Greetings, I have started developing a side project for quite sometime now, it's session based Action RPG focus on replayability.

Here is what this game is all about,
Each session will have 3 stages (based on difficulty).
Stages are consist of 10-13 predefined map connected together into one large map, and each stage will have 12 minutes time limit, which will increase enemy strength, players will have penalty of cannot level-up and zero loot rate when time is zero, when leader in current map is defeated time will run slower.
Each stage player will have to find a Candle then activate Boss Pillar and defeat it before moving to next stage.

This game will have multiplayer, co-op up to 6 players, and in main menu player will be able to customize their character with rewards and unlockable from finishing game either defeats or victory.
Including class, starting equipment, abilities, perks, upgrades.

It's may sound simple, but I'm experiment both coding and some game system for my primary game.

Game is developed under Esenthel Engine.

Control Scheme
[spoiler]
Move Forward W
Move Backward S
Strafe Left Q
Strafe Right E
Turn Left A
Turn Right D
Move Up Up
Move Down Down
Move Left Left
Move Right Right
Move to Mouse X
Look At Mouse B
Look At Target Left Shift
Move Drag Strafe C
Move Drag Turn V or RMB

Attack Z or LMB
Auto Attack T (Automatically attack target when in melee range)
Ability 1 ~ (An attack with extra damage but at slower speed)
Ability 2 1 (Deals damage and applies damage over time)
Ability 3 2 (Deals damage and applies hit and evade plenty, deals extra damage if affected)
Ability 4 3 (Increases Defense and deals damage up to 3 targets around target friendly unit)
Ability 5 4 (Deals damage and applies slow around user, damage are divided between enemy units)
Ability 6 5 (Deals damage from point A to point B in line)

Cancel Targeting ESC
Next Target T
Previous Target G
Closest Target R

Interaction F

Camera Up Page Up
Camera Down Page Down
Camera Left Home
Camera Right End
Camera In Ins
Camera Out Del
Camera Focus Space
Camera Drag Left Alt or MMB
Self Revive P
Map M
Inventory i
[/spoiler]

Common Hints
[spoiler]
- Leader will look different from minions (Skeleton Leader is red skeleton)
- Press same ability or item twice for quick casting.
- Health Cross and Spinning Bubble are powerups.
- You can self-revive up to 2 times when defeated.
- Enemy will chase you forever when you aggro by move into detection range or dealing damage from afar too much.
- Weapon durability is used by dealing damage and armor durability is used by taking damage.
- Taking damage received extra EXP.
- Leveling up will randomly add 1 poine to one of four attribute. (Currently at 25%/25%/25%/25%)
- Selecting target will allows you to melee that target when crowded.
- Strength improve physical damage (while trail swing) and max weight.
- Willpower improve magical damage (teal trail swing) and critical chance. (have "!" on damage text)
- Dexterity improve hit rating and evasion rating. (have "- -" on glacing blow)
- Consitution improve max and regeneration of HP, AP.
[/spoiler]

I'm looking for gameplay feedback mostly, especially making game not feeling repetitive and challenging, control scheme and every others. Or even a questions. (:

Some specified questions
[spoiler]
How is gameplay?
How is difficulty? (Currently is Bronze (normal), it's lowest difficulty)
What do you think about Auto Attacking? and did you use it?
How is Move Drag Style control (both Turn and Strafe)?
Is time limit enough for each day?
How is ability targeting control?
How is minimap and map layout?
[/spoiler]

You can download a game prototype from here Download Link (google drive)

Other Notes:
- Resolution is currently locked at 1024 x 768
- Only 2 maps, 5 map types, 2 Weapons, 1 Armor, 0 Accessory, 2 Consumables, 6 Abilities, 1 Enemy type, 0 Boss.
- 1 AI Type (which is mindlessly attack you)
- Some features are not yet done (Quickslot, Infocard, Multiplayer, End Session Rewards, Character Customize)
- Ugly model, animation, sound, some GUI and terrains ^-^
- Mouse Control Scheme is locked as Mouse Drag Turn Style, I'm trying something new ;p
- Balance is kinda off.
- May contain bugs.

Thank you in advance.

Can I test it?

Of course, and everyone who want to help or just want to try are all welcome.

Each session will have 3 stages (based on difficulty).

