Yeah I did the 3 minute game. I basically didn't do any free falling: in my head the worms were to increase my time/points. With the way you are describing it, it seems like the player is encouraged not to press anything and just get lucky for a high score! I will play it again with these score calculations in mind and see how it goes.
Viewing post in Birdie Grub (GBJAM 9) jam comments
The idea is to find a balance between gliding/freefall and flapping or diving to place your character on a good trajectory. Hopefully you won't get a high score by just letting the bird bounce off the bottom of the screen, because there shouldn't be much to catch. So basically you have to periodically fly to the top of the screen and aim for a good trajectory, or occasionally dive for a berry. For reference, I can get scores in the 9 thousands using this strategy (in a 3 minutes game).
Always glad to receive feedback :)