Whenever I make handouts for my classes to use, I try to include at least a border and some sort of relevant clipart. This does seem to have an impact on how some students view work they are given - if it looks more 'real' (nicely laid out), they'll take it more seriously. This has lead to an addiction to borders on my part.
As for the artwork, I enjoy drawing, and I approached it as a break from the writing - I was still working on my entry, I just wasn't sitting in front of a computer. Again, not part of the competition, but something I wanted to do for me, and for the (hopefully) broader audience of people likely to take a look at it.
Having read a couple of entries, I'd say that a layout that is easy to read (for example Mike's 'Gentlemen's Entomology Club') helps a lot. Inclusion of artwork and borders is nice, but so far hasn't made me view the text of the game much differently. That I'm aware of
Time breakdown:
Saturday (NZ time - ingredients went up mid-Saturday morning for us NZers?): Thinking about ingredients, talking at my wife about my ideas. Had a post-brunch shower, during which I composed most of the game in my head.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - about 2 hours a day, maybe, in between lessons for writing and in the evenings for drawing (whilst rewatching Season 2 Buffy).
Thursday, Friday - busy with other stuff. Managed to squeeze in about an hour of writing on Friday.
Saturday - about 2 hours of writing, in the car, on a laptop.
Sunday - 2 hours in the morning, then decided it was as finished as I was going to get it by the deadline, and posted it off at about noon Sunday. Had a Buffy RPG session in the afternoon, watched some Bill Bailey stand-up on DVD, neglected to plan any lessons for Monday, then slept.
So, writing mostly during the day, drawing at night, with initial layout being done on day one, in the space of about 20 minutes - throw on borders, choose a font for headings.
Final layout (making sure the text broke between pages in sensible ways, making the font a legible size) - about 20 minutes on Sunday.
The drawing took, all up, about 3 hours maybe? Whilst watching TV.
