Just checked out your game and it was really fun! I also love reading about stories and experiences from the jam participants.
I've joined jams before as a dev, so it's not literally my first.
But it's my first 1) game jam in a long time 2) as a solo participant and 3) making the art and music on my own.
I already wrote some of my experiences here: /post/17229761
Sharing some of the things that I learned and will apply for next time:
1. I agree with cutting the original scope in half. This advice gets repeated ad infinitum, but for good reason! I've joined several game jams and you'd be surprised how hard it still is to actually follow this rule. 😆
2. Automate your build flow if possible, and build + test often. For game jams, that should be web for the most part. I found out only at the last minute that some of my shaders didn't work as well on my web build. Luckily was able to work around it during the grace period.
3. Make a to-do list and build vertically before horizontally. This means completing an unpolished but fully playable version of the game – core game loop, win/lose conditions, etc. Once the loop is fun and working, expand horizontally with more enemies, levels, animations, polish, etc.