- The best way to "score" on a game jam is to keep your game scope very low, and to design it so it only require skills you have. But that's not how you'll get the most fun or learning. So you don't need to try to "score", you can set your own goals and use a game jam as an occasion to experiment new things (technology, weird gameplay idea...), even when it means that the game will rank poorly.
- Pick your best idea no matter if it fit the theme, you don't want to spend 100+ hours on a meh idea you don't really like. And anyway, you'll get better average rating with a better idea even if it scores poorly on the theme category.
- Make your game mechanics as intuitive as possible, even if it means simplifying it. Players should be able to start playing immediately without having to read anything. If you still need a text based tutorial, make it as short as possible and don't dump everything at the beginning.
- If you want to have a polished game by the deadline, try to have a playable version day 7 at the latest, then polish, then add more content. And make other people playtest your game as much as possible.
- If you suck at art, start by stealing a color palette from the internet, (or ask chatGPT to generate one for you although the result is not always good). A good palette will make your game look 10 times better with no effort. Smaller palettes (8 colors) are easier to use.
- Simple art style (minimalist low poly or minimalist vector art or low resolution pixel art) with a lot of polish (animations, particles, paralax, post processing...) looks better than a more ambitious style you don't have the time and/or the skill to polish.