Hi all! Matt Colón mentioned something about the 4:44 Rule and I thought it would be a good idea to share a video here. This is from Rami Ismail, formerly of Vlambeer, who recommends a strategy for game jams. Basically, any time you spend in the design of your game (once you've chosen your idea), you'll need to add at least ten times that amount in order to polish it to a playable and enjoyable level. For example, if you spend 4 hours designing an idea you liked a lot, then you need to spend 40 hours or so, polishing that idea. Hence 4:44 = 48 Hours, the typical amount short jams run for.

Since we're doing a 72 hour jam, I'd recommend a similar but different strategy, 7 hours of design and prototyping, then 65 hours of polish. Now, unless you're a machine, I don't think you'll be working nonstop on this game until Monday, so here's the spirit of the advice: Whatever time you spend in design and rapid prototyping, you'll have to spend time an order of a magnitude larger than the time spent on design and prototyping. So if you know you have only about 20 hours to give or so for the jam period, then spend two hours on the design and prototyping, and the rest of the time on making the game good. Extrapolate that based on the time you know you'll spend on the jam.