iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 2h

*Love* our latest from @pokachee.bsky.social, about a type of fanwork that's massively popular but one I rarely see discussed in convos about transformative fandom. Fangames are technically interesting—literally using the source material in modding—but even more so from a community/fandom angle:

fansplaining.com

Pokémon Fangames Evolve Beyond Their Origins

For fangame creators, the work they develop and the communities they inspire are inextricably tied.

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Jank @jank.cool · 25/09/2026

Nic stops to smell the sweet, rotting roses in Total Warhammer 3's big update. www.jank.cool/you-dont-kno...

jank.cool

You don't know what you got (the moon) until it's gone (blown up by a magic rat)

Total Warhammer 3's gorgeous map is going through hell

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Jank @jank.cool · 14/09/2026

Stab space cops for money - the flawed but lovable Ostranauts. www.jank.cool/ostranauts-r...

jank.cool

Ostranauts review

Everything can be salvaged, but make it a curse

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

there is only one allowable kind of videogame journalism and it's yelling

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Jank @jank.cool · 08/09/2026

"It's rot and blood all the way down." Our Blood of Dawnwalker review gets into the guts. www.jank.cool/the-blood-of...

jank.cool

The Blood Of Dawnwalker review

Dawn Walker? I thought you said his name was Coen?!

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Rick Lane @ricklane.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Hello! I'm looking to speak to a game developer/programmer with a strong understanding of asset streaming. How it works, how it can be applied, what it means for games etc. If you're that person, get in touch at rick@ricklane.co.uk. Shares appreciated.

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Brendy_C @brendyc.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

This essay by fighting game dev Patrick Miller starts as a response to drama (don't ask) but then drops truth after truth about escapism, coping mechanisms, and games as a painkiller. "If games serve a load-bearing function in someone's life, it's the life that needs fixing, not the games."

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gita “the formalist” jackson @xoxogossipgita.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

if you are a person of color and want to pitch to aftermath, i encourage you to do so. if you haven't pitched before or want to talk through an idea before you send it to the pitch email, give me a shout via email gita @ aftermath.site

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Alice Bell @abeewords.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

It’s true!

• At 1,350 subscribers we can add Alice Bell as a fortnightly columnist, enabling you to experience regular and professionally-edited opinions that the Jank team only experience as profane stream-of-consciousness WhatsApp conversations.

A series of text messages between myself and another person:
Me: I’m hat watching alley cats
Them: does it have a joke in it or is it just nervous sneering
Then there’s a series of five voice notes from me of between 5 seconds and 1 minute and 40 seconds long
Them: hahahaha

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Jank @jank.cool · 17/08/2026

"Sometimes you cannot fix the machine and the harm it does. Sometimes you must break it." An essay by game writer @hannahnicklin.bsky.social on Eliza's AI therapist, Luddites, and Slack ghosts. www.jank.cool/desire-withi...

jank.cool

Desire within the Miasma

An essay on Eliza, Luddites, and the ghosts in the company Slack

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Jank @jank.cool · 12/08/2026

Sandcastle is a wonderful toy. www.jank.cool/sandcastle-i...

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Jay Castello 🌻 @jaymcastello.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

i reviewed Fields of Mistria, a game i mostly wanted to pick apart the problems with even though I also want to put 100 more hours into it www.jank.cool/fields-of-mi...

jank.cool

Fields Of Mistria review

Stuck between a rock and a soft place

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Jank @jank.cool · 10/08/2026

Fields Of Mistria offers a "feeling of pleasure that, while insubstantial, has led to me sinking nearly 70 hours into the game in the last month", writes @jaymcastello.bsky.social www.jank.cool/fields-of-mi...

jank.cool

Fields Of Mistria review

Stuck between a rock and a soft place

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Imran Khan @imrankhan.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

So we found out this morning that everyone - myself included - from Restart's editorial staff has been let go. After like six layoffs in six years, that gif is my unfortunate reaction. Looking! For! Opportunities! I guess I'm open for freelance for a while!

