About the competition:

It's an annual mobile game/app competition in my country, sponsored by Google and some big companies here. It's been held since last year so this is the second year. I'm not gonna tell what's its name here.

How to win: The game or app with most downloads wins.

About me:

I'm 16, almost. The first moment I saw this competition last year, I decided to enter it but I had little experience in gamedev so I didn't last year. I still wanna enter it this year and other years until I win something. But with school and everything, I've only managed to get some experience but no games finished yet and some abandoned projects.

So my idea is simple:

Since I don't have much experience so I decided to make a Pong spin-off of my own with a some inspiration from

" title="External link">Juice it or lose it here, which means Pong with beautiful colors, a bunch of juice like tweens and effects and everything like that, plus awesome music and sounds and paddles with personality (eyes and mouth + expressions). The last but not least, the most fun core features of the game: game modes and powerups. Well, as mentioned before, because of school (starting really soon), I don't have much time until now, a week before the deadline, I got a week off school just before the deadline. So the game modes and powerups haven't even been started working on yet but I only got the basics of Pong. Unfortunately the deadline is in 3 days and I think I can't finish every planned even though I have pruned some unnecessary ideas.

The question: What can I still do about this? Maybe adding all the juice and playtesting for the next 2 days? And after the deadline?

Note: I can still push updates after the deadline but I won't be able to do much because of school. I have 25 days to get as many downloads as I can to get into the Top 40 probably by marketing.

And in case someone's asking, I'm using the HaxeFlixel game engine which has all the features I needed so I don't really need to worry about that.

Also sorry, I don't really know which forum is the best place to ask this in.

Options are:

1) Prioritize features/content. Keep removing the least important bits until you are able to reach the deadline. Accept that your finished project isn't what you planned originally.

2) Get help creating features/content so you reach the deadline (note: this is often hard/impossible if you are close to the deadline).

3) Accept that you are unable to finish the project in the time given.

In any case, use this as a learning experience when it comes to scope/deadlines and project management.

Things always take longer than you think, even when you schedule for it.

You mentioned you can update later on. Create the most basic version you're able to complete, then add stuff to it with any time you have remaining/available.

I agree with lactose that you have to accept you've lost 362 days and only have 3 days.

Keep things very very very small and simple. Delivering something small but polished/ crash bug free is better then delivering something ambitious that's for from finished and doesn't work.

Having three days by itself isn't that big of a problem.

Two incredibly popular games, 2048 and Flappy Bird, were both created in about a weekend.

Assuming you don't mind it if your game takes off and you get filthy rich, it is absolutely possible to win the lottery of mobile games with a quick 2-day or 3-day project. It is also possible to win Powerball and other lotteries, the odds are not good. Although unlikely it is certainly possible, has happened before, and will happen again.

Do what you can do. Make the simplest thing you can make in the time frame, however quirky and strange it is.

Focus on the core game and update after launch.