My development partner and I started in on a game a few months ago, with an end goal of entering it into DBP.  We always said we would get to July 1, and decide if we were going to enter the game or not.

It's now July 1.  We're doing pretty well, but I doubt that by August 6 we'll have the game polished to the level that it would be a contender.  It may be decent, but likely it won't be completely finished in our eyes.

However, in reading some of these posts I'm asking myself why we wouldn't enter it?  Are there any downsides to registering, and then either deciding at the end of the competition to not enter the game since it's not ready, or submit it without all the polish that we'd like?

We're both Premium members, so there's not a big advantage to entering, but I'm wondering if there's any reason not to.  The only downside I can see are that we may get a minor amount of visibility with our entry being on the official site, and people may misconstrue the unpolished version with what will ultimately be the final version of the game.  We're in this for fun anyway, so I'm not sure how much of a deal that is.  Any other upsides or downsides?

I would say go for it, you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain by entering in this competition. Deadlines have a weird habit of forcing people to do the best they within limited time constraints. I'm also sure you can get alot of experience from this both in feedback and retrospect.

So just go for it, and you'll be surprised with what you can do :)

Yep, I agree with the deadline statement... if it weren't for that I wouldn't be crunching as hard as I am.

I'd say go ahead and enter... I don't think there's any reason not to.  And any publicity is better than no publicity.

Are there any penalties if you can't get you game done in time?  Would they take away the Trial Premium Membership they gave you for registering?

I registered for 2008 DBP and got my trial membership, but was not able to submit any games during that year. My membership worked till it expired. You will be judged by the game you submit, late submissions generally wont be accepted.

Thanks!  I want to start testing, but don't want to have to stop because I didn't submit anything.