Hello everyone. Here's a little game I've been working on since... well, since Friday... inspired by a game (Moon Invaders) in the recent Ludum Dare. Except prettier. And, since it's pretty, let's see some screenshots.

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The objective of the game is, as one might glean from the screenshots, to prevent the invaders from reaching the bottom of the screen. This is done by deploying defensive structures, accessible from the bottom right; once deployed, towers will automatically fire on your enemies. Each costs money, which along with your remaining "life" is displayed in the bottom left. Towers can be sold, giving you back half of their original cost plus potentially valuable real estate, by selecting them with the left mouse button and clicking the "Demolish" button. Right click cancels selection and placement. Finally, Esc exits the game (after confirmation).

Laser turrets fire straight up every few seconds, dealing damage to the first invader the shot hits. Missile batteries fire seeking missiles at a slower rate, but they deal heavier damage, plus splash damage around them. The missiles explode if they fail to hit anything within a few seconds, though (although they still deal splash damage if they're close enough to anything when they do). Spark towers (not yet implemented) will deal heavy damage to a single invader, but have much shorter range.

Download Link (.zip, ~480 KiB, DLLs included)

It's still work in progress. Thus, there are planned features not yet in the game, such as the ability to upgrade towers once placed, more types of towers, more enemy types, and boss waves. With that in mind, it might be fun to play for a little while -- personally I can't beat wave 11, but maybe someone else will have better luck.

Finally, I would like to add sound and music to this, but I'm utterly incompetent when it comes to that. Any suggestions are welcome.

Nice, that graphics is purely by you? If yes, it's impressive. Also when I consider it's only three day job. Though I must admit that after wave 8 it began to be boring. When you just watch those aliens getting shot down.

For sounds I'd advice some cool oldie laser sounds and missiles. Something beepy. As for the music I have no clue.

I made all the graphics, yes. And yes, it does get repetitive after a while, something I'm sure will be alleviated when more features are implemented.

Fun little game. I got to wave 10 before I died. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to fill the bottom with SAMs or leave some laser turrets, but I ended up having I think 6 SAMs and a few laser turrets.

Once the realistate is taken up the user has little to do other than wait for the wave to end. Maybe zoom out a little each wave so the user has more land to use up?

Are the enemies deliberately cthulhoid?

Aside from the graphics, it seems like a step down from the original ... the graphics are really nice, though!

cough

I bet it's subconscious.

Seems to segfault on launch

Can't seem to get it working correctly, the game is halty, and has no sound. Maybe it is because I am right now importing over 1m entries to a MySQL database... Also, the screen does not refresh unless I keep forcing it (in example, keep the mouse cursor pressed against the window title). What are you using, page flipping? Here is a screenshot:

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... and Tower Defence?

Nice mini-game, I liked the graphics!
The missile batteries are not smart enough IMHO, when a few invaders remains it seems that the missiles can't find their target!
You should include another weapons before wave 11 appears, most people can't beat them (me included).

What, no source?

I got to beat 9 waves.

Nice start which may turn into a good game. I especially like the graphics. I got to wave 12 before I quit playing it.

My suggestions/feedback:

• The best strategy seem to be filling the entire floor with Laser Turrets. When I include Missile Turrets I haven't gotten as far. Missile Turrets would need to be a bit better.

• It would be nice if the aliens would shoot back. And I could buy little repairmen who would run around fixing my weapons.

• As it is now I want the possibility to do something else while I wait for a level to end. At defocus the game pauses which keeps me from doing that. If the game requires more interaction later on this might not be a problem any more.

The missiles are plenty useful if you increase their life.

I can't get the game to run. The error message I get is :

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Odd... what kind of system are you running? Would you be terribly against running a debug version and seeing where it crashes?

The former probably is because of the SQL thing (and you seem to be running it in Wine... no excuse, but...), and there is no sound becuase... there is no sound. Read the end of my first post.

Plain old double buffering for now. I see nothing wrong with the screenshot.

Moon Invaders itself was inspired by Tower Defence, so yes.

This is a side effect of them not having perfect homing ability (they can only turn so much in one second) and is intended. They're not supposed to be as good at hitting invaders at every part of the screen -- other towers will help with that.

Once there are more towers - and importantly, once you can upgrade them - there will be more balancing options and hopefully towers will be useful in different situations leading you to want both, especially against different kinds of invaders.

