King Of The Castle is a narrative strategy game where you play a monarch battling nobles for power in a kingdom. The twist is that the nobles are controlled by other players who also have their own factions and objectives. You play by making decisions to inch towards your aims, while also trying to keep the various factions happy. Everyone else gets to vote on your decisions in an effort to steer events and achieve their own aims. It stands out for the narrative that emerges from this chaos of competing aims and the sheer breadth of surprising things that can happen through your reign.

To start to take your seat on the throne or as a noble and are assigned a faction and related mission. Through each season you make decisions about which path of the narrative to take and how you should meet those challenges. Do you bribe the nobles, kill them off, alter the laws or twist democracy in your favour? You slowly move your influence and power in the right direction so you can complete your objectives before the other factions achieve theirs.

As you progress you realise that this isn't simply a race to get the numbers right, but a layered political challenge. Maybe you're a Gothic count and need to get the monarch possessed by a demon. You first need to win the monarch's trust by getting them to lower their defiance. Then you need to lower your faith so you can learn demonology. Only then can you have a chance of striking to possess the king. Of course, at the same time, both the monarch and other nobles are doing the same for their aims.

The result is a labyrinth of a game with over 900,000 words of narrative and 950 possible Events with 80 unique Endings. The numbers give a sense of scale, but it's how this comes together in the temporary community playing the game to make memorable stories that are really magic.