What exactly is a "session"? Is this a measure of time, an instance of a generated game world, some sort of slang I'm too old to get?

Can I test it?

He actually means "Can you hire me to compose music for it" -- he"s already spamming my inbox looking for work.

What exactly is a "session"? Is this a measure of time, an instance of a generated game world, some sort of slang I'm too old to get?

Well, I don't know how it called actually ):
It's something like Left 4 Dead, Payday, Darkspore, Roguelike games, or something, that you will return to lobby or game menu when finish a game.

What exactly is a "session"? Is this a measure of time, an instance of a generated game world, some sort of slang I'm too old to get?

Well, I don't know how it called actually ):
It's something like Left 4 Dead, Payday, Darkspore, Roguelike games, or something, that you will return to lobby or game menu when finish a game.

A "play-through", perhaps?

It's been a week now, and there's no feedback, discussion or even question, did I forget something?

Sorry! For my part, I keep forgetting--I'll try to look at it sometime soon! ^^;

Right, I finally got around to trying this, and here are my thoughts:

Note: I didn't look at the control scheme ahead of time; for one thing, I feel that it's a good idea to plan on players not reading the manual/help file, and, well, I think that I'd simply forgotten that you'd posted them. As a result, I didn't know about the arrow keys or the "auto-attack" option. I simply tried the keys that seemed most likely--WASD, the mouse and space, I think.

That said, first of all, I really didn't get along well with the controls, I'm afraid. This could be a matter of my own aptitudes--for one thing, I don't often play games that control in this manner--but I really did find the controls difficult to come to grips with.

As I understand them, the controls are thus: WASD moves the character forwards, left, backwards and right relative to the character's current direction; they don't change the facing of either the character or camera. Holding down the right (if I recall correctly) mouse button and moving the mouse allows the player to turn the player, and if the cursor is moved beyond a certain threshold from the point at which it was pressed, to move the character in the indicated direction. Holding down space while doing so does the same, but rotates the camera at the same time. Pressing the right mouse button attacks, or "targets" a creature or item.

To my mind, this is a little over-complicated for what it achieves: why not a simpler mechanism, such as having the camera follow the character in rotation as well as position, and have horizontal mouse movement turn the character? (By the way, the screen rotation seems awfully fast to me--unless I moved the mouse very carefully, it spun far faster than I was comfortable with.)

As to the gameplay itself, I'm not sure that I "get" it: I ended up kiting enemies in small mobs, never in any real danger (the enemies do too little damage to be a significant threat), hitting them until they fell over. That was when I was facing in the right direction, at least: with the controls as they are, I all too often ended up moving in the wrong direction and swinging at empty air.

The looting controls again seem a little overcomplicated: as far as I see, looting involves first clicking on an object, then holding "f" until the object is collected. Either on its own would be fine (in the latter case, I imagine that holding "f" would loot all objects within range), but both together makes looting a bit of a chore.

I experimented briefly with bows, but the perspective and aiming mechanic made it rather difficult to aim effectively.

Having gone back and looked at the instructions that you posted, I suspect that knowing about the "auto attack" feature might have helped; but if so, then what purpose does the "default" attack mechanic serve?

Again, it may just be that these mechanics are not "for me", so to speak.

Thank you for the input, really appreciated it.

While most of control scheme you're suggesting are ready to use (which is why there's so large button mapping) but there are in options (which is not done) and I currently locked to one I experimenting,
of course I try to make it have multiple way to control and try to make them all accessible to specified player, I don't know which one should be default though. Especially I kind of prefer this scheme, it's allow more maneuver with less button, but with a bit of remapping, it's really messy right now because I want to have all function feedback and mix all the control scheme.

Not sure about camera speed, maybe smooth them up? there'll be camera sensitive in option by the way.

I'm thinking about mobs balance as well, I'm thinking to make the move in group when one of them encounter player, perhaps up their stats a bit, so it will be worth evading than exchange hits. You can target them and press 'LShift - Look at Target' to make it easier to aim or not swing at the air though. Maybe I'll add 'Attack at Mouse' to cover bow aiming as well?

For 'Auto-Attack' it will make you attack target when you face them and in melee range, which should allow players to focus on movement, but manual attack have advantage of anticipate enemy movement, like you can attack before move into range, or aim front of their moving path.