Alot of people have very short attention spans and alot of those people play games.

Keep in mind that your interface will always be easier and more intuitive to you, the developer, than it will be to anyone else. What takes you .1 second to get immersed in the game could take 5-10 minutes before a new player is familiar. Plus you know exactly how the enemies move and how to defeat them. As hard as you try to pretend to be a new player, you'll never be able to predict how a truly new player will react.

Fortunately this contest isnt about "quick and simple" games. Given the quite long coding time, 3 levels with bosses, four months to make a new game from scratch.
I think you are safe making a game that takes more than 10-20 minutes to complete. Many of the most successful commercial games have a steep learning curve and take many hours, sometimes months, and fresh tries to complete (Black and White for example).

The whole point of a game, in my opinion, isnt to be spoonfed a bunch of nice graphics and explosions. Its to challenge your mind and reflexes. Otherwise you are just watching a fancy video...

oh, and our boss is going to kick the judges ass!!
if they cant beat it, there are cheat codes
:evil: