Almost Done!!!! 

Made some major changes in the new version:
- Fixed major issues with the ball movement, making it much smoother to play.
- Added animations for picking up the ball and throwing the ball.
- Added music & sound effects. I really wanted to compose my own music, but ran out of time, so used music from FreeSound.
- Based on user feedback (managed to play with 5 people simultaneously and saw that the latency stays reasonable, hooray!), raised the speed that the power bar takes to load.
This change may seem small, but I think it really added to the gameplay.

And minor changes:
- Added wood panel texture for around the field
- Prettier people in the crowd
- Chatbox using colors
- An ability to toggle mute (with 'm')

Here are the latest screenshots:

And the stats screen:


My plans for the last day (gonna squeeze it to the last second):
- Make things prettier:
  * Add shading (and shadows) to the characters.
  * Add some decorations for the side of the field which looks a bit empty.
- If still have time, add leaderboards.

New version!
Play it Now!

-All characters are now in the playfield!
-Added nicer GUIs
-Added an ability to restart the game after you're done
-Tweaked gameplay: I've analyzed some statistics of the few who did play. The good news were that the average play time has doubled since the version before that. The bad news were that most people were dying, meaning the game was probably too difficult, so I made it slightly easier (though it's still a challenge).
-Added Mochi preloader (the new GUIs really slowed loading time a whole bunch)

The newest screenshots:



This is the crunch time, I'm obviously not gonna make all the stuff that I've planned, so I decided to cut the special abilities, and the after-death play from the compo build.
Hopefully I will still do it afterwards.
Also I'm not gonna do a lobby, I'll make it so you automatically join an open room, or create one if there are none.

Besides that, I still have to add the animations, music & sfx, fix some minor issues, change some graphics, etc.
And most important of all, I'm still missing valuable feedback, any feedback here will be greatly appreciated...

I love everything about this game!
The concept was simple but fun, great graphics, great animation and the
choice of music very fitting.
Well done! 

The mechanics in the video looks interesting.
It looks like it will be fun 

Thank you Vanguard, that was good feedback, more of that please...  

I uploaded a new version which fixes the WASD issue, and makes everybody faster (and also decreases the difference between the slower characters to the faster ones).

Also, made a bunch of more changes & fixes that I think makes the game a lot more fun!
Among them:
- Tweaked some parameters & fixed some bugs that makes hitting characters easier.
- Added some intelligence to the CPUs, so that they actually aim before they throw the ball.
This makes the game a lot more challenging even without other humans playing (and also, a lot more shorter...)
- Added smoke particle effects to the ball, this adds to the chaos already in the scene.
- Replaced two more programmer art sprites with real ones (God & Saddam), only three more to go...

So what are you waiting for,

Go & Play!

Sheesh, running out of time, and I'm taking forever working on the movement code...
We are also behind on the graphics, but at least the portraits for them are done:



I did upload a new version that you can play and give feedback (please?  ), though know that it is a mess graphics wise, since it's a combination between programmer art and real art.
Here's how it looks at the moment:



New in this version:
- Smooth(ish) movement for the players. The way it works now, is that if I encounter a lag from the server, I guess where the players are moving, and move them slowly in that direction. When I finally get some info from the server, I fix the location in a smooth way.
Since I don't have any idea on what else to do to improve that, I think I'm kinda done in that department, not counting any bugs.  
- Nicer physics for the ball, with bounces and all. Still need to work out some smoothness issues there, though.
- Animated crowd. The graphics may or may not change, depending on whether we'll have time or not.
- Statistics at the end of the game: who was the MVP, who was the best shooter, the best catcher, etc.
- Also I'm now inserting these stats into a database, so I can see how my changes affect the gameplay.

There are some major issues with the balls that I still need to resolve somehow:
- Players picking up balls from the ground. Due to the lag, the ball does not get instantly picked up, and I can't guess that I've picked up the ball, cause somebody else might have grabbed it before me. What I'm thinking of doing here, is having an animation for picking up
the ball: the client will run this animation when he's near the ball in the hope that by the time the animation finishes, the server will update the client that he has the ball. If not, then it will be like trying to pick up the ball and failing.
On the other hand, I can get information on a player receiving the ball when he's not really near it. I can then start the picking up animation at the same time of moving the player to the ball's position, so it will look less weird.
That's the best idea I have for this, so I hope it will work...
- Similar issues to a lesser extent with ball collision, and with a player throwing the ball. I want to add an animation for throwing the ball that might help for the lag.
As for the ball collision, I'm thinking about adding some particle effects for the ball, that will be more forgiving, so that it will look ok even if there's a hit when the ball is not exactly where the player's at.

If you have any solutions for these issues that you think will work better, please do let me know!

Very interesting..
And the name is brilliant! 

