Edited thread title. See edit note in the first post please.

If you can make it work for yourself, try getting up earlier or staying up later. Seeing as she doesn't have a job, I would assume she sleeps in every day. You could try getting up half an hour earlier every day and working on your project while she sleeps. Bonus points there because you'll be fresher in the morning than you would be in the evening.

This! To me this is like a perfect solution! I just have to work on my getting-up-early abilities, but it's certainly doable. Thank you!

If you can make it work for yourself, try getting up earlier or staying up later. Seeing as she doesn't have a job, I would assume she sleeps in every day. You could try getting up half an hour earlier every day and working on your project while she sleeps. Bonus points there because you'll be fresher in the morning than you would be in the evening.

This! To me this is like a perfect solution! I just have to work on my getting-up-early abilities, but it's certainly doable. Thank you!

This is kind of what I do. I am lucky to have a wife that understands that it's not just a hobby and that it could make money. I stay up late and do my projects then.

I also work from home in my day job two days a week and use my lunch hour to do my project. After my day job is done on each of those days I spend an hour or so on my project too. Also in the summer, I have to work and she takes the kids to the coast (we have use of a static caravan there) so in that time I have an ideal opportunity to blitz those projects for a week or so. Of course when I can get holidays from my day job I'm there with her and the kids.

There's no way I could ever just come in from work and sit down at the PC, and I wouldn't want to. The kids see to that and demand my attention. There are three of them and simply giving attention to one for a second makes the other two clamour for attention also.

Having kids is an eye opener and the best thing to ever happened to me. It's also helped immensely with understanding how to correctly manage social and antisocial time :)

As for accessing this forum etc, sacrifice social media. The average person spends hours of the week narcissistically posting to farcebook about their pet cat. Instead, bin the social media and use the time to research gamedev etc via your phone.

Hope this helps in some way!

It sounds like your wife needs something to keep her occupied, regardless of whether you spend every minute home after work with her or try to squeeze in some side project work. I imagine I could more than occupy my time if I didn't have to work, but most people aren't that self-directed and don't have that kind of a backlog of books to read...

I've found that early mornings are the best time to try to work on side projects. I tend to wake up early, and all of the women I have dated have been late sleepers, so between 5AM and 7:30-8:00 AM gives a pretty healthy amount of time to do what you need to do.

Setting hard limits did not work in my case - apparently the sight of me sitting at my computer doesn't register with her as actual work, especially since the project has yet to generate any income.

That's an honest conversation you need to have with yourself -- are you working two jobs, or do you have a job and a hobby?

If you decide that you are working two jobs, imagine for a moment that it's something mundane, like stocking shelves at a supermarket. Now replay one of the discussions with your wife in this alternate reality -- "Amr0, I never see you! That damn supermarket keeps you there all night! Why can't you just quit, we don't need the money that badly?". Find out if you really do have a good reason to be trying to work two jobs or not -- one of which is an unpaid job at a risky startup company who are only giving you equity instead of salary.

If you decide that you have one job and a hobby, imagine that it's something else, like golf. Is it really appropriate to play golf every single day?

QFT. Why are you working on your project?

If it's a hobby, then you need to be reasonable and set aside some time to spend with your wife. I mean, you married her, I assume you enjoy her company, right?

If, on the other hand, you believe that your work is ultimately going to better your families situation, then you need to talk to your wife and discuss with her your plans. Don't "explain" to her what you're doing, have a conversation.