New roguelike The King is Watching puts a brutal twist on the city builder genre

One of the most satisfying aspects of any city builder is the total control you have over your people, their tasks, and how they go about them.
Intriguingly, The King is Watching does away with this core tenet because the folks you lord over are shockingly lazy and require constant supervision. Don't believe me? Well, you can see it for yourself because the game is out now on Steam.

The King is Watching shares all the markers of the best city building games: there are resources to manage from mines and farms, people to help prosper, and defenses to raise against waves of endless enemies - including fierce looking dragons. The only issue is that, as reigning monarch, your gaze must remain on your people to ensure production continues.

What does this entail exactly? Well, you'll need to make the most of the space-limited grid that represents your castle by placing specific types of buildings in each square. Some will generate handy resources, while others create peasants and soldiers to do your bidding or fight back the rising tide of enemies pounding at your gate.

You'll need to prioritize squares appropriately, as beating back your enemies will net you rewards that you can then invest in other places, such as reinforcing walls or harnessing magic.

But for every time you turn your figurative back on certain squares, production will grind to a halt and your people will stop what they're doing. In order to ensure your kingdom stays afloat and survives against the onslaught of goblins, orcs, and trolls planning on razing your home to the ground, your gaze - first represented by a highlighted L shape - must remain on the squares that most need your attention.

Thankfully, the roguelike element does mean that should your kingdom fall, you can learn from your defeat and return again to face the challenges once again with permanent upgrades, including new abilities and stronger defenses.

There's also more than one kingdom awaiting your guiding hand, so there's plenty to keep you returning again and again. And it looks like more than a few players did when the demo launched earlier this year and wracked up over 300,000 downloads and a 96% positive rating on Steam.

The King is Watching is out now on Steam, available with a 10% discount until Monday July 28. You can check out the Steam page here.

If you're searching for another intriguing roguelike, you can read our guide for the best roguelikes to play today. You can also put your organizational skills to the test with our best management games.

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