The King is Watching is a Fun Twist on the Tower Defense Genre

We will not tolerate laziness in my kingdom! In fact, maybe I won’t even give them chairs to sit on. No sitting! That’s my first decree as king! 

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have been given this much power…

The King is Watching is a roguelite kingdom builder where you rule by the power of your royal gaze! In the game, progress is only made in the locations where you, the great king, are watching. The moment you turn your head away, production stops. Your job is to gather resources, expand your gaze, and ensure your kingdom flourishes. 

The game’s tutorial does a pretty great job of describing how things work. It did help that I’ve played a handful of tower defense games myself and this feels adjacent to that genre as well. Some of the mechanics reminded me of Kingdom, where you have to gain specific resources in order to build more and, in turn, grow your kingdom and expand. 

Every resource is utilized in a particular way whether it’s water, wheat, stone, gold and more. Every game will be slightly different and every decision you make can mean the difference between surviving and collapsing. Will you focus on feeding and taking care of those living in your kingdom, investing in protection for the walls and mighty defenses or will you try to be a bit more selfish and see how things turn out for you? 

Inevitably, your kingdom will fail once or twice. What can you say? You were perfect, it’s your townsfolk that were lazy and inexperienced. But, not to worry, every defeat teaches you new upgrades, helps you unlock abilities for stronger defenses and much more. You’ll be constantly evolving to help run your kingdom more smoothly. 

The King is Watching is a game that I can see myself going back to again and again. There’s a lot of content on offer here and I’ve only just scratched the surface so far. If you’re new to the genre it may be difficult to pick up at first, but its tutorial does a great job of helping explain mechanics and your overall goals. Those experienced in tower defense and kingdom builders, on the other hand, will find themselves right at home.

The King is Watching is available now on PC for $14.99 with a 10% launch discount.