Hey there! If you're new to game jams, or want to level up your jam skills - here's a list of top tips I've put together, taken from my experience of doing over 100 jams!
First things first:
DRINK LOTS OF WATER.
EAT HEALTHY SHIT.
SLEEP AT LEAST 6 HOURS A NIGHT.
This is the bare minimum - if you don't do this, your game is gonna suffer. If you're up all night and treating your body like crap, your brain doesn't function as well! This is a long jam, it's a marathon not a sprint - and it's just a bit of fun in the end!
Keep It Simple
You're not making an open world RPG. You're not making a multiplayer game. My general rule of thumb is to try make something you think will take you just one day - that way when things go wrong (and things will go wrong) you have time to fix them. Have a practice before the jam, get a feel for how long things take! Make a list of "nice to have" vs "core to the game". Focus on the core stuff, and see if you've got time left over for the "nice to have"s.
A sub-tip here is to plan for the time you have, not the length of the jam. We've given you two weekends - for this sort of jam, I'd plan to do about 8 hours a day on both saturdays, 5 hours on both sundays, then 1 hour a day during the week. That's 31 hours total.
Don't compare yourself
You're going to see a lot of awesome things from a lot of talented people, and that's ok. There are people taking part who have a ton of experience, there are people who have spent a ton of money on the Unity Asset Store, and there are people who are outrageously talented. It can be frustrating to see that, I'm still in that position - one of my co-hosts must've sold their soul to the devil because they are just too good. But that's ok - the aim isn't to be the best! There's always someone better, someone who had more time, someone who had more assets, it doesn't matter. Make a game, publish the game, and be really proud that you managed to get that far. Most won't. And if I know anything about game development (psst: I really do), I know that if you cram as much juice into your game as you can muster, your game is going to be fun.
Build early, build often.
I always try have a playable build ready and being played after about 6-8 hours of work. Getting your core done early means you can get feedback, but also the process of building and uploading to Itch can introduce a few really weird bugs. Specifically, Unity's WebGL implementation is trash and usually causes some weirdo issue or another.
If you're stuck, ask for help!
Our Discord Server is incredibly active - there will be many other people in the same boat. Don't sit there agonizing for hours, a second pair of eyes on your code can often solve things straight away.
Get up and go for a walk.
This doesn't have to be your whole life for a week. Some fresh air, some social contact, etc will do you a world of good. Particularly if you've got a stubborn problem and the above advice hasn't worked yet!
Start building ASAP
If you don't have an idea straight away, you can still hop into your engine and make a menu system. Best to get that out of the way first 馃槈
"Theme" is only one category!
If there's something you want to make, make it. At the very least, make it juicy, but when the theme is revealed don't worry too much about it if you don't have something that fits. It is a jumping board - NOT a road block!