[Coda]

Don't do the Ludum Dare compo as a beginner. For that matter, don't do the Ludum Dare compo unless you're an extremely competitive individual in the first place. The jam gives you 24 hours longer and you're only rated on the game's style and thematics instead of competing against the other participants. I've never done the compo because to me the fun isn't in trying to beat everyone else; the fun is in forcing myself to see an enjoyable project through instead of having it fall to the wayside half-completed because I got distracted or busy.

But at least in the non-compo jam scoring... I've never seen anyone be cruel about anything. I mean, I can see how someone might think the reviews are harsh because people are more likely to comment if something went poorly than if something went well enough but not spectacularly. That's the kind of feedback that ANY creative endeavor is going to receive no matter the context. You just need to expect that and get used to it. But the community as a whole is actually quite friendly.

Practice is DEFINITELY a good idea. I don't know if you necessarily need to put it in the format of a jam (although that might help you if giving yourself the deadline is useful) but I definitely advise making a few fun little toys in a short time frame. I do that just as a hobby anyway -- one time I made a pinball-like game on my laptop in the car during a road trip, just for the fun of it. It lets you familiarize yourself with the tools, with your own skill levels and coding speed, and with the idea of making something small enough to finish quickly.

On the other hand, I strongly recommend releasing whatever it is you end up making! Show people what you've done. Get feedback on it. Since you're going to be presenting it as something fun you whipped up in a weekend, people are more likely to praise you for what you did well, and their feedback will be focused around how to improve it. And building up a portfolio of these little toy games is also really useful. I wish I had put more emphasis on accumulating a portfolio over the course of my career.