Chapter 4 of Graham Nelson's article "The Craft of the Adventure" (see
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/info/Craft.Of.Adventure.txt) is headed with
these quotes:
The initial version of the game was designed and
implemented in about two weeks.
-- P. David Lebling, Marc S. Blank, Timothy A. Anderson, of `Zork'
It was started in May of '85 and finished in June '86.
-- Brian Moriarty, of `Trinity' (from earlier ideas)
> And today? How long using inform or the likes? Just curious if I
> have the time to expend. :)
It depends how big you want the game to be, and how complicated. A
small game that uses standard library routines for the most part, and
which avoids complicated plots, interacting timed events, and vaguely
realistic characters, should be possible to write in a weekend.
The reported experience of authors on r.a.i-f is that it always takes
longer than expected. My own game-in-progress was started in May 1994
and might be finished testing before the end of the summer. Graham
Nelson's new game "Jigsaw" must have been on the go for about two years
now. Gerry Wilson has been working on "Avalon" for about two years;
David Baggett's "The Legend Lives" took about three years (correct me if
I'm wrong). Of course, amateur authors have day jobs; Brian Moriarty
was being employed full-time by Infocom.
-- Gareth Rees