How long does it take you to make a chart?

Inspired from talk in the discord, bringing this question over here.

Taking into consideration gfx/song finding/each chart if full difficulties/however you want to split things, how long do charts usually take for you to make?

Does contest situations (ala summer comp) affect this for you? Might it depend on the chart itself?

I'll post more detail on my thoughts or edit this post a little later but for now this should be a good starting point.

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For me it depends, assuming I'm very familiar with the song it usually takes like 2 min for beginner and light each, maybe 5 minutes for standard and 10-15 minutes for heavy. Graphics and cutting the song each take a bit longer.

Put out my Scatman's World file in under an hour (the hour before it's submission deadline, actually).

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While I listen to music I come up with a chart in my head and if I listen to something a lot I have a general idea of how I want the chart to go. So when I get the song cut, synced, and into StepMania I can finish all the steps in maybe 25-30 minutes at the least. I've never really timed it before. Sometimes I can't get the chart in my head to match what I'm making in edit mode or I feel like the chart could use some more tweaking so it can definitely take longer. Also when I have to step a song I'm not familiar with (Simfile Shuffle) or step to a theme where I have to meet certain requirements (Summer Contest's "Tech Savvy" and "Simfile Buffet" themes) it definitely will take longer. In general I don't really stress too much about what patterns to use or whatever because I've been doing this for a while.

I can make an average pad chart in about an hour, but keyboard files take roughly double that time. It all depends on how much I enjoy the song, the rhythms I find the most steppable, and how pitxh relevant and/or layered I want the file to be.

Ok now for my actual answer.

My general rule tends to be the more technical a chart is, the longer it takes, to a kind of exponential degree - of the SC17 charts, Recess and Scatmambo took the longest for stepping (obviously Kirby Smash had fgs so that took long for that reason), almost to the comical extent that 2 days of scatmambo was looking at about 5 notes debating how to handle something.

I usually listen to a given song a few times, make a very quick mockup of any unique things I want to accentuate, and then tune up from there, so it's usually a multisession process.

Unfortunately for me, I feel like I work best in relatively narrow bands of songs so song choice takes me a while, so that has a fair chance of ending me before even beginning in a comp setting.

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For me, it depends mostly on tempo changes. I step a lot of classic rock songs, so slight tempo changes happen quite frequently. If the song has a lot of tempo changes, such as Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne or All Right Now by Free, it takes about 1.5-2 hours. But if there aren't that many, such as Rosalie by Thin Lizzy or Gimme Some Lovin' by The Spencer Davis Group, then it takes about 45 minutes. And if there are no tempo changes, such as Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) by The Offspring or Shine by Collective Soul, then it takes 30 minutes tops.

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I also take quite the long time to step simfiles myself...Though making each difficulty takes a different amount of time for me.

I can complete both and within 15-30 minutes; it takes me that same amount of time to step on its own.
However, and can take me anywhere from 30-45 minutes to make on their own...

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Picking a song to step can sometimes be one of the most frustrating parts for me, oddly enough. Even if I really like the song, sometimes I'll start thinking "Yeah, it's a good song, but it's not steppable." or "It's steppable, but I don't think I can do the song justice". (Heck, sometimes I'll even start stepping a song only to toss it in the garbage 10 minutes later because it just doesn't feel right. Quite a few songs I tried stepping for Summer Contest met this fate.) For Summer Contest especially, I like to take time to consider multiple options before finally committing to anything... which usually results in me being indecisive and taking an hour just to choose a song. I tend to second-guess myself and it's really bad for me.

As far as actually stepping the song goes, I'm in a similar boat to chewi. I think of step patterns as I'm listening to the song and I'll try my best to implement those ideas once I actually start stepping. I'll usually end up tinkering around with other patterns just for the sake of exploring other options. Depending on how complex the file is, I tend to take about 30 minutes to an hour to get the initial chart done. through take progressively less time as I go down in difficulty, with typically only taking a couple of minutes. Once I'm done with all 5 charts, I usually let the file sit for a day or two before proofreading each chart one more time to spot any dumb errors and to make last minute tweaks.

Graphics end up taking an hour or two (or more) even though literally all I do is grab images from the internet and mutilate them in GIMP. Again, a lot of time is used up simply on exploring a bunch of different options. For something that I have no legitimate skills with I sure as hell take a long time.

