I've only done 2 game jams so far, but I think the thing that has stood out the most to me is sweeping the bugs under the rug.

In games I normally make, I attempt to create a perfect system. Something that performs exactly as expected in most if not all cases. Systems that can be reused and recycled in any case. During a jam, however, that perfection can be show stopping. In my latest game jam game, AQUATIC CAVE ASSAULT, there were many cases of bugs that would pose a big problem for a fully fleshed out game, but for a jam? Let's just sweep those right under the rug.

One such example is the line following system. I'm using Godot's built in path system, including the built in path following node. It actually works quite well. Through trial, error, and help of a tutorial or two, I got the sub movement on a 2D plane following along the path working really well. In the last few hours of the jam, we figured it was time to expand the level a little. Leadphalanx, the artist on the team, threw together some nice, interesting, and different geometry for the level. Going from cave, to concrete room, to cave, to concrete tube. It all looked very nice, until we ran a path through it. As soon as the path curved more than about 30 degrees controls went wonky. Real wonky. With only a short time left I didn't have time to debug and fix, so what did we do? We just make sure the path didn't turn past about 30 degrees from origin. And it worked. If you didn't know better, you'd think everything was working exactly as intended.

There were several spots like that. I didn't ignore the bugs, but I didn't fix them either, I lived with them. Time didn't allow for me to get the code perfect, especially when working with vector math I didn't really understand to begin with. But that doesn't really matter, what matters is that the game came together. It's a vertical slice. That's all it needed to be.

So when you are jamming, don't be afraid to sweep those nasty bugs right under the rug, nobody's checking.