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Dragondot is an action RPG in which you play as a dragon that can only claw at its adversaries at first, but will gain new and improved abilities whenever it gains enough experience to level up. Area bonuses are awarded if you manage to keep all kobolds in the room alive while slaying all of your enemies.

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Artist GameBoyOne's pixel graffiti juxtapose urban landscapes with 8-bit sprites. Below, his Dragon Quest slimes:

Do check out his latest work -- his Streets of Rage thug, for instance, or this gryphon from Final Fantasy III -- on his Flickr stream.

[Daily Graffiti: Dragon Quest Slimes]

As always, everyone gets games at my household. Betsy (20) got Rocketville from me and Dragon Age: Origins from Karen. Vicky (17) got Dominion and Left for Dead 2. Simona (6) got Uno and a premium subscription to Shidonni. Karen got Steam and Little King's Story (because it's supposed to be Pikmin-like, and she loves Pikmin). Vicky got me Tigris & Euphrates, and I got myself The Napoleonic Wars.

After dinner, we played Dominion, Bazaar, and Agricola.

With some UK retailers refusing to stock Muramasa: The Demon Blade due to preconceptions that the Wii title won't sell, Rising Star Games, Muramasa's publisher in Europe, is turning to more creative solutions to get the word out about its release in Europe.

In Milan, Italy, the company's big guerrilla marketing idea was to dispatch a mini-dragon and a team of samurais up and down the city's Buenos Aires shopping district, yelling out, "Muramasa" -- a tactic that seems even less effective than just shouting "beautiful, ukiyo- styled graphics" or "hardcore 2D action for Wii".

At the end of this video, it looks like the street team set up a free sushi/play session event, which I guess makes up for dudes screaming "Muramasa" at you. I'd forgive anyone that yelled at me, however random or malicious their shouting might have been, if there's free food involved in the apology.

You ever notice something about the Breath of Fire games? Ryu kind of hogs the limelight in the final battles. Its like, you level up all these people, feed them potions, lug their stuff around, and then: "ok everyone, I'm going to transform into a dragon and take care of this one." They go "hey, at least we'll be in the credits!"

In the first one its all Ryu, he transforms, everyone else disappears, and that is the criteria for the true final boss and the best ending.

Here Ryu is temporarily transforming to deliver the big points attack as a dragon, and everyone else, all gussied up, is just feeding him wisdom fruits and candy like they're his assistants.

Here Ryu does not transform, he's got this Super Saiya-jin thing going on and while the team is still giving him support, at least he isn't phasing them out to deliver his home runs. Notice there is one less party member.

Seems like incremental democratization is going on over the course of this series.

This all makes me thing about auteur theory and how it may or may not apply to game development.

I remember when Greg wrote his Scratchware Manifesto his description of three person teams made me think of Starcraft, Rock, Paper, Scissors and Chrono Trigger's three-person party. That's my best guess as to the idea way to make games. Doesn't have to be three people, could be four or five, or two, or one, but I like the number three in particular. I think that's the answer. And sure, if someone can turn into a Dragon then they should be encouraged to do that with no ego friction.

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This was produced by the government of Denmark. I mean, c'mon. It was 'developed' supposedly to raise awareness for domestic violence in said country, but it does so in a crassly exploitative manner. The "game" plays out as a series of looping video vignettes of a hot chick berating you in Danish; your only possible interaction is to, ahem, change your pitch up. Think a further watered-down Dragon's Lair meets Youtube video meets misogyny. It's as terrible as you can imagine.

From the generic shitty music and 'Pussy' to 'Gangsta' bar at the top I guess it's implying that you're some fly Danish rapper or something, which only gives a comic tone to the experience. Every time you abuse her your 'gangsta' bar increases, and she becomes progressively bruised and battered. Hit her enough and the game ends and calls you an idiot. What pisses me off is that you have no other alternative; you can't walk away from the situation or communicate with her in any way. I applaud them for attempting to tackle the subject of domestic abuse, don't get me wrong. But if you're going to make a game it would be nice to have some interaction in it, ya know? As it stands it's a poorly-acted Youtube video disguised as a game to help its virality. Fuck that.

The screen above isn't actually from the game, it's from the TIG Forum thread about it. So is the following quote, which sums up this thing rather nicely: "In your face, Denmark's taxpayers. In your face."

Pylo Noveau is a solid platformer made with the Game Maker engine, featuring four lengthy levels to play in the first demo build released. The developer has promised four times the content in the final version, but don't let the incomplete tag discourage you from giving this game a try.

You play as Pylo, a dragon with fire-breathing ability that can be further upgraded whenever you collect a red gem. Any jewels you collect also allows you to use special powers that can either reveal secrets in a stage, heal Pylo, or even hurt enemies in a myriad of ways.

The biggest letdown of this project is the use of sound effects from other commercial releases, although if you can let that slide then there's some fun to be had here by fans of platform games. (source: PixelProspector) Continue reading