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TOWER-DEFENSE
The King is Watching Review: A Ludum Dare Game That Grew Up (Unlike Most)
I've played approximately 847 tower defense games that all blur together into one gray mass of arrow towers and wave counters. Then this Ludum Dare experiment showed up and made me actually think about worker placement for once.
Paul
February 11, 2026
7.3
Overall Score
"I went into The King is Watching expecting another forgettable Ludum Dare experiment that would join the pile of 'neat concept, needed six more months of development' games I've reviewed."
First Impressions (Or: When Game Jams Actually Deliver)
Look, I've reviewed enough Ludum Dare games to know the drill. Someone makes a 'unique twist' on tower defense during a 48-hour caffeine bender, it's vaguely playable, and then it vanishes into the itch.io void forever. So when I loaded up The King is Watching, I was already mentally composing my 'nice try, needs work' review. Then something strange happened: I actually kept playing. The premise is deceptively simple â you're building a kingdom while defending against waves of enemies. Except you're not just plopping down towers like it's 2008. You're managing workers who need to gather resources, construct buildings, and presumably deal with their own existential dread while the King literally watches their every move. It's tower defense meets city builder meets resource management, and the fact that it works at all is impressive. The fact that it works well enough to spawn a Steam release? That's when I started paying attention.
Gameplay: Finally, Tower Defense That Requires a Brain
Here's what separates The King is Watching from every other tower defense clone clogging up my review queue: you can't just spam your best tower and call it strategy. You need resources. Resources require workers. Workers need buildings. Buildings need placement planning. It's a actual strategic chain instead of the usual 'place fire tower, upgrade fire tower, win' nonsense I've endured since Kingdom Rush set the bar in 2011. The eleven-wave campaign forces you to balance immediate defense needs with long-term kingdom development, and I'll grudgingly admit I failed my first attempt because I built too defensively and choked my economy. When a tower defense game makes me think about economic infrastructure, something has gone right. The left-click-to-move, right-click-to-rotate controls are straightforward enough that I didn't hurl my mouse, though the worker AI occasionally needs a firm nudge to remember what 'gather resources' means. But honestly? The fact that I'm complaining about worker pathfinding instead of fundamental game design flaws tells you everything about how solid the core is.
The King Watches, I Judge: Presentation Matters
Pixel art. Of course it's pixel art. Every indie game since 2015 has been pixel art because apparently we've collectively decided that's what 'indie aesthetic' means now. But credit where it's due â Ilya's artwork is clean, readable, and doesn't commit the cardinal sin of sacrificing functionality for style. I can tell my workers from my enemies from my buildings, which is shockingly rare in the 'retro-inspired' genre. The fantasy theme is about as original as naming your game studio after a food item, but the execution is competent. Semyon's music doesn't grate after repeat plays, which is high praise from someone who mutes 90% of indie game soundtracks within five minutes. It's pleasant medieval fantasy fare that supports the atmosphere without demanding attention. The UI is functional with minor quirks â I'd kill for that encyclopedia feature the community keeps requesting, because figuring out optimal building placement through trial and error is very 'authentic early 2000s gaming experience' in ways I don't necessarily appreciate anymore.
Value Proposition: Free, Then They Want Your Steam Money
Let me get this straight. The game is free on itch.io. There's an endless mode on some GX Games platform I'd never heard of. And they're selling an expanded version on Steam. This is either brilliant or the developers haven't discovered monetization yet. The free version offers eleven waves of legitimate strategic challenge. That's not a demo. That's not a teaser. That's a complete game experience that respects my time and doesn't immediately beg for my wallet. When I see a Ludum Dare project that expanded into a commercial Steam release, I usually expect the free version to be gutted. Nope. Still fully playable. Still engaging. The Steam version presumably adds more content, but the fact that I'm not being held hostage to experience the core game is refreshing enough that I'm actually considering buying the full version. That's how you build goodwill, developers. Take notes, everyone else.
