Yeah, I might as well ask, “How long is a piece of string?” But for all the writers out there, I was curious how long it took you to write your games. Also, any tips on how to motivate yourself to get a game finished? I’m finding this the hardest problem right now. Any advice would be really useful 
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When I wrote Trial of the Demon Hunter (85k), it took me 14 months because I was only writing about 15 hours a week. (and because I was horrible at coding)
Judgement of the Fallen (110k) will have taken about 7 months because I was writing about 40 hours a week on average.
I’ve also been steadily inching away at Colonising Kepler 62e: Inception for about 7 months, and I’ve written about 24k for it so far. With this title, I’m only writing about 8 hours a week (plus, I find it much harder to write science fiction than fantasy.)
I stay motivated because I want to be able to keep writing at this pace for the rest of my life 
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Don’t you get writer’s block?
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Rarely if I do, it’s usually just caused by inadequate sleep. If it happens, I just take a day off and read a lot or watch a movie marathon or something. Writing usually comes very easily to me; I’ve been writing 7 days a week for months, and I’ve only had a few bouts of writer’s block in the two years since I started writing CS novels.
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I have been working on two games since… well I joined in June of 2011
So yep it been a long time. However, my dreams for exceptionally large games over shadowed my skills in the beginning. lol
I tend to switch back and forth on projects so as not to get burned out. I love to write so really do not care how long it takes me. Though I am making some good headway the last few months so crossing my fingers for the end of the year to have one project near completion.
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@Briar_Rose
Still, I do have very unproductive days every couple weeks or so. Sometimes, I’ll only write like 0.5k in a day. But I’ve also had a time where I wrote 3k everyday for a week. But usually, I write about 1.5k a day.
@Lordirish
Awesome
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I have a demanding job that takes a lot of my time and energy. Guenevere part 1 took me over a year and a half to write, but I was working on several projects at once. Now I’m more focused on the game, because I got so much positive feedback. Part 2 is more complex than part 1, and it’s currently on schedule to be finished within a year of starting. (I’ve written 8 out of 14-15 scenes since January.)
I overcome writer’s block by 1) making myself write something every day, even if it’s just one sentence, and 2) always thinking about what comes next in the story – if I’m driving somewhere, or standing in line, or cooking dinner, I’m figuring out exactly what I’ll be typing the next time I sit down at the computer. That way I almost never sit down without anything to type.
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@Samuel_H_Young
Thanks, I scrapped restarted this project five times lol. Going to finish it, even if it kills me. ;p
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@jeantown
That’s awesome!
I do the same thing with plots and stuff. I always find myself kept up at night improving the plot for VOLUME SIX even when I haven’t even submitted volume two xD.
@Lordirish
Wow at least it should be amazing by the time you finally get it the way you want it.
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@Samuel_H_Young
I hope so.
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@Samuel_H_Young
Wow. That’s really impressive. I really need to get into the habit of writing every day, even when I’ve got other stuff going on.
Thanks by the way, you’re really helpful
@Lordirish
Yeah, that’s a problem I have too, though I’ve learned from experience that I should never start a new project until I’ve finished the first one, 'cos then the first one just doesn’t get finished.
@jeantown
Really useful tips. The writing something every day thing is something I need to work on. Right now I’m trying to motivate myself by using what I call a “writing buddy”. Basically I’ll set myself a goal for how much I want to write, tell my goal to my writing buddy and then at the end of the day I’ll tell them whether I met my goal or not… It usually works.
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@Briar_Rose
Yes; that’s the greatest tip I can give you; write every day, even if it’s just 500 words. That way, you’ll have steady progress and keep yourself interested in the story you want to tell.
Another thing I do that helps me write so much is to give myself impossible quotas. For example, I told myself I wanted to finish Judgement of the Fallen in 4 months. Obviously that’s nearly impossible even with how much time I spend writing, but it helped me push myself to get it done in 7 months.
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“I overcome writer’s block by 1) making myself write something every day, even if it’s just one sentence, and 2) always thinking about what comes next in the story – if I’m driving somewhere, or standing in line, or cooking dinner, I’m figuring out exactly what I’ll be typing the next time I sit down at the computer. That way I almost never sit down without anything to type.”
That’s how I look at it. You’d be surprised how many times a resolution to some scene just “comes to you” as you’re doing something completely unrelated. Then when you get back to writing it’s much easier to flesh it all out because you’ve got the good ending already in your mind.
I’d recommend always trying to keep good notes. If you’re nodding off to sleep and you suddenly figure out something good to do, write it down. You might not remember it the next morning otherwise.
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I’ve never had writer’s block. I’ve gotten busy with real life, torn away from writing and lot interest after too much time passed. From there, it can be difficult to return to a project. But nope, never had actual writer’s block.
As for the topic. I started Life of a Mobster on November 1st for NaNoWriMo, so a bit of an unnaturally fast paced start. Barring any surprises, it should release this Friday. You can skim back through the posts and see when I finished various parts. (It should have released June 13th, actually, so perhaps use that date to figure how long it takes to write, edit, beta test, post-production, copyedit and finally release a game. 7.5 months for me.
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Yeah, I’ve found that editing and beta testing actually take a considerable amount of time. Like I’ve been editing and improving Trial of the Demon Hunter for like two weeks, and I don’t expect to finish for another two weeks. And after that, I’m gonna do ANOTHER beta test because that’s how much it’s changed since it was initially released. The work is never done, it seems
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I only have 30min. for a day to write and code the games so it’s going to take like forever for me to finish, but I’m having fun writing it so I don’t really care.
Never experienced a writer’s block. Probably the only thing that frustrates me is that I don’t understand Anglophone much.
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Thanks everybody for the info and advice
@Aera
Wow, thirty minutes? That’s probably the amount of time I spend staring at the screen before I actually get around to writing anything down.
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I started Choice of Rebels in 2011, a few months before my first son was born. I’ll let you know how long it takes me to finish.
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@Havenstone
Well I can’t think of anything more distracting than a new baby
@Havenstone
Wow; I didn’t know it was that old! How long is it so far, if I may ask?