Build a city on top of a giant creature in The Crab is Walking

18 Sep 2026 at 7:41 am UTC
By Liam Squires-Hand

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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Accept Cookies & Show Direct Link 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.

Platform: ⚛ Proton / Wine (Windows)Devs:tinyBuild, HypnoheadOfficial links:Steam Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com. Tags: Proton, Autobattler, City Builder, Indie Game, Rogue-lite, Steam, Strategy, Upcoming | Apps: The Crab is Walking 0 Likes Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:Lossless Scaling Frame Generation on Linux lsfg-vk moves away from GitHub, changes license due to AI slop forksAge Verification for Steam rolls out in Australia requiring a Credit CardBethesda finally fix the Skyrim Special Edition on-screen keyboard crashing SteamOS / Steam DeckBethesda finally fix the Fallout 4 on-screen keyboard crashing on Steam Deck / SteamOS All posts need to follow our rules. Please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Readers can also email us for any issues or concerns.