What Actually Works Here (Reluctant Praise Section)
The worker management system is genuinely clever. Instead of just being resource-gathering drones, your workers feel like actual strategic assets you need to position and protect. When a worker dies, you feel it in your economy and your defensive capabilities. That's design depth I haven't seen in tower defense since... look, I'm trying to think of an example and coming up blank, which proves my point. The progression from early waves to later waves actually requires adapting your strategy rather than just scaling up your existing approach. Wave 7 taught me that my 'build walls everywhere' strategy was deeply flawed, and I had to actually rethink my kingdom layout. When's the last time a tower defense game forced you to rethink anything except 'should I upgrade this tower or build a new one?' The community response â 4.6 out of 5 stars from 111 ratings â suggests I'm not alone in appreciating what Hypnohead accomplished here. Usually, community ratings inflate due to politeness. This feels earned.
Where It Stumbles (Because Nothing's Perfect)
The eleven-wave limit in the base mode feels arbitrary. Just when I'm hitting my strategic stride, the game ends. Yes, there's endless mode elsewhere, but fragmenting your game across platforms is a choice I'll never understand. The lack of in-game encyclopedia or building stats overlay is genuinely frustrating. I shouldn't need to fail multiple runs just to learn what each building actually does at scale. That's not difficulty; that's obscured information. Community feedback explicitly requests this feature, which means I'm not being unreasonably demanding for once. Worker pathfinding occasionally decides that the scenic route past enemy spawn points is preferable to, you know, survival. It's not game-breaking, but watching a worker casually stroll into danger because the AI hiccupped never stops being annoying. The pixel art style, while competent, doesn't distinguish this game visually from the 47 other pixel-art tower defense games released this month. That's not a quality issue â it's a memorability problem in an oversaturated market.
Rating Breakdown
Quality
7
For a game jam origin story, this is shockingly polished â I only rage-quit twice due to UI quirks, which is practically a miracle.
Innovation
8
Combining city building with tower defense while making me babysit workers is the kind of genre mash-up I haven't seen since... honestly, I can't remember when.
Value
9
It's free, has an endless mode, made it to Steam, and doesn't assault me with ads â I'm legally required to score this high.
Gameplay
7
The core loop kept me playing past my usual 'close tab after wave 3' threshold, which means something actually worked here.
Audio/Visual
6
Competent pixel art that doesn't make my eyes bleed, though I've seen this particular fantasy aesthetic roughly 400 times before.
Replayability
7
Eleven waves in the main mode, endless mode for masochists, and actual strategic variety â I genuinely booted it up a second time.
What Didn't Annoy Me
Worker management adds genuine strategic depth instead of just being a resource-gathering gimmick
Free version is actually complete and generous, not a cynical demo masquerading as a game
Eleven waves provide real challenge that requires adaptation, not just tower spam
Controls are intuitive enough that I spent time strategizing instead of fighting the interface
Successfully made it from game jam to Steam without losing its soul, which is rarer than you'd think
Community of 111 raters gave it 4.6 stars, and for once that seems like honest enthusiasm rather than grade inflation
What Made Me Sigh
No in-game building encyclopedia means learning through failure, which was fun in 1998 but we've evolved since then
Worker AI occasionally chooses death over efficiency in ways that feel preventable
Eleven-wave campaign ends right when momentum peaks, feels like arbitrary limitation
Pixel art style is competent but doesn't distinguish it from countless other fantasy tower defense games
Endless mode being on a separate platform is a baffling fragmentation choice
Final Verdict
I went into The King is Watching expecting another forgettable Ludum Dare experiment that would join the pile of 'neat concept, needed six more months of development' games I've reviewed. Instead, I found a tower defense game that actually respects both my intelligence and my time. The worker management system adds legitimate strategic depth, the difficulty curve requires genuine adaptation, and the free version is complete enough that I'm not being ransomed for the real experience. Is it perfect? No. The lack of an encyclopedia is frustrating, the worker AI needs supervision, and the aesthetic won't win awards for originality. But Hypnohead took a game jam prototype and refined it into something genuinely worth playing, then made it to Steam without gutting the free version. That's rare enough to deserve recognition. If you're tired of tower defense games where strategy means 'build the expensive tower faster,' give this one a shot. It's free. You'll know within three waves whether the worker management clicks for you. And if it does? Well, maybe I'll see you complaining about pathfinding on their Discord.
The King is Watching
Tags
tower-defense
city-builder
strategy
pixel-art
ludum-dare
kingdom-management
worker-placement
free
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