It might, with the increased options. Also, with more powerful towers, you will finish levels faster and it will feel less obtuse.

Win2k, Athlon XP 2500+, GeForce FX 5900SE, 1.5 GB of RAM. And no, I wouldn't mind a debug version to track down the culprit.

Bob, Christmas is over. FYI.

You don't say?

Thanks, Bob. Attached is a debug executable... just run it from wherever you extracted the game as normal and see if you can get a backtrace.

I have defeated wave 12 but I think it is not possible to go beyond that, and it would be nice if you add a reduce CPU usage option.

It does yield when it would be idle already...

Looks great from the screenshots! Very DS'ish.

Good job.

cool looks nice, will try it tonight

edit: what are the controls, counldnt find a README either

edit i get it, nice i dont have to manually shoot!

At work's computer (W2k, 1gb RAM, Intel 3Ghz), it crashes with the following (DrMingw):

CosmicInvaders. caused an Access Violation at location 0043c4a4 in module CosmicInvaders.exe Reading from location fffffffc.

Registers:
eax=00000000 ebx=00000001 ecx=fffffff4 edx=0047b0c8 esi=004218b0 edi=00000035
eip=0043c4a4 esp=0022f870 ebp=0022f908 iopl=0         nv up ei pl nz na po cy
cs=001b  ss=0023  ds=0023  es=0023  fs=0038  gs=0000             efl=00200207

The debug throws:

CosmicInvaders_ caused an Access Violation at location 0043d58c in module CosmicInvaders_debug.exe Reading from location fffffffc.

Registers:
eax=00000000 ebx=007facbc ecx=fffffff4 edx=007fb0d8 esi=00000055 edi=007f3f00
eip=0043d58c esp=0022fb70 ebp=0022fc08 iopl=0         nv up ei pl nz na po cy
cs=001b  ss=0023  ds=0023  es=0023  fs=0038  gs=0000             efl=00200207

Call stack:
0043D58C  CosmicInvaders_debug.exe:0043D58C
0043F5FD  CosmicInvaders_debug.exe:0043F5FD
00410001  CosmicInvaders_debug.exe:00410001  System::setup()  system.cpp:119
0040A707  CosmicInvaders_debug.exe:0040A707  _mangled_main(int, char**)  main.cpp:22
67A4DA89  alleg42.dll:67A4DA89  _WinMain

this game has tons of potential for people who like games but dont want to be constantly clicking around

Add some creative levels and you've got a winner here.

The game runs.. but i don't think it should act like this (attachment for screenshots). i can't beat wave 2..

Bob, I can't stalk you 24 hours a day, you know. A post is bound to slip through every so often... sheesh!

Thanks. I feel so much safer now.

Again, I see nothing wrong with the screenshot. Please clarify what you mean.

sorry, i thought it was a space invaders clone.. was kinda confused when i had nothing to shoot with... but now i understand the game play, and i like it. reminds me of td.. great work, so far.

No new version yet? Game won't fix itself, as far as I know

Here you go. I think the bug has been fixed, and you can also build Spark Towers now (although I think their range is a bit too short... comment on that!).

... Matthew, if you're reading this, there's a bug with attachments. The link to the file I just attached comes out as "http://www.allegro.cc/files/attachment/", which probably isn't correct, right?

Cool, working now. The Spark tower hasn't got the opportunity to test itself, as it is surrounded by lasers and missiles

(Edited: Oh, there... too short, and too slow).

I would suggest increasing the Spark towers range and speed as well, too make it worth the cost. I beat 11 waves, and missed the last invader on wave 12, who took away the last of my health. Better Spark Towers would really help.

BTW, awesome game, sound will make it even better. Is it in the Depot yet?

[EDIT]
Spark towers are underpowered. Too short range, too slow firing, and a little too low damage.

Had 2 problems: Somehow (dunno how still) I started a game, and could not build anything. Hovering the mouse above the icons would not select anything, and I had the $600. Also, just after I finished the first wave with a missile and two lasers, the game crashed. Will need a debug build to check that out (that is, if I can reproduce it again).

CosmicInvaders. caused an Access Violation at location 0514a464 Reading from location 05258000.

