“No battle plan ever survives the first contact with the enemy” – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(actually he said “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength” but in German and that doesn’t sound as cool and nobody cares what a 19th century German general said anyway)

My strategy:

• Decide what kind of game I’ll be making before the compo starts, then adapt as needed for the theme. (I must avoid repeating what I did last LD when I still didn’t know if I was making a racing game or a platformer 7-8 hours before the end)
• Focus on implementing gameplay first. Get the game to a point where it’s fun before anything else.
• Don’t waste time on micro-details. Just move on, it’s OK if it’s not perfect.
• Add sound and music early. I usually wait until the very last hour to get started on those. That’s not a good idea!
• And obviously “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”, last time I wasted time thinking about a full adventure game I couldn’t do in 3 months.