The Ballad of the Lost Bureaucrat

The Ballad of the Lost Bureaucrat is a game being developed by Star and Serpent indie game studio.

What is the game all about?

The Ballad of the Lost Bureaucrat is an RPG shoot'em up hybrid.

Can you tell me anything else?

The development started 730 days ago on 21st of November in 2022.

The game is still in early stages of development. It is being developed in C# using the Godot game engine.

Things might change significantly and I don't want to spend all my time updating - or worrying about not updating - this web page. It seems like such a small thing, but it's actually quite time consuming.

If you want to follow the development day to day, you can join our Discord chat server. Scroll down for the link.

When is it finished?

Really hard to say.

Game development is a long and arduous process. There's only a single person working on this game at the moment, and that person is me. It's not like I'm slacking off, I'm actually working really hard on this game, but it's still going to take a long time.

The base systems and architecture take the most time. While working on those it looks on the outside like nothing is happening. It's kind of like that empty lot in your neighborhood where they are building a new house. For the longest time it looks like nothing is happening, but then suddenly one day there's a house there. It's the same with game development. You work on the base systems and architecture for a long time, and then suddenly one day there's a game there. Once the base systems are done the progress will be much more visible and the game will start to take shape.

I generally work on the game 8-15 hours per day, including weekends.

If we average that out to 11 hours per day, it means that today, 20th of November in 2024, I have worked on the game for 8030 hours.

Follow development

If you want to follow the development, day to day, you can join our Discord chat. We are most active there.

Development pictures

The above screenshot was taken on 21st of November in 2023 (365 days ago). The screenshot depicts an itemized test map, player character, paper doll inventory visualized as a mirror from which you can look at yourself, a container inventory which is a satchel, and a proof of concept dialogue window with character portraits. The development of the inventory system and all related systems took several months of back breaking effort.

The above screenshot was taken on 11th of May in 2023 (559 days ago). It represents a proof of concept dialogue window with an alien character Lord Grox who is not happy with you.

The above screenshot was taken on 9th of March in 2023 (622 days ago), and shows work done on the tile graphics and some mandatory objects that every self respecting game has to have - barrels and crates.

The above screenshot was taken on 16th of December in 2022 (705 days ago), it's one of the first screen shots ever taken of the project. It was taken on the day the project was made public. A basic proof of concept with some tile graphics and initial draft of the player character.

Last updated

This web page was last updated on 21st of November in 2023 (365 days ago).