Eurogamer’s write-up called out The King is Watching for the same reason it sold half a million copies: the gaze mechanic is a genuinely new take on the city builder. Everything runs when the king looks at it. Take your eyes off a farm and it stops producing. Add a roguelike run structure on top and you get a game that respects your attention as its main resource.
If that loop clicked, the seven The King is Watching alternatives below hit adjacent nerves: strategy under time pressure, roguelike restarts, and settlement management that fights back. None of them use the same gaze mechanic, but each one delivers the same “I need one more run” feeling on PC.
Quick comparison
| Game | Best for | Free plan | Starting price | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingdom Two Crowns | Minimalist realm defense | Free demo | $19.99 | Silhouette art with hidden depth |
| They Are Billions | RTS-roguelike siege defense | No demo | $29.99 | 20,000 zombies rendered on screen |
| Against the Storm | Roguelite settlement builder | No demo | $29.99 | Different biome every run |
| Dwarf Fortress | Deepest colony simulation | Free classic version | $29.99 (Steam) | Two decades of emergent stories |
| Cataclismo | Tower-defense city builder | Free demo | $24.99 | Brick-by-brick fort construction |
| The Bookwalker | Narrative kingdom-through-story | No demo | $19.99 | Steal objects from novels |
| Loop Hero | Deckbuilder-roguelike time loop | No demo | $14.99 | Play only the tile layout |
Why players want The King is Watching alternatives
Three themes come up on r/roguelikes and the game’s Steam forums. First, run length. The King is Watching runs are short and tight, and players hitting hundreds of hours want something with more depth per session. Second, replay saturation. Once you have beaten a few kings, the meta-progression stops surprising you. Third, “what’s the next Balatro?” energy: a small-team roguelike-with-a-twist has become its own genre, and everyone wants the next one.
Each pick below extends the loop in a different direction.
The alternatives
Kingdom Two Crowns — Best for minimalist realm defense
Kingdom Two Crowns from Raw Fury looks like a screensaver and plays like a strategy game. You are a monarch on horseback who tosses coins to build walls, hire archers, and expand a two-dimensional kingdom before the Greed attacks at night. Local co-op adds a partner monarch on the same screen.
Where it falls short: The single mechanic wears thin around the ten-hour mark. Runs can turn on early bad luck. No true endgame beyond crown completion.
Pricing:
- Free: Demo
- Paid: $19.99, expansions $9.99 each
- vs The King is Watching: Cheaper, shorter runs, less strategy depth
Migrating from The King is Watching: Both give you a monarch you have to protect. Kingdom is faster and looser.
Bottom line: Kingdom Two Crowns is the pick for short couch-co-op sessions with a monarch to defend.
They Are Billions — Best for RTS-roguelike siege defense
They Are Billions from Numantian Games throws twenty thousand zombies at your walls in a paused-RTS format. You lay down walls, towers, and farms while a growing horde probes your defenses. Every mistake compounds because there is no rebuilding after a breach.
Where it falls short: Learning the survival maps takes multiple wipes. Campaign missions unlock slowly. Some players find the pause-heavy pacing at odds with the tension.
Pricing:
- Free: No demo
- Paid: $29.99, occasional sales below $10
- vs The King is Watching: Larger scale, closer to a classic RTS
Migrating from The King is Watching: Same “attention as a scarce resource” energy, played across the entire map instead of one court.
Bottom line: They Are Billions is the pick if you want your city builder to punch back.
Against the Storm — Best for roguelite settlement building
Against the Storm from Eremite Games gives you a Cycle-based world where each settlement is a run. The seed decides your biome, your species mix, and the resources you get, and you have to hit royal quotas before the next storm sweeps everything away. Meta-progression carries between runs without ever making a settlement feel scripted.
Where it falls short: Some biome combinations are brutal. Cornerstone RNG can make or break a run. Late-game economy can stall.
Pricing:
- Free: No demo
- Paid: $29.99, DLC around $19.99
- vs The King is Watching: Deeper systems, longer sessions
Migrating from The King is Watching: Same “restart small, get further” cadence with tenfold more mechanics.
Bottom line: Against the Storm is the pick for the deepest roguelite city builder available today.
