The King is Watching News

[p]Noble Kings,[/p][p][/p][p]Today we bring you joyful news: The Kingdom now speaks in many more tongues! Korean, Japanese, French, Brazilian Portuguese, and Polish have been added to the game, a change inspired by the many noble players from these lands. We’ve heard your voices and are proud to make your royal experience even finer![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Simply head to the main menu and change the language at will! If you happen to spot a mistranslation, a strange phrase, or a term more cursed than a graveyard demon… do let us know on Discord, Reddit, or right here in the Steam Discussions. Your royal insight helps us polish the scrolls![/p][p][/p][h2]Fixes & Features![/h2][p][/p][p]But that's not all, fellow royal friends! This update also brings a fresh round of fixes and features to your realm:[/p][p][/p][h3]Features[/h3]

• [p]Added the option to open the Encyclopedia during an active run via the Pause menu.[/p]
• [p]The Pause menu now displays the current Threat Level modifiers and selected Advisors.[/p]
• [p]The game now creates a backup save file to prevent rare cases of save corruption.[/p]
• [p]Efficient Processing upgrade for the Mill and Forge now use 2 raw resources instead of 3 to produce 2 advanced resources.[/p]
• [p]Trees and level scenery are now correctly preserved when using mid-run saves.[/p]
• [p]The game will remain paused if a pending reward is collected while paused.[/p]
• [p]Furniture Stores will now save the amount of Town Denarii earned to mitigate potential losses in case of spontaneous run termination[/p]
• [p]Advisors' abilities can now be activated during pause (same as King's abilities)[/p]

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Reworked King’s Gaze, resolving crashes and deactivation issues related to the Monument to the King’s Gaze.[/p]
• [p]Buildings constructed before a mid-run save are now eligible for upgrades as intended.[/p]
• [p]Fixed rounding errors that occasionally prevented purchases or sales despite having enough resources.[/p]
• [p]Free Housing and Piggy Bank artifact refunds are now correctly retained across mid-run saves.[/p]
• [p]Training bonuses now properly apply to units inside barracks.[/p]
• [p]Griffins now correctly benefit from the Lion Circus Versatility upgrade.[/p]
• [p]Ruin Scouts can now produce and deploy regardless of the current battlefield unit limit.[/p]
• [p]Castle damage from Giant’s Bedding now properly interacts with King Leonid’s “Last Resort” quest and the Broken Penny artifact.[/p]
• [p]Building upgrades that grant morale or instant effects now activate without needing to refocus the King’s Gaze.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the gallery picture obtained for beating Ascension 10 not displaying.[/p]
• [p]Optimized text rendering performance.[/p]
• [p]A few UI improvements for a smoother experience.[/p]

[p][/p][p]More royal news shall come soon, but worry not, noble friends: we haven’t forgotten the questions you sent us for the QnA with the developers! The scribes are sharpening their quills, and answers shall begin arriving next week![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Until then… make your Kingdom proud! HUZZAH![/p][p]~ The Hypnohead Devs[/p][p][/p][p]Follow us or join our communities:[/p]

• [p]Twitter[/p]
• [p]Bluesky[/p]
• [p]Reddit[/p]
• [p]Discord[/p]

[p]Noble Kings,[/p][p][/p][p]Just like our game, we are always watching our social pages, our Discord and our Reddit community, and we know you have a lot of questions for us. So, for the next 3 days, from today, Monday August 25th to Wednesday, August 27th, we are collecting your questions about The King is Watching for a Q&A with us![/p][p][/p][p]Ask us anything you’d like to know (just maybe avoid topics that would anger the royal executioner... kidding!.. Maybe). We’ll gather the best ones and post the answers in an upcoming Steam article.[/p][p][/p][p]Drop your questions in the comments below, or head to our Discord (there’s a special Q&A section just for this special occurrence)![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]New Languages Testing[/h3][p]Finally, we also have news for our noble subjects around the world: we're currently testing new localizations in French, Brazilian, Polish, Korean, and Japanese![/p][p][/p][p]If all goes well, we hope to add these languages later this week, so stay tuned![/p][p]
HUZZAH! ~ The Hypnohead Devs[/p]

[p]Update: the bundle was removed for now, but it may return later![/p][p][/p][p]Noble Kings,[/p][p][/p][p]The King is Watching has joined forces with He Is Coming, a roguelite RPG where brave souls must scavenge relics, raise their defenses, and endure each cursed night against an ancient evil, to bring forth a Royal Bundle![/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Together, these two mighty realms offer distinct roguelite trials, worthy of any noble strategist who craves peril, cunning, and the sweet taste of triumph![/p][p]
Claim your crown, hold your ground and carve your name into the roguelite realm! HUZZAH![/p]