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

It's Metroid's 40th anniversary, but what about a new Metroid for your brain?

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Jank @jank.cool · 22/07/2026

Boiling Point is a cult classic beloved for its bugs. We asked its developers how they made it www.jank.cool/the-making-o...

jank.cool

The making of Boiling Point: Road To Hell, the most broken game I've ever loved

How ambition turned an open-world pioneer into a janky cult classic

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

All sport needs heels. That's why football has Chelsea players.

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Brenda Fricker died this past week and everyone should watch this extraordinary interview with her from 2021. So honest, so funny: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-5r...

youtube.com

Brenda Fricker | The Tommy Tiernan Show

YouTube video by Tommy Tiernan

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Jank @jank.cool · 16/07/2026

You deserve better literature than Dungeon Crawler Carl. www.jank.cool/you-deserve-...

jank.cool

You deserve better literature than Dungeon Crawler Carl

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Jank @jank.cool · 14/07/2026

"There are no ghosts in Galley House, but it certainly feels like there are." @jaymcastello.bsky.social reviews Type Help's fancy follow-up. www.jank.cool/the-incident...

jank.cool

The Incident At Galley House review

A rebuilt machine

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Only wallies disagree with our picks

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Jeremy Peel @jeremypeel.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I wrote this for Wall Week. Enjoy!

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Tom O @vgtomo.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Big news! @apzonerunner.com and I have launched a new video games website. @respec.net is our attempt to create a highly curated multi-format site that has that club feel you used to get from the best magazines (and frankly, my beloved VideoGamer back in the day) www.respec.net/feature/87-w...

respec.net

Welcome to Respec: A word from the Editors | Respec

Welcome to our new little corner of the internet. Why a new video game website, and why now? Allow us to explain...

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

We're putting the paywall on a handful of Jank posts so we're celebrating with a week of articles about walls which includes reviewing 2008 movie tie-in game Wall-E

"Honey, we're videogamesing. Its best levels showcase the sediment layers of game design practices over the preceding decades that have compacted to produce, finally, a semi-competent movie tie-in for nine year olds."

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

The worst thing a Spurs player has done since the last time Spurs played.

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Jank @jank.cool · 01/07/2026

The World Cup is best viewed in first-person www.jank.cool/the-world-cu...

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I love football. I love caring about things that don't matter at all so much.

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Jank @jank.cool · 29/06/2026

Why I love the command line. www.jank.cool/i-love-the-c...

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Wes Fenlon @wes.readonlymemo.com · 28/06/2026

Remember the internet before Google, before algorithmic feeds, before monolithic social media corralled us onto the same handful of apps? When small, *personal websites* and webrings linking them together reigned supreme? Time to bring it back.

readonlymemo.com

Introducing Warp Point, a Web 1.0 gaming blog directory built for 2026

It's a webring! And a website!

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Jank @jank.cool · 19/06/2026

Google made a flight sim so we crashed a plane into their HQ. www.jank.cool/oh-dear-i-ha...

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Jank @jank.cool · 17/06/2026

Blood Dungeon's demo is the best 2010-era freeware game you've ever played www.jank.cool/blood-dungeo...

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Hit Points by Nathan Brown @hitpoints.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Hit Points is, somehow, five years old. Five! To celebrate I have knocked 55% off an annual subscription, and waffled on at customary length about not-E3 (and that horrifying Xbox memo). Please read/sub/share/say nice things etc newsletter.hitpoints.co/380-bro-talk/

newsletter.hitpoints.co

#380: Bro talk

Picking through the many entrails of not-E3 2026.

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Jank @jank.cool · 09/06/2026

Do not give up hope. Here are the games from not-E3 that were worth your time www.jank.cool/12-upcoming-...

jank.cool

12 upcoming games that give me hope for the future

Summer Game Fest is the thief of joy, but luckily we secured joy to your belt with a wallet chain

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Baffling to me that people think Nintendo are playing it too safe, as if Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, Tomodachi Life, Yoshi And The Mysterious Book aren't all deeply strange games or unexpected sequels. Even Pokopia takes a beloved series into an entirely new genre. The Switch 2 is only a year old.

