It will take a lot more wood if you use softwood exclusively. Sometimes you may not have a choice. Hardwood is sometimes hard to come by. Softwood also produces more of the traditional snap crackle and pop you come to expect with a campfire than hardwood does. Hardwood can also be used to start fires, but you will find it a little more difficult to get going.
Hardwoods burn slower and longer.
It makes for a good long lasting night fire. When building your fire. If you have paper, crumble it up and lay it down first. Next, light the paper. Once the fire gets going start to feed it with a few larger pieces of wood in the same crisscross fashion.