Registers:
eax=00000000 ebx=0514a008 ecx=0047b060 edx=0047b060 esi=05258000 edi=050fd458
eip=0514a464 esp=0022fa66 ebp=0022fa78 iopl=0         nv up ei pl nz na pe nc
cs=001b  ss=0023  ds=0023  es=0023  fs=0038  gs=0000             efl=00200202

Call stack:
0514A464

By the way, I really liked the fact that, if the target of a missile is destroyed by another weapon, it will turn around and target another instead of just exploding.

I tried your new version, spark tower is almost useless, but it looks so cool!
Attached screenshot, as I said, it would be nice if you add a working reduce CPU usage option.

Paul is right, I get 50% CPU usage (HT). Yielding is exactly the contrary you want here, X-G, you want to rest.

Level 12, 11 missiles and 3 lasers.

By the way, when I lose, if I choose "No", the game does not reset.

I like how people keep restating the obvious, such as that choosing "no" doesn't restart the game. That's not what it asks you about, people. (And there will be an option that makes more sense there later on.)

Anyway, attached is another debug build -- see if that gives us any insight.

Oh, and spark towers will be rebalanced; both made faster and with increased range. Once I implement upgrades, they'll be even better; chain lightning ftw!

Nope.

Haven't been able to reproduce it yet. The tower's range is fine, but you should make them faster, and start firing as soon as you drop them on ground, so that you can replace whatever you have with towers if the waves come too near.

Gah, I fail. Trying again.

Nice game, It's going to be fun when finished. Wave 12 is as far as I can get without dying.

Same here. Adding an upgrade system for the structures (more damage, faster firing, etc.) could be really neat, if you weren't already planning on that.

Sometimes I really get the feeling none of you even read the first post.

edit:

I can't run it at all. It flashes then exits.
Its all in the original folder.

Debug build doesn't help. Maybe you could include the pdb and/or the source?

Sorry, didn't see that part. I didn't read much below the download, so I missed it.

The groundwork is there, nice graphics. I'm looking forward to seeing it develop actual gameplay with more towers, enemy types and stuff.

Anyway, the spark towers seem almost useless now. By the time they're actually in range, you are usually fried, and the fact that they fire only once in a long while doesn't help them.

Got to level 12, 6 missiles on the sides, and all lasers in the middle.

It crashes on my computer even when I change the color depth.

Reached level 13, 3 missiles in each side, lasers everywhere, plus two spark towers in the middle. I also tried another tactic: since it is not a pure Galaxian/Galaga (where the movement was fixed), the secret is to destroy the invaders on the sides to make the movement of the wave longer. I put one missile at the very end, then four lasers, and then pure missiles, replacing the missiles and some of the lasers with sparks, but didn't really work. The sparks don't destroy with one hit, which is a pity.

Good fun. I managed to reach Level 11. I don't really have anything to comment on. Just the usual: Spark Tower needs a greater range and a faster firing interval.

The game locked up on me, once. While destroying a turret.

OK, so the reason it wouldn't run was I was on a ten year old laptop. Now I'm not, it runs great (and its really fun, if a little slow paced) but I can't find the link to the version with the spark towers.

I loose at level 12.

I WANNA PLAY MORE !

Give us better spark towers! Please!

I get the same crash as the others.

Yes!, and a way to reduce the CPU usage! Please!

Where are you finding the download with the spark towers?

Check the original post?

The original post doesn't seem to have the Spark towers.

Hey, X-G, just checked out the game, kudos. I have all these ideas I want to suggest, but that wouldn't be appropriate for a WIP now would it? I do expect the interface to be a little better in the end.

Anyway, it's a good mix and fun.

Sorry, it's one of X-G's later posts.

The last version freezes randomly on my machine.

The last debug version runs on my machine (but no sparkies available).

Both versions work. The weapons still need to be balanced, but that's something you're working on already.

I'm hoping the lack of any responce form X-G is because he's working on the game.

Yep. I'm holding back on a new version because I want upgrades to work first. And I can't figure out why it still crashes for some of you.

X-G, my crash report was actually false. I'd reported on the version linked at the top of the thread, not the one hidden in the middle. Maybe just edit the top thread for new releases?

Perhaps some help for debugging.
Happens sometimes.

Thank you, that is helpful.

Finally beat wave 11 (with 3000+ money).

For the gameplay:
I am sure that the lightning tower are too expensive, blah,blah (as already told by other)

My technique is the following (and bring me to level 11 with no problem):
One missile tower each side of the screen (you can put them with a middle part out of the screen)

Full laser between them. Each one as near as possible of the other.

