QOL + marketing audit for 1.1 (2026-10-14)

Four read-only passes run in parallel on 2026-10-14, before the 1.1 feature freeze (2026-10-17): tester feedback triage (TestFlight + D1 feedback), an in-game UX code audit, a store listing / site audit, and a D1 telemetry read of real store players. Actionable items were moved onto docs/RELEASE-1.1.md (§3a QOL, §5 store listing). This file keeps the evidence.

What real players do (D1, store 1.0.1 live ~10-04, n = 9 real installs, directional only)

Tutorial is the funnel cliff. 8/9 started it, 2 got past lesson 0 (“wake”), 1 finished (tutorial_cap). Two players quit it within 0.4 s, went straight to Survival and played fine (level 10, ~430 kills).
First-session instability: CORRECTED 2026-10-14 night. This first read “4/9 first plays ended in a crash or OS kill”. Wrong: the appstore channel includes TestFlight, local Mac builds, App Review and our own devices; the Mac 16 ms “crash” was our smoke-test kill. Only one real store player (iPad Air M2, 255) had an unexplained exit. See docs/research/2026-10-14-first-play-crashes.md (branch crash-first-play). The other “n = 9” figures here share the same channel caveat: the real store sample is ~6 installs.
Early difficulty wall. Survival deaths median ~68 s, 5/14 under 30 s, all to swarmer (9) or charger (5). Nobody reached a boss. One iPhone17,1 player died three times at 17-19 s (level 1, Blaster only) in one sitting and never came back.
No return and no shop. 0/9 came back on a later day; 0 purchases from real players despite 218-729 banked gold on the best runs (meta_spent = 0), so the shop is not being found, not too expensive.
tvOS: 0 real store installs in the window, despite being the lead platform.
First-run jank. Every real install hit shader-compile stalls (avg 570-790 ms, max 4.1 s). The prewarm fix has not shipped in a store build yet (already §1 of the 1.1 queue).
Not captured on 255: death dimension, level-up time-to-pick, shop-open events, input type. Pause state ships with the next store build.

Tester feedback (34 notes, all effectively from Chris/Toby)

All but a handful are fixed. Still open: drone-nudge off switch is Dev-only (TF #4); no gold pulse on the pause-menu SHOP row (TF #13); no per-weapon damage on the stats sheet (TF #14); stats sheet on ATV with a pad not re-checked (D1 #8); elite Glass Wisp / Orbiter HP “re-judge” (D1 #7); Supernova fps on an iPhone XS-class device has no number (TF #27); Fuchsia ship has no replacement bonus (Chris’s call).

In-game UX gaps (code audit)

High impact, small:

No player-facing skip on the forced first-run tutorial (main.gd:604-621 boot route goes straight in until tutorial_done).
No music / SFX volume control anywhere outside Dev-only Debug Settings.
No reduce-shake / reduce-flash toggle; store builds have QualityManager.ENABLED = false, so nothing else softens it.
No Settings entry on the start menu (ui/start_menu.gd:74-90); every option lives in the pause menu.
tvOS: the start menu has no ui_cancel / Menu handler (ui/start_menu.gd:473-505). Apple expects Menu on the root screen to return to the Home screen. 1.0 passed review, so this may be handled by the engine; verify on the ATV before acting.

Medium:

Level-up cards don’t show the current level of what you’re upgrading (“Lv 2 → 3”); no reroll / skip.
No run timer on the HUD (may be a deliberate minimalism call).
Tactical HUD (weapon/drone docks) is hidden behind an untaught Y/V toggle.
Results screen has no “you unlocked X / next goal” line.
Controller disconnect is telemetry-only: no auto-pause or prompt.
Mac: no fullscreen / window option.

Larger, 1.2 candidates: iCloud save sync, Game Center achievements/leaderboards, colourblind mode, text size, auto-aim on touch, left-handed touch, control remap, run resume after an app kill.

Already good: pause on background, Redeploy as the focused one-press retry, death recap with counters, shop affordability badges + “worth buying next”, safe areas, consistent B/Esc back navigation.

Store listing and site

Live lookup 2026-10-14: v1.0.1, free, 9+, Games/Action, English only, 0 ratings, 0 reviews (US, GB, DE). iPhone shows the v2 screenshot set, iPad still the old v1 set.

Needs the 1.1 build:

No ratings prompt in the codebase (requestReview / StoreReview: no hits). iOS + Mac only (tvOS has none). Trigger on a positive moment (boss kill, personal best), never on death.
Description says “lightning” (now “Electricity”); doesn’t mention Apple TV, controllers, or no ads / no IAP in the first three lines.
What’s New 1.1 not written (already §5).

No build needed (ASC or site):

Site “Available on” line, closing line and meta description still say iPhone/iPad are “in review”.
Promotional text unchanged since launch; editable without review.
Keywords (95/100 chars) repeat subtitle words (survival, roguelite, twin stick) and spend space on arcade, action. Candidates: roguelike,bullet hell,shmup,space,swarm,top down, controller,offline,apple tv,auto shooter. No competitor names.
Custom Product Pages (drones/bosses/builds, marketing/appstore/custom_product_pages.md) were blocked on iOS approval, which landed 2026-10-14.
In-App Event for the 1.1 content; featuring nomination (offered 10-04, unanswered).
Screenshot caption 3 (“Evolve Beam into Lance, Railgun into Prism Lance”) assumes weapon knowledge.
Site: /sitemap.xml 404s, no VideoGame JSON-LD, no press kit page (assets exist in marketing/appstore/press/), “New in 1.0” section should track the store version.
Localized name/subtitle/keywords (de, fr, ja, es) for search reach: 1.2.