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From the developers of the rather good The King is Watching, an apocalypse city-builder with giant creatures! The Crab is Walking sounds fun. This was an instant add-to-wishlist for me!

What exactly is it? A roguelite kingdom builder and auto-battler where your capital sits atop a giant creature. Pick your eight-legged ride, select your rider, merge buildings, unlock upgrades, and reshape your settlement as you traverse a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Space is precious when you're building a city on the back of a giant crab, so every decision matters!

Check out the trailer below:

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Key Features
  • Deep strategy combined with short runs. It is never an easy ride.
  • All buildings have their own unique forms. Space limitations require tough decisions.
  • Pick your Ride. Pick your Rider. Different shells, different playstyles.
  • Merge and upgrade your buildings. Then find the combos that break the game.
  • 100+ unit types. Powered by gasoline and hate.
  • The safe road is safe. The hard road pays. Take the easier route, or push against it for better rewards.

From the press release, they explained a bit more about why they're not just doing a sequel to The King is Watching:

"Why Not The King is Watching 2?

Because we’re not finished with the first game.

We’re still working on The King is Watching and releasing new content for it, so this isn’t the time for a sequel. Our next update will focus more heavily on gameplay variety, and we already have a rather large folder full of ideas for where its central mechanic could go next.

We also understand much better what players enjoy about the game, and we’ll be carrying those lessons into everything we make from here.

So, who knows? Perhaps one day that folder will become something more…

What Are We Doing Differently?

The Crab is Walking gives us room to attempt things that weren’t possible or practical in The King is Watching.

We’re working with a different resolution, allowing for more detailed pixel art and more elaborate animations. We’re also introducing more sophisticated unit behaviour, combat statistics, and a more convenient, polished interface.

The setting has changed completely, too. We’ve traded medieval fantasy for post-apocalyptic punk, but our fondness for hiding pop-culture references everywhere survived the apocalypse just fine. The King Is Watching gave us plenty of fantasy stories to play with. Now the entire wasteland is fair game.

Underneath the rust, gasoline, and giant crustaceans, The Crab is Walking is an evolution of the design players enjoyed in The King is Watching: deep strategy packed into short roguelite runs, difficult choices that refuse to leave you alone, and combinations we fully expect players to abuse in ways we never intended.

Most importantly, we want it to be just as fun and addictive as The King is Watching. Preferably more. After all, it is every creator’s goal (and curse) to try and make the next thing bigger.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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2 comments
scaine 18 Sep 2026
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No interest in this. But then I idly watched the trailer. Onto the wishlist it goes!! 😅
Purple Library Guy 18 Sep 2026
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I don't think the crab your city is on, is nearly as cute as the dinosaur from The Wandering Village. So a demerit there, but otherwise it looks interesting.
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