With resources, I can even expand my all-seeing gaze, ensuring my kingdom flourishes… and that no one slacks off under my rule!
Water, wheat, stone, coal, silver—every resource fuels my empire! Farms feed my people, mines fund my ambitions, and workshops forge mighty defenses. Shall I invest in archers, reinforce the walls, or harness magic? Even my castle needs repairs when the enemy strikes! Every decision shapes my reign, and only a well-managed kingdom will survive the storm.
Rulership is no easy task! Each land presents new trials, from cursed cemeteries to infernal depths, forcing me to adapt. Yet every defeat is a lesson! As a true roguelite, my efforts grant permanent upgrades, unlocking new abilities, stronger defenses, and powerful strategies for my next reign. A true king doesn’t just rule—he evolves, forging an unstoppable legacy with each attempt!
Each battlefield hides unpredictable threats—enemies are led by unexpected Generals, demanding unique tactics to defeat. Want to conquer them all? You’ll need multiple runs! But fear not! My royal council aids me with cavalry masters, arcane sages, and cunning strategists. With their wisdom—and my unwavering gaze—victory is inevitable!
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS *: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10, 11
- Processor: 2.0 Ghz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: 1Gb Video Memory, capable of OpenGL 3.0+ support (2.1 with ARB extensions acceptable)
- Storage: 1 GB available space
Supported Languages
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
Hotfix version 1.3.5 is released
Noble Kings!We’ve just released another hotfix.ImprovementsBuilding Reward cards are more informative, providing additional details about the rewards you’ll receive.Encounter screens now include images to make it clearer what you’ll receive from each encounter.Improved the Balloon building description and replaced an incorrect upgrade icon.FixesFixed multiple cases where shadows, particle effects, and other entities could remain active after units died, unnecessarily affecting performance. This could be especially noticeable when entering Endless Mode.Fixed a crash that could occasionally occur when extinguishing a fire with the Fire Brigade.Fixes we have previously released on MondayFixed a bug when keyboard stopped responding under very specific casesFixed Vesper's fog not dissipating after moving the gazeFixed pop-ups on enemy stats and tentacle descriptions not showing up on hoverFixed Super Metal artifact counter not updatingFirst time entering the level, a pop-up with information on some UI customization options available in settings is now promptedWe released potential fix for Alt-Tabbing causing input lag, but we will investigate this bug further.We temporarily turned off V-sync by default. We recommend to turn it off for the time being, because it may cause an input lagNow costs in shop change color if you have not enough denariiWe changed how you interact with Altars on VolcanoThank you for your feedback and reports! We are aiming to release another patch with fixes soon.Read full article on Community Announcements (Vallter)Press Coverage
The King Is Watching devs are making The Crab is Walking, this journalist is writing
The King Is Watching developers Hypnohead have announced The Crab Is Walking, a roguelite city-builder in which you alternate between arranging tetromino-shaped city districts on the back of a colossal crustacean, and sending out armies of Mad Maxalots to slaughter wasteland insects. Unlike in The King Is Watching, you do not have to actively train your gaze on your crab metropolis to stop it slacking off. Read moreRead full article on Rock, Paper, ShotgunAnnouncementsOfficial
The King Has Been Watching. Now, The Crab is Walking.
Noble Kings,The King has been watching. Now, The Crab is Walking.From the developers of The King is Watching comes a new roguelite city builder where your capital sits atop a giant creature crossing a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Piece together buildings of different shapes on its limited shell, merge and upgrade your city, raise an army, and choose how much danger you’re willing to crab into on each run.Watch the trailer and learn more about The Crab is Walking in its dedicated announcement:What Does This Mean for The King is Watching?We know that the announcement of a new game may raise questions among our royal court, so we want to address them straight away: The Crab is Walking is a separate project, and we fully intend to continue supporting The King is Watching and releasing new content for it.Both games will have their own place in our line-up, and we still have plenty of ideas for the kingdom that we look forward to sharing with you.In fact, just yesterday we released a new Steam update introducing a completely redesigned UI, created to support gamepads and Steam Deck:Our next major release for The King is Watching will be the Crowns of Fiction DLC, accompanied by a free content update. Both are currently planned for Q4 2026, and we’ll share more details when they’re ready.Until then, may fortune favour your reign! 👑— Hypnohead TeamRead full article on Community Announcements (Rize)Press Coverage
The rather good The King is Watching adds Steam Deck & gamepad support
The King is Watching from Hypnohead and tinyBuild has a major new update out with Steam Deck and gamepad support. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/09/the-rather-good-the-king-is-watching-adds-steam-deck-gamepad-support/Read full article on GamingOnLinuxPatch NotesOfficial
Steam Deck & Gamepad Support Is Here! + Roadmap Update
HOTFIX 14.09.2026We have just released a hotfix to address the following issues:We temporarily turned off V-sync by default. We recomend to turn it off for the time being, because it may cause an input lagNow costs in shop change color if you have not enough denariiWe changed how you interact with Altars on VolcanoWe release potential fix for Alt-Tabbing causing input lag, but we will investigate this bug further.If you encounter any issues, please report them to us and we'll take a look ASAP!Noble Kings,Your royal gaze is no longer bound to just a mouse and keyboard. With improved Steam Deck experience and gamepad support now available, you can manage production, marshal your armies and make highly consequential royal decisions from your controller of choice. A New Way to RuleAdapting The King Is Watching for controllers proved to be quite a challenge of its own. While working on the console versions, we also rebuilt the game’s UI to make your experience much better on all platforms. This includes: A fully reworked interface designed to be comfortable for both mouse + keyboard and gamepadRebuilt reward screensUpdated fonts for better readabilityRedesigned tooltips with compact and expanded versionsTo keep the interface readable, some tooltips initially show a shorter description. Press Z to expand them and reveal the full information whenever you need it. A Note on Steam DeckThe King Is Watching is fully playable on Steam Deck, although you may have noticed that it does not yet carry the Steam Deck Verified badge.We’re happy with how the new interface has come together, and we’ve recently tested it with members of our community. However, there are still a few isolated places where text may be uncomfortable to read at lower resolutions. We’re reviewing these cases individually with Valve and working to improve them over the coming weeks.We’ve already received some useful feedback from early testers, and we’d now love to hear from those of you trying the new UI on bo...Read full article on Community Announcements (Rize)