Status: Broke everything.

You might say that you've experienced "The Snap"... 

Well, I uploaded a new version, this time with an added chatbox and nicknames for the users...

Here's some images:

My prediction:


Comes true:  


In the weekend (hopefully I'll have some time then) I plan to work on optimizing network stuff, and improving the client interpolations in order to make the movements smoother.

Tommorrow I might look into some easier stuff that don't require so much focus from me, such as inserting stats into the server database, and maybe adding a crowd in the background, we'll see...

That video was beyond awesome!

I'm thinking that instead of racing, this technology can also make for an awesome multiplayer platformer, where the characters can jump on the objects and shoot down on the other characters, etc..

I took it for a spin, the movement is smooth, so nice one on that, but is there anything to do except moving?
If there's a button for shooting, I didn't find it, so I guess it wasn't implemented yet...
The robot sprite looks cute, btw.

Well, I finally have something to show.
It's still not as smooth as I would like it to be (both the ball and player movement needs some more touching up), but with a decent connection, it's definitely playable.
It's only the core gameplay with the mockup characters and dumb AI for the CPUs, no special abilities yet, also no chat yet, this is all stuff that I plan to do later on.
And also, I currently don't have a lobby, it's only one room with max 10 players, but I doubt there will be more than 10 players at this stage, so I don't think that would be a problem...

Here's the latest screenshot:


Please play and give me some feedback (you can find instructions inside), any feedback would be very much appreciated:
Play & Test!

Also, this might be a good time to write down what I'm planning to do next (hopefully):

Gameplay
--------
Smoother movementDone!
Nicer ball physicsDone!
Smarter AI for CPUsDone!
Special AbilitiesWill not make it to the compo version
Continue to play from outside the field when you dieWill not make it
Showing statistics (selecting MVP, etc)Done!

Graphics
--------
CharactersDone!
CrowdDone!
Nicer GUIsDone!

MISC
----
Nicknames for players Done!
ChatBox Done!
Ability to restart a game after you finish playing Done!
Lobby Will not make it to the compo version
Music & SFX Done! (But with outside music due to lack of time)

Thank you Maqrkk, for your kind words!  

Just to update, that I'm close (hopefully) to having something playable to show, I've done the characters movement, and am currently working on the ball physics.

For the meanwhile, here are some early sketches of some of the characters:

I'm not normally a fan of mouse control for characters, but it might work in this case. It will be interesting to play it and see how it feels.
Also really liked the mockups, I was especially attracted to that bottom GUI with the health bars, I hope that you will keep it for the actual game (though I know that probably would not happen)...

How can everybody be so blind?
dum + beetches = dum beetches!
Still not clear to you?
Ok, well, how does it sound in your head?
That's right!

A dung beetle!

I like the concept, but mostly I came to say this:
Don't ever change this title!

I'm totally calling dibs on the purple guy when I play this.

Ok, then I'm taking "Big lips", he'll kick the purple guy's ass for sure!

Gabriel is actually usually regarded as female, so that is quite fitting.

Hmm, didn't know that, thank you for that info. I guess we'll stick with Gabriel, then.

I suggest playing Kunio [something in japanese] Dodgeball for Genesis! It's my fav dodgeball so far

I never played it, but I just saw a gameplay video, and it looks cool (kinda reminds me of an old football game I played also, I'm pretty sure it uses the same sprites).
The gameplay will probably not be like that at all, but it helped me decide on the perspective for the field. I was kinda struggling to decide between side view, otrhogonal and top view. I was aiming for side view but wasn't sure how clear it will be to see where the ball is going, but after seeing the video I made up my mind that this is the way to go.
Based on this I made this poorly drawn mockup:

The red power bar is for the special ability, and the green bars are for the lives.
When your lives are up, your role does not end.
Instead you move outside the enemy lines, and get to shoot balls at them...

Besides the mockup, all I have been doing so far is trying to learn how to integrate Player.IO with FlashDevelop.
Since I only began coding in flash a week ago, and since the Player.IO samples were for Adobe and not for
FlashDevelop, it took me a while to figure it out, but I finally managed to get the "Hello World" application
to work.
That's like half the work, right there...
Gonna continue with Player.IO, need to figure out the architecture for the multiplayer and how to cheat the latency and all that stuff, so it's probably gonna take some time before I have some prototype for playtesting.

You had me at backstabbing.

Just go with Lilith.

We might just do that (unless someone comes up with someone more awesome), thanks.

Utter blasphemy.

What part, seducing heaven, or claiming that Martha Stewart is not sexy enough?
Well, either way, you're probably right...

You forgot one other team - Chuck Norris

That wouldn't be fair, though, no one has a chance against Chuck Norris (even if he's alone in the team as you implied  ), I want to make the battlefield even...