Ludum Dare has a special place in my heart. Participating in game jams is a great way to practice creating games from start to finish.
If you're interested, I wrote a post recounting my experience participating in Ludum Dare:
If you're interested, I wrote a post recounting my experience participating in Ludum Dare:
Learning how to successfully manage and complete a large project is definitely something that needs hands-on experience and cannot be completely replaced by doing lots of small projects instead.
That said, the core process is the same and, especially for beginners, doing many small projects instead of one large one is important to become familiar with the gamedev process and get as much practice as possible in the shortest amount of time.