I'm so glad ^-^
That's definitely my goal with commenting and recording; I want to encourage new game developers and offer guidance wherever I can, and show that people can and will play their games. Really just try to provide what I wish someone did for me when I was starting out. I really want to record more itch.io games... I was trying it without commentary originally, but while it's more work I think it's far more worth it to provide with commentary.
And thanks for clarifying that Pumpkin's Task was your first finished game... that's so awesome! Definitely a very high-quality first game. You're starting out at a pretty high y-intercept on your plot of game quality! Keep it up!
Some parting suggestions for the years to come:
- Make new games, very often. Try a game a week. There are lots of consistent itch game jams, like the Weekly Game Jam and TriJam.
- Make lots of small games, don't try to make too big of games too soon. Quantity over length in terms of the games, and shorter but better games are better than longer but more mediocre games. See this Extra Credits video on Awesome Per Second.
- Read this Webcomic The Art of Being An Artist.
- Absorb content like Game Maker's Toolkit and other game design-focused content creators.
- Play other people's games often, and critique them! It's good to engage with the community (as you've already been doing! :D ), and pointing out the successes and failures of other games is one the best ways to learn how to improve your own games. It's much easier to dish out criticism and feedback than to implement it... My games definitely don't adhere to everything I preach, and that's alright. It's a continuous process to improve. Find cool things to copy from other games, and find what you want to avoid.
- Keep working and improving! Everything is a skill and skills simply take practice (though also see this The Art of Being An Artist piece of Practice Doesn't Make Perfect).
Congratulations on your first few games! I hope I can see a lot more from you in time to come! :)