Dwarf Fortress — Best for the deepest colony simulation
Dwarf Fortress from Bay 12 Games is the granddaddy of the genre. Every dwarf has a personality, a history, and a set of preferences the game tracks in obscene detail. The Steam release added a proper interface and tilesets, which made the game readable without breaking the depth.
Where it falls short: Interface still asks for patience. Losing is fun, but it is losing all the same. Modern hardware still bottlenecks on very old forts.
Pricing:
- Free: Classic ASCII version stays free
- Paid: $29.99 for the Steam edition with sprites and mouse controls
- vs The King is Watching: Vastly deeper; runs measured in days not minutes
Migrating from The King is Watching: Bigger jump than most. Come for emergent stories, stay for the tantrums.
Download: Steam or Bay 12 Games
Bottom line: Dwarf Fortress is the pick when you want your city builder to write novels.
Cataclismo — Best for tower-defense city building
Cataclismo from Digital Sun asks you to place bricks by hand into walls, towers, and gatehouses, then defend those creations against nightly Horror attacks. It sits between city builder and puzzle game: the fun is designing a fort that survives the raid you can see coming.
Where it falls short: Brick placement has a learning curve. Some Horror waves feel unwinnable without meta-knowledge. Story mode is short.
Pricing:
- Free: Demo
- Paid: $24.99
- vs The King is Watching: More granular building, similar attention-management pressure
Migrating from The King is Watching: Similar “what do I do first” cadence with a construction focus.
Bottom line: Cataclismo is the pick if you liked designing your court and want to design a whole citadel.
The Bookwalker — Best for narrative-driven kingdom management
The Bookwalker from Do My Best is a stealth-inflected adventure where you jump into novels to steal specific objects, one small heist per book. The kingdom-building parallels sneak in through how each theft rewrites the story’s world. It sits at a different angle from The King is Watching but shares the “small runs, big consequences” vibe.
Where it falls short: Combat is the weakest system. Some heists reuse mechanics. Runtime is shorter than most on this list.
Pricing:
- Free: No demo
- Paid: $19.99
- vs The King is Watching: Narrative-first, less strategy
Migrating from The King is Watching: Very different tone, similar per-run structure.
Bottom line: The Bookwalker is the pick for a shorter, weirder run-based experience.
Loop Hero — Best for a pure card-and-loop roguelike
Loop Hero from Four Quarters is the game everyone reaches for when they want the roguelike loop distilled. The hero walks a track automatically; you place tiles to shape the encounters. Every loop the world grows more dangerous and more rewarding, and the base camp meta-progression unlocks entire new classes.
Where it falls short: Late-game grinds feel long. Some tile combinations are objectively best, which flattens strategy. Small screen real estate.
Pricing:
- Free: No demo
- Paid: $14.99
- vs The King is Watching: Cheaper, denser, less strategy
Migrating from The King is Watching: Both keep the player mostly hands-off during the run itself and lean on setup between rounds.
Bottom line: Loop Hero is the pick if you want the tightest per-run loop for the least money.
How to choose
Pick Kingdom Two Crowns if you want a beautiful minimalist realm defense you can play on a laptop. Pick They Are Billions if the strategy-under-siege pressure is what you loved. Pick Against the Storm for the deepest roguelite settlement runs. Pick Dwarf Fortress for the most emergent story engine in gaming. Pick Cataclismo if fort design was the fun. Pick The Bookwalker for something weirder. Pick Loop Hero if you want to try the genre in its most concentrated form.
Stay on The King is Watching only if you have not tried all the metagame kings yet. When you have, everything on this list extends the same “restart, do better” muscle.
FAQ
What genre is The King is Watching? It sits between city builder, roguelike, and tower defense. The gaze mechanic ties them together.
Which alternative is closest in feel? Against the Storm is the closest structurally: roguelite runs, settlement management, and escalating pressure. Kingdom Two Crowns is closest in tone.
Are any of these games free? Dwarf Fortress’s classic ASCII version stays free forever. Kingdom Two Crowns and Cataclismo have free demos.
Which one runs on Steam Deck? Loop Hero, Kingdom Two Crowns, Cataclismo, and Against the Storm all have Verified ratings. Dwarf Fortress is Playable but wants a docked keyboard.
What is the next roguelike hit after The King is Watching? Small-team roguelikes launch every month; watch Backpack Battler, Balatro spin-offs, and the ongoing Streets of Rogue 2 early access for the next surprise.