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If it's - charts, could take anywhere from 2 days to a week depending on work and if i'm feeling up to stepping or not. If it's just one chart like a chart, maybe a day or two, same reason.
I don't like tinkering with the steps much, so for the most part whatever the draft is winds up being the final product. If there's errors I generally can't be arsed to fix them all, just the egregious ones.
Graphics-wise, text on image, i'm not here to win a job at a graphic design company. It's better than nothing.

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For a typical 9-13 , usually two or three hours, counting actual time occupied by making the chart. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer; if the song is very straightforward in its rhythms (little layering or very few different sounds that actually make sense to step) an hour is usually enough, while more complex (and fun) songs that I care more about making a good chart to can take several hours of testing and re-editing before I'm happy.

Very technical charts tend to take a lot longer to finish, since much more careful testing has to be done in order to make all elements of the chart make sense and play out well. I also tend to spread charting of these types of charts out over a few days, since a night of sleep can reveal a surprising amount of inconsistencies and uncomfortable patterns that might not have gotten caught during a first draft.

For me, making a playable and rhythmically accurate chart usually doesn't take long and should be doable in less than an hour, no problem. Making good/fun patterns that follow the music well, make sense, and are consistent takes considerably longer.

Add another hour or so for cutting the song if needed and making graphics, and another one or two for full difficulties (for full difficulties, the is usually the biggest time sink of the four easier charts).

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I make files in roughly four stages:
1. Find a song I want to step. Usually this is me listening to a song I like and deciding "wouldn't it be cool if i stepped this." I find/make graphics, make the music cut if necessary, and compile everything into a new folder
2. Set up the .sm skeleton, including speed changes and setting the preview cause I'll forget if I don't do it at this stage
3. Write the chart first, then test it out in the game and make adjustments if necessary
4. Write the rest of the charts and then test them on an actual pad (I'm not skilled enough for usually)
Once all the charts are finished, everything's pretty much ready for uploading.

How quickly I work through files depends on when I get the inspiration for them. It's easiest to write charts if I can kinda envision them in my head when I listen to the song; sitting down to write a chart usually takes about 10 minutes if I'm in a productive mood. I can't force myself to work on files, and if I try I know I'll end up in a bad mood.
It's hard to say exactly how long each file takes, because they linger for a long time in one of these stages. Currently I have a bunch of songs in stage 2 and about a dozen in stage 3; the oldest of these is about two years in the making. If you see me post a new file to the site, chances are I've been working on it for the past few months and only just got around to finishing it today.

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It depends. I can churn out a sh*tty sim in like a day or two. For a decent file, it'd take like, a week. Maybe even longer.
Also, I tend to be lazy, so it makes things longer.
To get a start on my sim, I just randomly spam arrows. Later, I edit those arrows into actual patterns. Sometimes I'd do the easy charts first, then the expert charts later. Sometimes it's reversed.

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Since I'm returning to making simfiles more often, I'll write this based on my experiences

In terms of song selection, I literally have an Excel file that lists all the songs I feel suitable for a DDR-style chart, categorized into licenses, Konami originals, Dancemania songs, and "Boss songs" (separate from the KOs). Then I pick a few songs at a time that I really like from the list and I feel good for stepping. Cutting the song is kind of a problem as well, especially towards the licenses, as some end up being too short or too long, reaching the 2:30 mark, especially when I want the first verse to go straight to the last chorus or the chorus, then the bridge then the last chorus.

The stepping part, meanwhile, kinda depends on the song. I do imagine what I want the chart to look like in my head, and doing it with my fingers or even my feet,, sometimes even imagining it from other players' point of view (based on YouTube videos). I usually start with Beginner first to make sure the arrows sync properly then I move on the other difficulties, finally Expert/Challenge. Thinking of step patterns is the harder part to me because I kinda end up being a bit repetitive on the patterns, like doing the same crossovers again, the classic (left, down/up, up/down, right) pattern over and over again. This is why I can't really bring myself to participate in events like the Summer Contest. I've been stepping for a few years, but I still feel like a newbie.

It takes me 1-2 minutes for , approximately 5-7 minutes on , and then it gets a bit longer on , usually taking up to 20 minutes, and both and end up taking up to an hour trying to create steps that fit the song. I can't help but think of this as "art" for some reason.

Graphics are also my forte, and I love graphics, but when I don't have time, or ideas, I simply create generic files first then when I feel like there needs to be graphics for this song, I go create it.

