A new contender just entered the crowded auto-battler roguelite arena with a twist nobody saw coming. Monsters Are Coming! Rock and Road launched on November 20, 2025, published by Raw Fury and developed by indie studio Ludogram. This tower-survivor action roguelite puts players in charge of protecting an ever-moving fortress city as it travels toward a safe haven called the Ark, all while gathering resources, building defenses, and fighting endless monster hordes. Available day one on Xbox Game Pass for console, PC, and Cloud Gaming, plus Steam and GOG for purchase, the game blends Vampire Survivors progression with strategic tower placement and resource management that creates a uniquely stressful balancing act.
The Core Concept: A City on Wheels
The premise is deceptively simple. You control a hero running alongside a massive Town Hall fortress that automatically moves southward toward the Ark, a safe zone free from monsters. Your job involves three simultaneous responsibilities that create constant tension: gathering resources scattered across the landscape, clearing obstacles blocking the city’s path, and fighting off increasingly aggressive monster waves trying to destroy your mobile fortress.
The city never stops moving. This creates the game’s central challenge because you can’t pause to safely gather resources or explore side areas without risking falling too far behind. Stray too far from the city chasing valuable materials, and the darkness at the edge of the screen will consume you. Stay too close and play it safe, and you won’t collect enough resources to properly fortify defenses before the next monster wave arrives.
Players must reach the Ark with ten different Town Halls to complete the game. Each successful run deposits one Town Hall into a designated spot at the Ark, shown on a cute map interface. If you deliver two of the same Town Hall type, the newer one simply replaces the older, preventing duplication. This structure encourages players to experiment with different building configurations rather than repeating the same successful strategy ten times.
How the Three Pillars Work
The Fortify pillar centers on city building and tower defense mechanics. As you accumulate experience from killing monsters and gathering resources, your city levels up. Each level offers a randomized selection of districts and defensive structures you can add to your fortress. These range from resource generators that produce wood, stone, or gold passively, to combat structures like archery outposts, necromancer towers, and fire-breathing dragons that automatically attack nearby enemies.
The placement matters more than in traditional tower defense games because your city expands both vertically and horizontally based on where you position structures. Building wider increases the city’s footprint, which means you need to gather more resources to clear a wider path. Building taller concentrates firepower but might leave gaps in your defensive coverage. Some structures provide multiplicative bonuses to adjacent buildings, creating synergies that reward thoughtful placement.
The Forage pillar focuses on resource gathering and exploration. You play as what the game calls a persistent peon or hero who runs around the slowly scrolling battlefield collecting wood, stone, and gold. Wood fuels the city’s engines to keep it moving. Stone repairs damage from monster attacks. Gold purchases upgrades and new districts at shelter checkpoints between stages.
Resources spawn randomly across the map, with richer deposits appearing further from the city’s main path. This creates constant risk-reward decisions. Do you sprint far to the left to grab that cluster of gold nodes, knowing it might put you dangerously far from the city? Or do you play conservatively, only collecting resources near the path while accepting slower progression? Environmental obstacles like trees and boulders also block the city’s movement and must be destroyed by attacking them, adding another task to your growing list of responsibilities.
The Fight pillar introduces combat progression and boss battles. Your hero can equip weapons and gear found in chests scattered across each stage, similar to Vampire Survivors’ power-up system. At the end of each stage, you select a new weapon from randomized options, building your arsenal throughout the run. Weapons include standard fantasy fare like swords, bows, and magic staffs, each with different attack patterns and upgrade paths.
Boss encounters punctuate the journey at specific intervals, testing whether your city’s defenses and your personal combat build can withstand concentrated assaults. These Bad Ass Bosses require active participation, dodging attack patterns while your automated defenses chip away at their health. Environmental hazards and special weaponry opportunities appear during boss fights, forcing strategic adaptation beyond simply tanking damage.
The Meta-Progression Loop
Like all modern roguelites, Monsters Are Coming includes permanent progression that carries between runs. The currency comes in the form of clocks collected during gameplay or earned based on the distance traveled before your inevitable demise. These clocks purchase upgrades in two categories: city improvements and hero enhancements.
City upgrades might increase starting resources, unlock new district types for the randomized selection pool, or provide passive bonuses to defensive structures. Hero upgrades enhance your character’s movement speed, attack power, or survivability. Both upgrade trees offer meaningful power increases that make subsequent runs easier, following the roguelite philosophy of dying, learning, and returning stronger.
Additional content unlocks as you complete objectives and reach specific milestones. New map tiles expand the variety of environments you’ll traverse, from forest biomes with dense tree coverage to rocky wastelands with different resource distributions. Each biome introduces unique visual aesthetics, enemy types, and environmental challenges that keep runs feeling fresh even after dozens of attempts.
Stage Structure and Shelters
Each run divides into multiple stages punctuated by shelter checkpoints. These safe zones offer several important functions. First, you can repair damage to your city using accumulated stone resources. Second, you access a shop selling district upgrades and new building options using gold. Third, you get a brief respite from the constant pressure of monster attacks and resource management.
An optional mini-game appears at the end of each stage before reaching the shelter. You select an arena and must remain inside a designated circle until it fully illuminates. Once complete, you have a brief window to collect bonus loot before an enemy horde, visualized as a wall of death, appears and eliminates you if you stay too long. This high-risk, high-reward mini-game lets skilled players boost their resources significantly, but greedy players who linger too long lose everything.
The shop prices and available items change based on how well you performed in previous stages, creating dynamic difficulty scaling. Struggling runs might see cheaper upgrade costs and more powerful defensive options appearing in the shop, while dominant runs face higher prices and fewer game-changing purchases. This rubber-banding helps maintain challenge without making failure feel punishing.
