A roguelite tower defense where every tower is a card you keep all run, and a duplicate levels it up on the spot. Chain elemental reactions, find relics that change your plans, and face 12 bosses with their own mechanics on procedural voxel battlefields. Solo or 2-4 player online and LAN co-op.

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Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“I want players to help shape Roll and Hold while there is still room for substantial changes. You can already play with card builds, elemental combinations, and co-op tower defense, but I also want to try ideas such as first-person construction and larger battlefields.

Those ideas need to be played to find out whether they belong in this game. Early Access will help me learn which combinations are fun, which choices feel pointless, and which new mechanics are worth developing further.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“My current estimate is around 12 months. That may change with development progress and playtesting, so there is no fixed full-release date yet. I will share progress and changes to the plan through Steam updates.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“I would like to develop the following additions to the current tower-defense game:

- First-person construction and gameplay, exploring how it feels to build and play from within the battlefield.
- A new terrain-generation algorithm for larger battlefields and more varied route layouts.
- Online matchmaking to make finding teammates and joining games easier, building on the existing online co-op.
- More bosses and mechanics, including experimental ideas that have not been implemented yet.
- More towers, upgrades, relics, events, and enemy encounters, alongside changes to progression.

These are development goals, not guaranteed features. Ideas that do not work well in playtesting may be reworked or dropped.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The current version has playable card-based tower-defense runs. Acquire and upgrade tower cards, combine elemental effects and relics, and build defenses on procedurally generated battlefields. Branching routes offer events, shops, and battles. Boss fights, Ascension difficulties, and an endless challenge are already included.

You can play solo or in 2–4 player co-op through Steam online play or a direct LAN connection. Ascension difficulties are available in both solo and co-op. English and Simplified Chinese are supported.

First-person construction and gameplay, the proposed larger-terrain system, and online matchmaking are not available yet. The game is still in development: expect bugs and uneven difficulty, and some system updates may require a new run. Please base your purchase on what is available now.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“I plan to raise the base game’s price at full release, though the final price and increase have not been decided. Early Access owners will receive future base-game updates and the full release without buying the game again.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“You can leave feedback in English or Chinese through Steam Discussions and the Community Hub, or talk with me on Discord. I will use development posts and patch notes to share what I am trying and explain what changed and why.

Alongside bug reports, I would like to hear about your runs: builds you enjoy, event choices you never take, unclear boss attacks, or trouble getting a co-op group together. When reporting a problem, please include the game version, what happened, and screenshots or a run seed if available. Those details help me reproduce problems, prioritize fixes, and decide what to test next.”
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About This Game

Roll and Hold is a roguelite tower defense game for solo play or 2–4 player co-op. Take your tower cards along a branching route, build up your defenses from one battle to the next, and face the boss waiting at the end of each act.

Every tower is a card you keep throughout the run. Level it up, fit it with enhancement cards, and bring it into the next fight. If a tower is destroyed, you can place it again with its level and enhancements intact. You won't have to start building it up from scratch.

New attack tower cards roll random attack modes and stats, which you can inspect before choosing. Picking a tower you already own gives it a free level. Duplicate enhancement cards can be used to upgrade the ones you've fitted, and upgrades never fail. Legendary enhancement cards can even change a tower's attack mode or element, opening up new combinations.

Rarer towers have more enhancement slots, but you can field fewer copies. Invest in a few powerful towers or spread your resources across more Common towers to cover more routes. Adjust your build as you find new cards and relics.

Fire, Water, Thunder, and Wind can trigger elemental reactions. Hit a charged enemy with Fire to cause an Overload explosion. Hit a burning enemy with Thunder to trigger Ignite and chain the reaction outward. Wind spreads the elements on a target to nearby enemies. Colorless towers don't take part in elemental reactions, giving you other options to build around.

Towers attack automatically, and you can adjust the battle speed. Watch where enemies are coming from, position your towers, and decide whether to upgrade your strongest defenders or fill gaps in your defenses.

Between battles, choose where to go next. Visit a shop for cards, stop to recover, or take on an elite for a guaranteed relic if you win. Events offer rewards and bargains of their own. Some cost money, some cost health, and others make the next fight harder.

Each act's boss calls for a different approach. The Iron Shell King's armor blocks most direct damage, but burning gets through. The Devourer swallows your towers; break its belly shield in time to get them back. The Thunder Ox smashes through mountains and charges down the new path it creates.

Procedurally generated battlefields feature six biomes, changing weather, and a day/night cycle. The terrain affects where you build: leave flower beds empty in the Magic Forest to earn gold after each wave; place towers on frost crystals in the Icefield to charge and release an icy field as they fire. On Sky Islands, updrafts lift enemies onto high ground, where only towers up high can reach them. Volcanic eruptions give a warning before they strike, while the Desert Oasis's constant sandstorm wears down towers and enemies alike.

Energy crystals earned during a run are yours to keep, even if the run ends in defeat. Spend them between runs to research more relics and events so they can appear in future runs. You can also unlock forging, training, dismantling, and reshaping services at rest stops, or increase the chance of encountering your preferred weather and biomes.

You can reset your crystal allocation for free and spend the refunded crystals on a different setup. Clearing higher difficulties also lets you claim more cards from rewards between acts and raises the limit on how many tower cards you can carry as a run progresses.

The current version includes:
  • 25 towers: 20 attack towers and 5 support towers
  • 43 enhancement cards and 150 relics
  • 135 events, including trades, combat contracts, and continuing storylines
  • 11 enemy types and 12 bosses
  • 6 biomes and 7 weather types, plus a day/night cycle
  • Research and unlocks between runs: relics, events, rest-stop services, and weather and biome preferences
  • Multiple solo Ascension difficulties, plus an endless stage after you win
  • 64 achievements and a codex that fills in as you discover the game

You can also bring friends along. Play with 2–4 players through Steam online co-op or a direct LAN connection. Rewards come from a shared pool. If several players choose the same card, a random draw decides who gets it.

Supports English, Simplified Chinese, and Steam Cloud saves.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Parts of this game's content were created with generative AI tools. All of it was generated ahead of time during development and ships as fixed assets:
- 3D models and textures (towers, enemies and bosses, bases, terrain and scenery props) were generated with Meshy AI, then adjusted and assembled by the developer.
- Most 2D icons and illustrations (relic icons, achievement icons, element emblems and some UI icons) were generated with AI image tools and edited by the developer; tower card illustrations are rendered from the AI-generated 3D models.
- Some in-game text (event, relic and achievement descriptions) and the store page text were drafted with an AI writing assistant and edited by the developer.
- The English localization was AI-translated from the original Chinese text and reviewed by the developer.
- Some store page and marketing artwork (capsule backgrounds) was produced with AI image tools.
Sound effects and music are procedurally synthesized by our own scripts and are not AI-generated. The game does not generate any content live during play and does not connect to any AI service at runtime.

System Requirements

    Minimum:
    • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 / AMD FX-6300
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: DirectX 11 compatible GPU with 2 GB VRAM (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti / AMD Radeon R7 260X)
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 2 GB available space
    • Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card
    • Additional Notes: Minimum display resolution 1280x720. Networked co-op requires a local network or a broadband internet connection.
    Recommended:
    • OS: Windows 11 64-bit
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-9400 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon RX 580 (4 GB VRAM)
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 2 GB available space
    • Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card
    • Additional Notes: 1920x1080 or higher display resolution recommended.
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