My entry this year will be a pure character-based display game, just like last year, and the year before. Don't worry about other games "overshadowing it"; just have fun and make a fun game.

First, it’s not a competition. Do the jam for yourself.

You’re not giving the judges enough credit though. You can score quite highly as a lone dev. I know because I did with my game last year, which was my first time doing a game jam, my first roguelike, and I managed my time poorly. But it had charm and I did my best to polish what little scope was there. You don’t need a team to do these things.