At the time I'm writing this, Mama Meatball! Has reached over 600 downloads. I'm incredibly happy that so many people are able to play something that I created, and I never imagined 10 people would download it let alone 600. Especially because I didn't do any "marketing" other than posting a trailer on my YouTube channel, which only has 3 subscribers.
I'm happy that my name is reaching some people out there as a game developer, and I enjoy seeing the videos people have made playing, and sometimes struggling with the game. 

So I want to talk about what could be next for the game's development!

First and foremost, I want to add many more levels to the game (I'd like to at least double the current amount of levels), and introduce some more fun platforming mechanics to spice up the gameplay and introduce new challenges and variables. One idea that I had a while back was a "pizza sled" that would speedily take you down a ski-slope sort of path, avoiding obstacles. 

I've also been thinking of adding a boss or two to the game, mostly because I've been inspired to model some new 3D characters. One of my friends drew a rather sinister looking chef, and I ended up making a 3D model of him. I thought it would be cool if you had to use your learned skills to take on a "Demon Chef" and get your soul back. I also thought it would be cool if you could play as him after you beat him. I've never done ANYTHING like that before, so we'll see if it ends up being a good fit for the game.

I want to improve the game's tutorials for more clarity and thoroughness, I also want to actually explain to the player how to use their noodle rope to swing.

I had a few longer-term ideas for the game, such as a level editor, or leader boards. I haven't created either of those systems before, and I'm not sure how I'd accomplish the networked aspect of them through Itch.io. The thought crossed my mind of making a steam version of the game one day, so I can use steam's workshop system and steamworks networking. I also like the idea of using steam's update system.

Some other ideas I'd like to tackle in the long term would include language localization, controller support, and proper key rebinding.

Do any of you use the itch.io app? I'd like to take advantage of the automated updating system that they offer, so people don't have to download and replace their previous builds of the game every time I do an update.

The music, I don't own the music in the game, some of the tracks are over 100 years old, from the library of congress, but some of the other tracks are not, and are potentially copyrighted. I never thought so many people would potentially play the game, so now I intend to remove them from the game and replace them with some kind of freely usable music, preferably something I made myself. I promised people on my discord that I would record my own version of the game's title song, "Funiculi Funicula" and I intend to follow through..

So if you want to know what to expect in the next update: I want to add some more levels, add a new platforming mechanic, improve the tutorial section, improve the user feedback for the rope swinging system, add an option for people using the itch.io app to use automatic updates, and find some new music for the game. I also want to make some UI improvements and add more sound and feedback for the player.

Do you have any questions, ideas, comments? I really want to hear what people think, engaging with the community is one of the things that encourages me to keep working on projects. If you'd like to reach me, please leave a comment here, or even better, join my discord community so we can share cool ideas all the time: https://discord.gg/pdP7R8S

My goal is to one day be able to be a game developer full time, if I were to make a paid version of Mama Meatball, what sort of additional features and content would you like to see? And what do you think would be a good price for them? For the sake of argument, assume no feature is off the table!