I had tried full-missile, but it is not as powerfull than laser (because even if less powerfull, laser are way much faster)

EDIT: As I had played it a lot, I have a submission for you ! What about adding a scoring system based on the time it takes to destroy each wave ? Game after Game I realized that I was able to kill them faster and faster because I was knowing where and what to put. I am pretty sure you can know the maximum time a wave can take to reach the ground, and using some simple math can bring a simple but nice scoring system.

Last: what about giving us the ability of putting towers on a second line under the first ?

That's all for now ;-p

Or perhaps making an upgrade for each tower that allows a secondary weapon type as well.

Yeah, that is in the feeling. The thing is to be able to fire two weapon from the same geographic place .

I think having the weapons snap-to-grid (1/8 of weapon width or something) would be a good thing as well, so that the placement isn't so finicky.

Yeah. That would be nice. A little easier to optimize your space.

Please give us a new version!

One of the things I find interesting about this game is the time at which you place the towers. A line of laser turrets shooting properly down the line seems to have a greater chance of hitting the targets than a line of laser turrets shooting approximately at the same time.

There is no snapping per design, and there never will be. Part of the challenge of the game is to align your towers properly. Besides, not all towers are the same width, so snapping would be arbitrary and meaningless anyway.

New version will arrive when I've implemented upgrades and a few bug fixes.

Are there giant enemy crab bosses in there?

There should be! A game without giant enemy crab bosses is... I don't even want to imagine it.

We demand that X-G has crabs in there!

We demand more Cthulhu like monsters!

Fixed.

X-G has crabs?

X-G having nine thousand crabs does seem a bit much.

I think X-G's more interested in non-crab feedback.

William, no need to be so crabby.

Guess what I have?

Lobsters?

... a new version, smartass.

Crab Mark II?

Were can we get a new version?

It is attached to his post.

Woo-hoo! Upgrades! Now the towers appear to do too much damage It is a pain in the ass to play under wine, so I will test it out next Monday at work.

Fixed.

(damn god awfully ugly fish at that)

I defeated WAVE 45. Got killed because I sold some spark towers near the right edge to make room for a 3rd missile battery, and then the aliens started to heap up on the right side and land on me. Seems two missile batteries on each end with spark towers packed in between is the best strategy so far. May have to try a variation of this theme... put some missile batteries in the very middle, or mixed between spark towers.

It's getting really fun (and quite tactical), now. Here are my suggestions:

• Show the current wave number on screen at all times.

• Perhaps have a hotkey button that you can hold down to speed up game logic. I found that on early waves, I was sitting around not doing very much for large periods of time. It'd be nice if, like in Tetris, you could make the falling monsters speed up.

• Have game logic continue even if the game isn't in focus. Again, this is related to the above point.

Press and hold Tab. This feature is buggy though; timesteps don't have an upper granularity, so fast moving shots like lasers have a tendency to phase through invaders.

If only I could figure out how to coerce Allegro to do this. None of the switching modes seem to make a difference.

Planning money interest too?

My new personal best is WAVE 35.

It froze on me, twice. Maybe pressing tab is causing the lockups?

See attachment
I really like those upgrades, specially the twin missile and the third level of the spark tower.
I think the only thing left now is to change the backgrounds every X waves, oh! and add some SFX, and perhaps a boss every X waves, very addictive!
My CPU usage now is ~15%
Congratulations! you've grafted your game!

31 Waves defeated...using NO spark towers.

There's some sort of bug with the money... I was clicking around and all of a sudden I had an incredible sum of money (around 1 billion). So I built spark towers across the entire terrain and as I was upgrading all of a sudden I ended up with -503,324,905 in my bank.

ML: maybe that was penalty for cheating

No, that's not intentional. Do you have any idea what you were doing when it happened? Just randomly clicking around?

Wow, new version is awesome! Giving the Spark Towers another thing to buy would be nice, like a double shot. Or, even better: a chain shot! When you zap an enemy, that enemy zaps another!

Already planned, long ago.

Oh. Well, cool!

The only downside I see to the new version is that it isn't much of a 'quick' game anymore. However, it is more fun.

There are some more planned measures that will make it more friendly for quick games. In particular, every 10 waves or so your progress will be "saved", letting you start from that wave.

