Well, Mike ran in to problems getting ldjam.com working properly with about 12 hours left in the Compo, so this is the backup plan.
A-Sync as the name suggests is an asynchronous co-operative game. You may die but your actions will live on to help another player in need!
Server is working now (at least occasionally).
If you play a few rounds and you still haven't seen anyone that means something has gone wrong. Please let me know in the comments and I'll try fix any bugs asap
Controls:
WSAD + mouselook + left-mouse-button
Classes:
Knight - Able to take considerably more damage, enabling the team to push forward
Medic - Can place healing areas, however these will only affect players in the future.
Barbarian - His giant axe can smash cannons into pieces given enough swings.
Post Mortem:
Thanks for all the wonderful feedback! I have a number of regrets regarding this project. First and most obvious is the lack of polish on nearly every element. If I had a chance I would have liked to add sounds and effects to provide feedback for characters such as the barbarian, also making some menu art would have been nice. Of course, I would have liked to rig the characters and give them animations, unfortunately I cut all these features because they weren't necessary.
A more pressing issue is the overall lack of content. I was planning to introduce multiple levels, multiple enemy types and more classes. The lack of this content makes it very difficult to test the central concept behind this game. Currently it's very easy to 'cheese' your way to the end of the level. I've made some changes to prevent this, unfortunately the only real solution would be to add more variety in obstacles.
Another point worth mentioning is that ideally, I see this game as something you would pass between two or more people. I added the ability to play with yourself because it would be unrealistic to expect people to come back after one session.
What went wrong:
The greatest time-sink for developing this game was figuring out how to create a client-server relationship that could store and recall player actions. Debugging unity webforms was very difficult since there's so little documentation available. This problem was simply unavoidable however. In the future I would have much less trouble tackling a project with a similar design.
Another stumbling block with this type of game is that every play action needs to be recorded, stored and recalled. This essentially triples the amount of code that needs to be created.
I also had to scrap a large amount of modelling work that didn't turn out the way I expected since I'm not too proficient with blender. This is also the reason why all the characters are slightly modified versions of the knight character :). Ideally I should have gone for a more simple modelling style.
What went right:
I started this project to test the viability of the asynchronous coop concept. I believe I've succeeded in showing that it's possible to create such a game. I'm confident that there's a lot of potential for asynchronous multiplayer games whether cooperative or competitive. I look forward to trying out some similar ideas in the future.
Changelog:
1.03
-Added compression to reduce load on server
-fixed barbarians inconsistent swing
1.02
-Prevented players from returning to the main menu before their progress had saved
1.01
-Added server support
-Minor balance changes to characters to make them more reliant on each other.
Downloads and Links
Ratings
 | Coolness | 54% |
| #90 | Innovation | 3.77 |
| #308 | Graphics | 3.15 |
| #332 | Humor | 2.36 |
| #410 | Theme | 3.32 |
| #438 | Overall | 3.04 |
| #440 | Audio | 1.88 |
| #459 | Fun | 2.81 |
| #499 | Mood | 2.50 |
Comments
I understood the Healer and the Defender role, but what could the Axe Man do ?
I suppose it's a fine tuning setup, but it's a bit too slow.
And after a certain number of tries, I could definitely not spot the character I was controlling : )
Cool concept. Once you got it, it got fun :) And awesome concept with the A-sync thing, I wasn't sure if I played with others or how it was.
Ludum dare is all about nice concepts and innovative original games. This game proves that. My one complain is that sometimes I can't understand who is my player :)
Very Innovative, though it's really apparent you made the game on a single weekend. I am often missing sone feedback in regards to the actions I'm doing, but the concept is great!
This game is great. And it's also a cool game if you play it alone, after a few rounds you create strategies how you could win. Basicly you're playing a game in coop with yourself. Great work.
Hmm.. Sort of like... One old flash game I played where you need to die, and in the next round your previous round's dead body is there, so now you have a footing to jump further in front.
Seems like this one's going to be a fun game.
It's messy, hard to know who I play, and the others characters look dumb ^^
I think less tower could be nice, or reduce the life of the towers bullets, after a bit of time, they bounce everywhere and it's impossible to win ;)
Wonderful, well executed concept. However, I was able to solo run the room with a barbarian.
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I could play it alone and finish as a "defender". Nice concept, that would work perfectly in co-op.