Tip #1 – use your Saturday as best you can. If you have a smartphone, make content on it (there’s several free apps out there for sprites and music). If nothing else, just get a good plan in your head – work out the code structure, the game rules, and the art styles you want to use.

Tip #2 – Get something on screen FAST. A square is good. Then add your gameplay one small feature at a time and make sure you always have something that builds and plays (for some value of play). That way, if the deadline comes up, you can submit something.

Tip #3 – Use source control (I like mercurial). Check in every new working feature. If that means checking in every 5 minutes, then do it. This works with #2 allowing you to back yourself out of a corner in case you started to write something you can’t finish.

Tip #4 – Use autotracker (see the LD tools page) for your music if you can’t compose on Saturday on a smartphone. With only Sunday to work, you need to save as much time on content as you can so you can focus on code. PyGame can directly play the tracker files it spits out.

Thanks for the tips! They are very helpful.