Some time ago, I shared Conradical’s advice to beginner game devs.
He recommended creating games based on systems rather than heavily reliant on content. When you think about it, this is one of the best pieces of advice that a novice game developer can receive!
Dreamers like me, often see games as a medium for telling their stories or conveying something more. There's nothing wrong with that, especially if you consistently deliver games. However, it's easier to plan and execute a game where the music doesn't have much to say.
What should you avoid investing in when you're just learning to make games?
Metroidvanias (very focused on level design)
Storyline
Dialogue systems
Instead, it's good to create games based on systems, because they allow you to iterate on your game. Clones of Vampire Survivors, roguelikes, economic games, perhaps even ecological games, but above all, games where the foundation is a system, a collection of relationships between different objects, and a high degree of graphic reuse.
If you're still not delegating work and doing everything yourself, it might be better to hold off for now and invest your time in an interesting system for your game, and then perhaps some proceduralism down the line.
Recommendations
Here’s a fun review of a game that’s on my wishlist as well. What if language was a puzzle?
And a tribute to the creator of Roller Coaster Tycoon!
That advice is now written in capital letters in my notebook :)