tl;dr: I made a game in 7 days. it's called Galaxy of Fish, and it's free, and you can get it here: https://benmakesgames.itch.io/galaxy-of-fish it uses some Mysterious Space graphics, and I'll probably turn around and use some of the graphics I made for Galaxy of Fish in Mysterious Space :P
LONG VERSION:
if you like programming, and you want to make a game, I really recommend gamejams! they're a great way to force you to think small: most gamejams only go for a few days - some only go for a weekend! you HAVE to think "what can I make in just a few days? what tools/assets/etc can I use to do this as quickly as possible?" so on one hand, you're almost forced to use the tools you're most comfortable with - where you'll learn the least - but at the same time, the bizarre, additional constraints of a gamejam (they usually add conditions, like "it has to inclue squash") make you think outside the box, and create a game you probably never would have made otherwise!
Mysterious Space was born from the "make a roguelike in 7 days" competition - the 7DRL - of 2014 (it was WAY worse back then, of course; you can still download the 2014 release at http://7drl.roguetemple.com). I'd made a couple lame horizontal shooters before, and I'd dabbled with rogulikes, and I'd done some things with C#/MonoGame, but I'd never combined all three; I might never have created anything like Mysterious Space if not for the 7DRL!
TODAY is the last day of the Emojiam gamejam - https://itch.io/jam/emojiam - which challenged people to make a game based on a game design document which is written in just a couple dozen emoji! ("emojis"?) I made Galaxy of Fish. which, again, feel free to give it a try: https://benmakesgames.itch.io/galaxy-of-fish but it's worth noting that there's not much to it :P
and there probably never will be?? I know I haven't been working on MS a lot recently, but it is a game I still really care about, and still have plans for! if I have to pick between working on Galaxy of Fish and working on Mysterious Space, Mysterious Space is the clear winner in my mind. just before the gamejam started, I put together a bunch of notes on things I want to do for the next releases of Mysterious Space: some bug fixes, of course, but also a new planet type, some tweaks to existing bosses, a new enemy, and some new equipment.
it's nearly the end of the month, however, and I'd like to keep to my end-of-the-month releases... still: I can probably at least sneak in a new piece of equipment and some bug fixes, even if I can't get a new planet type!
I'll keep you guys posted!
thanks for reading, and thanks for playing Mysterious Space! :)