I spent almost the full 48 hours watching Notch - and I thought his game would do better as well.

The thing that I like most about his effort (which of course has no bearing on the "goodness" of the game) is that he did it completely and entirely from scratch. Most of the other entries were "flash game using game library x with physics library y and random libraries i,j, and k".

He started with a blank project and added everything from his brain (not even consulting Google once!) It was absolutely amazing to watch.

Yeah. I watched 4 hours (the first 4!) and skimmed another 10. Sadly, I missed it live and had to rely on what I found on the net. (Wish some help from people here and other sites.)

Watching him build the raycaster was a 'whoa, I definitely need to up my game' moment.

It also made it clear that he knew every aspect of game design inside and out.

Well, sure, that's impressive in and of itself. But this contest is ultimately about the game, not the code.

Well, you know what they say: "To make something from scratch, you first have to create the universe". But I get your point, and I agree.

Set a 48 hour limit for yourself!

Eventually, yeah. I'm going to just work on getting something done first, without adding extra difficulty. :)

But yeah, eventually, I need to set aside some 48-hour periods for practice... Or at least a few sets of hours that add up to 48. Not sure I can interrupt my life that often. Every 4 months is fine, but more than that is tough.