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Woah, thank you for playing that much! In terms of this demo's scope, Lv. 8 is actually way into the lategame, kek!

I'd like an option to keep it [the auto battle feature] on between fights

I see... an unexpected request (these are honestly the best, because I wouldn't think of them on my own, even as the demand might be out there). Engagements are indeed kinda one-note at the moment, but permanent Turbo mode may not be the best choice in future versions, when at least some of the encounters, statistically speaking, will be bad matchups against your party. Anyway, I want player choice to be king, so I will add this as an option right in the next build! Each team will be able to toggle it separately when configuring a new game session and also from the party menu in between battles.

I also found a bug where I could no longer switch menus, caused by perhaps clicking through the skill menu and clicking training and clicking around that menu

I will spend some time with the buttons on that screen and see if I can find anything wrong. However, there's a chance you're referring to intended behavior -- when the Use skill or Training options are selected, I do lock down switching between party members and screens. I think this might be good UX; you don't wanna switch screens by accident while using a skill or reading through your training list. I think that clicking the relevant button again shall fix things. In any case, I'll be investigating everything in a few days (I'm currently out of town)

Why did you put Brad Pit in the game?

Other than David Bowie and crew, none of the other featured characters are actually hardcoded into the engine. Since the beginning of the project, I've been asking IRL friends to send me themed teams of four to use as sample characters in my game. Some did. I credit these friends in the Readme file. The same dude whomst created the team with Brad Pitt also submitted Ryan Gosling, a move which ultimately granted me the great honor of appearing on post >>493606630. If I ever get to monetize the game, I might have to send him royalties...
All in all, this is just a demonstration of the customization capabilities of the 18-28-38-48 engine. You can add any mugshot to the Customization folder and play as them in the game. This is ultimately a TTRPG, after all. I'm working on streamlining this customization process, so instead of using a strip of 16 characters and .ini files, you'll be able to drag a named 64x64 image into the folder and then be ready to go. I expect this change to be fully functional in DD60.

Can you get more party members? Is there equipment to find?

Currently, you can add more party members by pressing F10 in the party menu and typing a command in the console that pops up (there are templates for all accepted commands there). For example, "party\animal\Dog\8\F:Angelina" will give Brad a Lv. 8 bitch named Angelina.
However, as you might have gleaned from the greyed out "Communicate" option during battle, I'm still working on the feature that will let you recruit monsters and animals by bribing them with items and manipulating their emotions (Acceptance, Anger, Anticipation, Fear, Disgust, Joy, Sorrow and Surprise) through a mini-game. I'm not a good dev, but if I'm lucky, the final result has the potential to be fire (see "Reference - Communication.txt" if you have the time). Uh, you'll also be able to forcefully catch them with special items if you prefer. It's like... Shin Pokémon Tensei.
You'll be the first person to see the emotion icons. They're based on the Plutchik system.

The same goes for equipment; you may add something to your inventory through the "arms\*" or "gear\*" inputs. The citadel sells Lv. 4-tier equipment, but I can't remember if I put Lv. 8-tier equipment on the shops of other cities. I think I didn't; the code is a mess rn. But of course, as development advances, you will get more equipment as enemy drops and inside metallic or red/blue wooden chests as planned.

What are your plans for the single player game past this?

Well, the idea as of now is to spruce up the basic gameplay loop with Avellone/Obsidian-type sidequests that will introduce players to the canon cast and unique mechanics and locations every now and then; ideally so much content spread across the in-game world that seeing everything in a single playthrough should be impractical. We spoke of customization earlier... all quests are customizable via .txt files, so a time may come where someone else other than me is writing new quest modules and sharing them. A man can dream.
By the way, did you get to trigger "This Way Madness Lies" while walking around? I tested it from scratch once and fulfilled the conditions at Lv. 6. Um, it's supposed to be a bit of luck-based find and hit you out of nowhere, so... just curious.
I also want to make a walking simulator inside the game, accessible only when a single team is in play. GMS2.3 uses matrix functions and stuff (out of my expertise) to simulate raycasting, but one day I realized during work that I could just work on a 2D version of the dungeon crawler as I try to learn the ways of the blobber.

(I didn't read the manuals sorry)

NP. But give the Readme a peek in the next DD. Ur name will be there.