Which VN development aspect takes up the most time?

[DeltaDriveX]

Taking every step of the VN development process into account, which assets generally takes the longest to finish? I'm working in a group of three people, and we're aiming for a somewhat even workload.

[LoveIsInTheAir]

Depends on how fast you are and how many you need.

Sprites: 8-10 hours each for full body, little less for half body
CG: 2 hours to 12 hours per CG + complexity of BG
Writing: for me it takes about 10 hours for 10k words, which is about 10 words per minute. But I’m not a native English speaker so I’m obviously slower
Programming: depends on the engine, gameplay, GUI etc. can be as little as 2 hrs if the writer inputted the script into the engine while writing and GUI is simple. If you add gameplay mechanics it can be in dozens of hours
GUI design: takes me 3-5 hours for textbox alone. For main menu everything can think like 12 hours?

I don’t have enough experience with the other parts to comment on that (music, BG, marketing) but maybe someone else can help better than me with that

[Mutive]

It depends on so many factors that I doubt anyone can give you an answer. The truth is it's going to vary a LOT by your game.

A game that has little text or special programming commands and lots of fancy CG scenes is going to take the longest for art.

A game with a couple of sprites and backgrounds, massive amounts of text, and very little fancy programming commands is going to take longest for writing. (Esp. if the writer inputs the text as he/she is writing and formats it all correctly.)

A game with not much text or art, but lots of fancy programming commands (e.g. mini games, animations, point and click, inventories, date and time management, etc.) is going to take longest for programming.

The game I'm working on now is taking the longest for programming. But it's got a lot of fancy stuff going on behind the scenes which mandate a lot of fussing around (e.g. point and click interfaces, animations that need to be triggered in specific points, variables, etc.) In general for most video games (not typically VNs, however), programming takes longest.

However, a fairly straight forward VN may require almost no programming at all. (At least if the writer puts everything into a Python/Renpy friendly format.) So it just depends.

[Sarchalen]

Fine tuning.

It doesn't take long at all to write, or draw CGs or program sprites. What always ends up taking me the longest is correcting all the little stuff. Finding all the typos in your script takes a long time, even with help from grammarly or similar. Adjusting the levels of individual audio clips so they sound consistent with the tone of the scene takes ages and multiple passes. Combing through each scene going "This sprite comes in half a second too slow" or "The music is just a hair too loud right here". This sort of polish is what takes the longest in making a VN, but absolutely necessary.