Thanks for the constructive criticism.
Stars: I could do like Balloon Fight and randomize which of eight star tiles I have at each star tile location. That wouldn't be too much of a problem compared to the current location. But blue would invite other palette problems, as the only blue palette I have is brown-blue-white, used for the blue houses and player 1's silo.
Font: I'm currently using a variant of
Chicago because Susan Kare did a damn good job of making a readable font. I tried a more artistic font for body text in another program (Multiboot Menu) and got complaints that it hurt readability, just as
the font in Caveman Games hurt readability. Even other games whose logos use the same "artistic" font as this (Animal Crossing, Big Brain Academy, Puppy Palace) use a plainer font for body text.
Panicked villagers leaving houses: Another good idea. I'd have to make them more active early in each wave while the player is waiting for the first incoming missiles, so that they don't eat up too many OAM slots. (Smoke uses a
lot, which is why it tends to fade faster when lots of action is happening.)
Circular explosions: The collision detection assumes the explosions are circles, as in
the original. But you're right that it might be worth spending a few more tiles on explosions that aren't so symmetric in their shading.
Transitions: A short cut scene for the sunrise and sunset transition every five levels is planned. A (skippable) opening cut scene involving panning from the stars down to the playfield would be a good idea too, and it'd give me a bit of a chance to explain the
excuse plot behind this
sugar apocalypse. Strangely enough, it involves the O in Mario Paint's title screen.
Additional tricky enemy: I thought about a missile type that tries to avoid explosions, somewhat like the diamond-shaped missile from the original. But I'm not sure how to work that into the setting.
And in case you're wondering, it speeds up movement by roughly 20% if it detects a 50 Hz console.