I haven't played your previous effort, so I can't tell unfortunately what could have been better with it. But you might want to give my game Hibernated a go. I released it for countless retro systems and recently I ported it to Adventuron. It won quite a few awards, so this might be a good example for a getting things going. I generally tend to lean towards a more narrative approach, with a story expanding from beginning to end of the game. https://8bitgames.itch.io/hibernated1
Unhallowed is an even more narrative example: https://blerkotron.itch.io/unhallowed
Viewing post in Help me to get better ;)
I'll make a try on they as soon as I have a break. ;)
(The game what I'm talking is from the past Adventuron gamejam, here: https://sommbra.itch.io/astronauturon ; Its a little interesting that Hibernated and my previous game share a little of the same theme :P)
the Unhallowed link is also going to Hibernated*