One nice feature would be if the game stored and spat out a log of your game progress, on request. So that others can check out your strategy. See when you built units, and how you dispensed upgrades. Or even some sort of replay system. But I think a text-based log would be cool for sharing on forums, etc.

Nice little time waster so far. Cute graphics. I defeated 53 waves(see attachment) and I think that's around as far as it gets without better weapons but since that's already planned...

Would be nice if it was possible to buy some big sidekick bombs or orbital laser beams that can be targeted and shot in an emergency situation(or wasted in early waves:P).

Day and night cycle would add some nice eyecandy. In the night the screen could flash brightly on big explosions to provide that unique arcadelike warzone feeling.

However, even without all that, I already like it a lot.

Very good and professional looking game! Impressive work.

I reached wave 33 with the setup shown on the attached screenshot.

Some thoughts:
I think it's not easy to track the upgrade status of the diffrent towers.

When you click on a tower you see the level of the upgrade you can purchase. But after you purchased the MAX level of that upgrade there is still the last number on the icon.
To see if you maxed out already, you have to click on the symbol and then it says "max upgraded" (or something similar)

Same goes for the "one time purchase upgrades". to see if you have purchased this item, you have to click on it.
maybe it would be a good idea to make a red cross through items that already have been purchased/maxed out.

Another idea is to show a small tooltip list with upgrades when you mouse-over a tower.

The first time (when I got lots of money) I think I was trying to build a tower before I had the money. I was just repeatedly clicking, knowing that the next kill would give me enough to buy the tower. Something like that, anyway.

Well, I beat 40 waves. A row of high-level Spark Towers on the bottom can help in a pinch. I would think that making some kind of tower that was a little thinner than the others would be nice. Help for filling in the space.

What would be cool is if you could have launch towers. Each launch tower has some kind of aircraft that it can release. The aircraft flies towards attacking waves, returning to the launch tower after it's run out of ammunition to reload.

Ummm... I don't think that would work too well. I was thinking something more like a Shield Tower of some kind

I said I wouldn't list my ideas because it's a wip, but meh. Maybe you could build platforms (which I would assume would be expensive), so you can place towers higher up. Enemies with projectiles of their own would be cool too.

I would prefer some kind of "self-destructing tower" that does not attack, and explodes whenever either one the ships are going to withdraw a life, or when the player would lose, destroying some of the defensive buildings but also all the near enemies. I always like self destruction since the very beginning, with the Lemmings

It is crashing randomly.
Can you provide us the new debugged version ?

Just tried it, very cool! I'd like to have some sort of icon show up next to the tower when I can upgrade it (an upgrade is available and I have enough money). That would make managing the towers a lot easier.

Start the game, buy a laser turrent, then upgrade rapid reload to the maximum. If you click the upgrade once it is at its maximum, the game freezes

I'm going to add visual cues to towers so you can tell how they've been upgraded somehow.

Could not reproduce this bug. Clicking it again did nothing at all.

Really? It freezes the game here, leaving it running at 100% CPU I can reproduce it always.

Reached level 35 with lasers, replacing them with towers as able.

The problem with "replacing" is that a fully upgraded laser tower vs. a none-upgraded laser tower gives you exactly the same return (currency wise). This might be per design, however.

It's not and will be changed.

Yeah, noticed that. With only lasers fully upgraded, I got to level 29 without losing a life, then was forced to begin replacing them. With interest and recovering money selling upgraded things, by level 25 or so you would not need money anymore...

(Edited: Level 51, but it becomes virtually impossible to continue, as the bugs can handle lightning very good at that level).

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I managed to get to level 54 using ReyBrujo's strategy.

Well done on a nearly finished game. Be proud!

I can't get past level 48.

[quote Gull's subconscient]
HOLY SHIT !!
GIMME A DEBUG VERSION !!
IT WILL COST YOU NOTHING AND IT WILL ALLOW ME TO TRACK THIS FUCKING BUG !!
</quote>

Please X-G, gimme a debug version.
The game crash between level 20/24, when I am full of money

EDIT:
Here is the gdb trace. Not very usefull tough.