How It Differs From Vampire Survivors
While the Vampire Survivors comparisons are inevitable given the auto-battler roguelite genre, Monsters Are Coming distinguishes itself through several key differences. Reddit users noted it plays closer to Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor than Vampire Survivors, with more limited item and upgrade sets that emphasize strategic choices over overwhelming power scaling.
The moving city mechanic creates spatial pressure that Vampire Survivors lacks. In Vampire Survivors, you can kite enemies in circles indefinitely, using the entire screen as your playground. Here, the constantly advancing fortress forces forward momentum. You can’t retreat or backtrack, only move laterally or chase after your city if you fall behind.
The tower defense elements add strategic depth beyond personal character builds. In Vampire Survivors, all your power comes from weapon and passive item combinations. Monsters Are Coming splits your effectiveness between personal combat capability and your city’s automated defenses, requiring you to balance investment in both systems. Neglecting either leaves you vulnerable.
The resource gathering creates additional plate-spinning that pure auto-battlers skip entirely. Vampire Survivors eventually becomes a passive experience where you watch your character obliterate everything while you barely touch the controls. Monsters Are Coming demands constant active participation: attacking obstacles, collecting resources, positioning relative to your city, and fighting enemies simultaneously.
Development and Publishing
French developer Ludogram created Monsters Are Coming as their debut title, establishing themselves through indie game showcases and conventions. The game appeared at Gamescom 2025 where it earned spots on several Best of Gamescom lists from attendees who played the demo. That positive buzz built anticipation leading into the November launch.
Raw Fury handled publishing duties, bringing their indie game expertise to marketing, platform negotiations, and release coordination. The Swedish publisher has built a reputation supporting unique indie projects like Sable, Mosaic, and Cassette Beasts, typically focusing on games with distinctive art styles and innovative mechanical hooks rather than safe genre exercises.
The partnership secured day one Game Pass availability, a massive win for a debut indie title. Being featured on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate grants immediate access to millions of subscribers who might never have discovered the game otherwise. This exposure can make or break indie releases, with successful Game Pass titles often seeing significant sales spikes on other platforms from players who discovered them through the subscription service.
Reception and Reviews
Early reviews from outlets with advance access landed in the 7 to 8 out of 10 range, praising the clever genre fusion while noting the game might not have the depth or content volume of established competitors. CGMagazine specifically called it fresh and addictive, highlighting the just one more run feeling that defines successful roguelites.
TheSixthAxis echoed similar sentiments, appreciating the unique moving city concept while suggesting that players looking for the overwhelming power fantasy of late-game Vampire Survivors runs might find Monsters Are Coming more restrained. The tower defense elements and resource management create a different kind of satisfaction based on strategic optimization rather than explosive screen-clearing chaos.
The price point helps recommendations, launching under ten dollars on Steam and GOG while being completely free for Game Pass subscribers. At that value proposition, reviewers felt comfortable suggesting it to anyone interested in roguelites or tower defense games, even if it might not become their new obsession.
Platform Availability
Monsters Are Coming launched simultaneously on November 20, 2025, across Xbox consoles, Xbox PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming via Game Pass Ultimate, Steam, and GOG. The multi-platform release ensures broad accessibility regardless of preferred gaming ecosystem. No PlayStation or Nintendo Switch versions were announced, though indie games often expand to additional platforms months after initial release once the development team gauges commercial performance and player interest.
The Game Pass day one inclusion means Xbox players with active subscriptions can download and play immediately without additional purchase. For PC players preferring to own their games outright, both Steam and GOG offer DRM-free options with cloud save functionality and achievement support.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Monsters Are Coming Rock and Road release?
Monsters Are Coming! Rock and Road launched on November 20, 2025, across Xbox consoles, Xbox PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Steam, and GOG.
Is Monsters Are Coming on Xbox Game Pass?
Yes, Monsters Are Coming! Rock and Road is available day one on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for console, PC, and Cloud Gaming at no additional cost beyond the subscription.
Who developed Monsters Are Coming Rock and Road?
French indie studio Ludogram developed the game, with Raw Fury serving as publisher. This is Ludogram’s debut title.
What genre is Monsters Are Coming?
The game describes itself as a tower-survivor action roguelite, blending elements from Vampire Survivors-style auto-battlers, tower defense strategy, and resource management survival games.
How much does Monsters Are Coming cost?
The game is priced under ten dollars on Steam and GOG for players who want to purchase it outright. It’s also included with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at no additional charge.
Is Monsters Are Coming single-player only?
Yes, based on available information, the game appears to be a single-player experience focused on roguelite progression and high score chasing.
How is this different from Vampire Survivors?
Monsters Are Coming adds tower defense building mechanics, resource gathering requirements, and a constantly moving fortress that creates spatial pressure. It offers more limited upgrade sets emphasizing strategic choices over overwhelming power scaling.
Conclusion
Monsters Are Coming! Rock and Road proves that the auto-battler roguelite genre still has room for innovation beyond simply adding more weapons and power-ups. By forcing players to protect a moving fortress while simultaneously gathering resources and building defenses, Ludogram created a uniquely stressful experience that demands constant active engagement rather than devolving into passive screen-watching. Whether it has the depth and content to sustain hundreds of hours of play like genre leaders Vampire Survivors or Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor remains to be seen, but the clever mechanical fusion and accessible price point make it an easy recommendation for anyone with Game Pass or ten dollars burning a hole in their digital wallet. The road to the Ark is long and dangerous, but at least the fortress comes equipped with fire-breathing dragons.