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For me:
takes 3-5 minutes
takes 5-7 minutes
takes 10-15 minutes
takes 15-20 minutes
takes 20 minutes, 30 minutes if it's a boss song, or 0 minutes if I don't feel like it.
Cutting the song takes 3 minutes at most
Graphics take 1-3 hours depending on how lazy I am
Editing videos takes around 15 minutes
EDIT: And that's if I don't procrastinate. Sometimes can take a long time!

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honestly, if it takes you less than 24 hours to complete your file, it isn't done
i try to take as much time as i can to see what i can do with a given chart. try to go through the patterns in my head, all the ways it can work along with the song. one chart can easily take me a good few days to complete, several more to perfect. one of the reasons why i haven't been making simfiles as of late is because it's exhausting and time consuming making an in-depth file. the end result might be simple, but every step is placed with intent.
some people can churn out simfiles out day-in, day-out, and kudos to you if you can do that and do it well. but i just can't do it.

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Yeah, that's true. After making charts I tend to revise them A LOT the following day. I don't have that much experience with making charts so I really should be taking more time developing those simfiles.

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Making a simfile
by: Aegis

I'll start this off by saying I take about a month to a year to find out what I'm going to do a simfile for.
Rarely do I do simfiles at all, but when I have a go at it, I try to find a song that I enjoy to listen and know that there could be great steps to accompany it (opinion).

The charts themselves I try to envision while listening to the song hundreds of times.
I attempt to do a first pass at it going through the song for the beats and all that jazz, then view it, then play it, then delete, then go to another song that I thought was cool, then do the process over about 20 or so times until I possibly go to the first couple of songs I was sim'ing and then do a final pass at them, now fully knowing that it is the optimal chart/song for me.

Others might not appreciate or enjoy my simfiles, but I do them for my personal usage from time to time to listen to my favorite songs and dance to them.

For the simfile contest things, it's the whole week, but that's the whole week with possibly a month or a half a year's worth of insight poured into it before hand (like pre-production) from looking for songs and putting them into a folder to later be used years from now (possibly), minus having to balance a job, errands, etc.

TL;DR-

Graphics: an hour at most. Most of the time is dedicated to just finding an idea (55 minutes). 4 minutes are dedicated to compile a lot of images together and tidying them up (color correction/chopping them up and piecing them together/over each other). One minute is dedicated to text to slap on to the image.

Songs: finding a song takes me forever because I hate everything and I love everything. I love the song because I'll put it on loop for a whole day and still be fascinated by it when I shut my computer off. I hate the song because it can't be stepped for pad, but would be a masterpiece if it was on iidx, either because of the nature of the genre of the song/repetitiveness/how varying the song is and can give beats to play, etc.. How many songs do I hear before I end up sim'ing one of them? Too many. I hear, download, delete. Of possibly 1,000 songs, I'll take 3 or 4 out of the bunch, then most likely keep one of the 3 or 4 songs. Rinse and repeat.

Charts: this part takes possibly a day to make a first pass on every chart. It's always a great idea to stop what you are doing for a while and go out to take in some fresh air. When you come back to play your song (after playing a hundred other simfiles), play the simfile you made, sigh, then fix every chart. Do the same thing the day after that until you get sick of the simfile. You'll scroll by the simfile on the songwheel for weeks, maybe even months, then one day you'll revisit it and tidy it up some more and enjoy it.

If you take anything from reading this post, then it's that it's a lot of cycling through stuff until you're content with what you make. Don't force something if you feel it isn't fun. It's all subjective and everyone has a different take on what quality is and what they prefer, so it's ok to take 1 year or 1 day. Have fun.

Overall for me, it'll take a day or two (or even a week when worse case scenario comes in) depending on everything. Why?

1. I'm quite picky with the songs I choose. I don't heavily rely on mainstream music becuase most of them suck at creating good music at all.

2. Graphics-wise I'm good enough to make one for at least four to five hours.

3. Stepcharts. The heart of each and every simfle I make. This one's taking hours to days to create a perfect chart for me.

It's just a matter of personal preference of making simfiles, honestly.

Generally speaking, I mostly do edits of other songs, so I usually spend a whopping zero minutes on GFX/song finding/figuring out BPM.

The few songs which aren't that are either other BEMANI songs (i.e. constant and explicitly listed BPM), or FREEDOM DiVE (i.e. people already crunched the numbers for me earlier).

Charting:
to Like 15-30 minutes each, as generally speaking they're just easier versions of the difficulty above
Anywhere from ~30 minutes (stream charts) to ~3 hours (Custom charts with tricky rhythms like NGO)
EDIT: almost always dumpstream charts crammed out in 20 minutes