Woo-hoo, level 60
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I noticed that, sometimes, you lose a life if a bug touches your tower, and sometimes you don't (as in, you have an "extra line" that overlaps the tower, so that you lose a life once the bugs touch the floor). Check the image:

{"name":"591280","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/2\/5\/2514e124dcdb3432cd04c0a81bd1846d.jpg","w":646,"h":505,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/2\/5\/2514e124dcdb3432cd04c0a81bd1846d"}

I think it just happens when you press the TAB key to make the game run faster, and then release it after a time when the waves are near the ground.

I really can't bother to make a new debug version yet.

Rey: Yes, it's because the tab thing is shoddy. What happens is, because of the timestep becoming too large, each drop becomes a little bit longer than it should be, and eventually they drift enough to overlap the towers, but be above the point where they would be counted as hits.

so when can we expect a new/debugged version? I havent tried anything since the demo you put up on the first page.

Uh, there are two new versions since the first page one.

so did you update your first post with the latest wip...?

No.

well, I can't be bothered to search then

Your loss, little buddy.

Latest version:
http://www.allegro.cc/files/attachment/591235

Very addictive game
One of the best I've tried in a long time! Can't wait to try next version out!

I'm sorry. I'm going to be honest here and say I don't get it. The second time I played I noticed that you get to a point where money's pouring in and you've pretty much filled the bottom with weaker towers so you buy a spark tower. As the enemies get stronger the only thing left to do is buy more spark towers as the other things aren't really that effective anymore. You fill the bottom of the screen with spark towers. You sit back and wait to die at around level 45-55.

It's kinda fun to try out different things at the start but eventually you know to get any further your just going to load up the screen with spark towers or die right then. I realize it's still a WIP and this probably just isn't my kind of game but I thought I'd share my opinion even though it's kinda contrary to most here. No offence is meant at all! (graphics, interface, basic idea are done very well by the way. Very polished, I'm impressed!)

The only thing I find odd is that when you lose and it says Quit? there is no followup answer to start over...and selling upgraded things should net more money. (like ReyBrujo said)

So far my record is 34!

There needs to be a point where you can buy the classic Space Invaders tank. Give it a poweful shot (one hit one kill, always), and then buy upgrades for the AI, or even buy modules for the AI and program it using a simple iconic system. Because yes, once you get to the maxed out spark towers, there's nothing left to do.

If the aliens started shooting, then you could also have shields with upgrades, etc. and that would also work well with the AI tank, and could be used to protect the towers (have them be damagable by shots). These sorts of additions would add a lot of new depth, and a new direction for progression. Guns -> SAMs -> Sparkers -> Tanks -> AI -> Shields.

Right. I've been thinking about this since I posted about what I didn't like ie. you get to a certain point and that's it, you become a spectator. Perhaps the following idea could help...

How about having an infinite upgrade system where for more and more money you can keep updating towers. Obviously this wouldn't work for the cool upgrades like double missiles or viper but just for tower strength it could. (I'm thinking: Wave 110, upgrade missile-tower strength to 67, $5000 etc.) You already know the rate that the enemies difficulty increases so with a bit of tinkering you could make the upgrade rate slightly less. Eventually you would still lose as the ratio gets less in your favour but it would be a lot more dependant on the player. It would also get more use out of all the towers rather than just trying to get spark towers.

Think tetris, the game gets increasingly faster the longer you play. At some point it's inevitable that your going to lose because stuffs happening at light speed but it's still dependant on your skill at parking those bricks. If you were infinitely good you could play for infinitely long (in theory). Same goes for classic space invaders etc.

Would definitely take quite a bit of tinkering to get the balance right but this 6 page thread suggests you have plenty of people willing to use/abuse the WIP...

Do you have something better, X-G ?

:p

You are a game-graphics god! That's not to say the rest of the game sucks, however. I really enjoyed.

The game is great! Reminds me of Tower Defense in Warcraft.

But you seriously need
- music and sound
- more towers
- better calculation of selling income (upgrades!)
- different enemies, boss enemies
- graphics for upgraded towers
- maybe an upgrade tree (upgrade enables/disables other upgrades)
- something like a fighter spaceship, very expensive and you can control it with the keyboard

He said it's a WIP, and almost everything you just mentioned has been suggested already or was on the list beforehand.

Noooooooooooo! This would break what I think is the most important feature of the game, which is that it requires no manual dexterity to play.

Yeah, but now he can use my list as a reference and doesn't need to go through all the unnecessary posts.

I need a new demo.

Yes, I agree. But I am willing to wait a few more weeks so you can pack in more new features.