I've started work on the nust and bolts of democracies tutorial system. Its coming along nicely and isn't as tedious to code as I suspected it might be.
I added code tonight which puts in some real-world unemployment data into the game, so that when you play Japan, its unemployment start level will be more representative of the real level. Japan would appear to have some pretty serious debt problems...
Recently I have noticed a whole slew of indie developers releasing scrolling shooters. I had considered doing one after Democracy but there seems to be a glut. I have another idea (a really original one) but it requires a 3D engine and lots of resources.
Maybe the next game will be my first attempt at using a real 3D engine (I'll buy a cheap one, I certainly wouldn't waste time and effort coding one.