Pick the smallest impressive thing
Judges see forty half-built ideas. They remember the one that did a single thing cleanly. Cut scope until you have something you can finish with hours to spare, then spend those hours on polish.
Build the demo first
Work backward from the 90 seconds you will show. If a feature does not appear in the demo, it does not exist this weekend. Fake the parts nobody sees.
Tell one clear story
Problem, the moment it clicks, the result. Practice the demo out loud twice before submission. A working product with a flat pitch loses to a sharp story every time.
< read by a human · updated as things change >
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