This post might be too general, but wondering if anyone has any notes they'd like to share on how they are currently attempting to improve in game development in terms of game design.
1. 1 week on 1 week off.
For quite a while I thought always being on and working 1-3 hours a day every day would result in me making better games. Turns out it burns me out and also leads me to making games that were similar and almost uninspired.
Right now I am doing 1 week making games, 1 week relaxing and learning game related skills. So far I feel like it's giving me room to breathe and orient myself to what I want to do instead of always trying to be productive with not much thought for the future.
2. Reviewing popular games on itch.io (including genres you don't like necessarily) Noting why you think people might like them, also noting what you like and don't like about certain games, and how you'd improve them.
I feel like it helps me get new ideas and help me see what is currently being made. For the first couple years of dev I really liked rogue-likes and that's pretty much all I made.
3. Doing game jams and rating / reviewing other peoples jam submissions.
I feel like doing game jams often makes me have to make something presentable within a short amount of time. Also makes me not default to making a variation of a game that I've done several times.
Reviewing other jam submissions I feel helps me see how other devs have thought about how they took the theme. Also hoping I can make some solid game dev friends that we can bounce ideas with or pass builds between one another.