[p]Noble Kings,[/p][p][/p][p]Today we want to address the recent balancing changes to King Leo the Wise and share some insight into our thinking, alongside a few additional adjustments.
(If you're here just for the patch notes, feel free to scroll down. But we'd really appreciate it if you took a moment to read this message.)[/p][p][/p][h3]A Kingdom Off to a Glorious Start[/h3][p]It’s been just a few weeks since The King is Watching launched, and we’re overwhelmed with the response. Many of you have already poured countless hours into the game, conquered high Threat Levels, and shared your wild, creative builds with us. Your enthusiasm has been nothing short of inspiring, and it makes us even more determined to keep building upon this world: more content, more Kings, more units.[/p][p][/p][p]But before expanding the kingdom, we need to strengthen its foundations.[/p][p][/p][h3]Improving the Foundation[/h3][p]Over the past weeks, we’ve mobilized everyone—seriously, everyone. We’ve spoken with nearly every GameMaker developer we could find, and we’re now in direct contact with the engine’s creators. Together, we’ve made huge strides in identifying technical issues, from crashes to performance. Some bugs still remain, but we’re confident that the new mid-run saving system is a massive step forward for the stability and playability of the game.[/p][p]That said, there are two big areas left to improve:[/p]

• [p]⚖️ Fixing critical balance issues[/p]
• [p]🛠️ Clarifying UI and core mechanics[/p]

[p]We started with balance…and that leads us to Leo.[/p][p][/p][h3]The Problem with Leo[/h3][p]We’ll be honest: we didn’t balance King Leo the Wise properly. He was simply too strong. Here's why:[/p]

• [p]His first ability had an extremely short cooldown, enabling frequent blueprint sales.[/p]
• [p]Selling blueprints rapidly boosted morale, which in turn greatly increased unit damage and resource production.[/p]
• [p]Players could bypass early-game resource management entirely, a system that’s supposed to be a core part of the challenge.[/p]
• [p]On top of that, Leo has one of the best Gaze upgrades and can spawn free units on cooldown.[/p]

[p][/p][p]We want each King to offer unique bonuses and a meaningful challenge. Some will naturally be stronger than others. And we love seeing you break the game with wild builds, whether intentional or not. But Leo was on an entirely different level. Not just compared to existing Kings, but even those we’re planning to introduce in the future.[/p][p][/p][h3]"Why Not Just Buff Everyone Else?"[/h3][p]Trust us, we considered it. But buffing everything to match Leo would cause runaway stat inflation and break the balance of the game in other areas. It would also make it far harder to design future content. So a nerf was necessary.[/p][p][/p][p]We hate nerfing things. And our goal was to do it just once. But after reviewing your feedback, we agree: we went too far. This update includes a revised, more balanced version of Leo and several other changes to improve the experience overall.[/p][p][/p][h3]Patch Notes[/h3][p]King Leo the Wise’s third ability resource costs have been reverted:[/p]

• [p]1st use: Wheat 200, Wood 200 → Wheat 100, Wood 100[/p]
• [p]2nd use: Wheat 400, Wood 400 → Wheat 200, Wood 200[/p]
• [p]3rd use: Flour 250, Metal 250 → Flour 100, Metal 100[/p]
• [p]4th use: Flour 600, Metal 600 → Flour 300, Metal 300[/p]
• [p]First ability cooldown reduced from 40s → 30s.[/p]
• [p]Improved the functionality of artifacts applying productivity seals for Threat Level 8+ runs.[/p]
• [p]Added Steam achievements for completing the game on Threat Level 10 with each King.[/p]
• [p]Made various localization and text improvements across multiple languages.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]A Final Word[/h3][p]We want to sincerely thank you for your feedback. Some of it was tough to read, but it showed just how passionate this community already is about The King is Watching. We share that passion with you, and we’re learning every day how to better shape this game together.[/p][p][/p][p]You’ve helped us learn a valuable lesson: don’t nerf that hard. We hope future updates will bring only joy, chaos, and crown-worthy moments.[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for your love and support!
~ Hypnohead[/p]

People don't appreciate how challenging it is to be a hater. I often find myself chatting to absolutely lovely people getting excited about a cool game, and I just want to let them enjoy it. But I can't. I am the worst kind of person, and I must make them aware that this thing actually sucks. I am miserable and I must make everyone else miserable too. It's a real burden...
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