> I don't consider myself a person that good at writing stories (or anything other than programming)

Read a book https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Games-Guide-Engineering-Exp...

> often find my games bland and boring pretty fast.

Art of screenshake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJdEqssNZ-U

Exactly. It's the emergent events that makes it. This book by Tynan (RimWorld) is a great read, you /really/ delve into the psychology of games. Even if you're not a game designer, I recommend reading it. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Designing-Games-Guide-Engineering-E...