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Chris Plante @plante.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Announcing: The 1st Annual EGOTYs The Earliest Game of the Year Awards June 12 on Patreon.com/PostGames June 15 on all podcast feeds Subscribe for free now and get the show as soon as it's live! pod.link/1815131711

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Graham Smith @grahamsmith.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

There's no article on Jank today because I instead made a supercut of every time Gary Neville says "at this moment in time" on his podcast. Sorry www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjBc...

youtube.com

Gary Neville at this moment in time

YouTube video by graham

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Marsh Davies @marshdavies.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

GOLD TEETH has launched! It's a piratical TTRPG set in a cursed version of the Age of Sail, with 350 pages of briny phantasmagoria, colonial terror and nauseating seafood. It's part Master & Commander, part Blackadder, left to ripen in the sun like a beached porpoise. teethrpg.itch.io/gold-teeth

Exploded diagram of a ship's cargo hold with many annotations. It appears to be filling with water, which is generally not ideal.

A sample spread from the book, featuring a map of a Spanish settlement and a biography of its wretched governor.

A large map of the town of Great New Plymouth.

Another spread from the book featuring a large illustration of a ship cresting a wave. On the opposing page is a description of the fictional island of Iguanique and a picture of a skull sprouting tube worms.

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brendon bigley @bb.wavelengths.online · 01/06/2026

Happy Summer Game Fest week! We built a way to keep up with video game news from every source in a way that (hopefully) doesn't make your brain slide out of your ears. ☼ overworld.vg ☼ It's a cool new website! In 2026!!

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Lucy James @lucyjames.games · 01/06/2026

Some news from me! I quit GameSpot to launch something new. Introducing @lookingfor.game, an independent weekly newsletter where I highlight upcoming PC games and deliver demo codes straight to your inbox. Sign up at lookingfor.game 🥳

lookingfor.game

lookingfor.game is a weekly newsletter that highlights upcoming PC games and delivers demo codes and playtesting opportunities straight to your inbox. Curated by Lucy James. It's time to find your ne...

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Jank @jank.cool · 25/05/2026

Tinkering with games is better than playing them www.jank.cool/tinkering-wi...

I'm defining tinkering broadly here as anything that involves reaching beneath your computer's glossy façade. The machine, which may be in front of you right now, is pretending that it is a tool of simple productivity, an obelisk of user-friendly efficiency. It is not. Your computer is 8000 rats in a burlap sack. To tinker is to reach inside the bag, remove a rat, and make friends with it.

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Jank @jank.cool · 21/05/2026

"If Titanium Court were a person I would go to its Edinburgh Fringe show, but not invite it to my wedding." www.jank.cool/titanium-cou...

jank.cool

Titanium Court review

Methought I was enamoured of an ass

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Jank @jank.cool · 19/05/2026

Grenades never got better than in Halo 1. www.jank.cool/grenades-nev...

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Rebekah Valentine @duckvalentine.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Over a year ago, I spoke with @rasheedabueideh.bsky.social about Dreams on a Pillow for a piece that was killed before it could be published. I am honored that he was willing to take the time to speak with me again in spite of that and tell me about his beautiful homeland: kotaku.com/upcoming-ste...

kotaku.com

This Upcoming Stealth Game Wants To Show You A Beautiful Palestine

“We wanted to talk about Palestine, which is a land full of people

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Jank @jank.cool · 18/05/2026

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is "sleeker, sexier, more self-consciously dangerous" than Disco Elysium. "It is outsider art made from the foyer, safe from the rain." www.jank.cool/zero-parades...

Zero Parades loves language, eagerly and playfully. A photo taken with your should-be-clandestine network is "an utterly inexplicable fit of camaraderie". A drunk, prostrate bank executive is a "crumpled paper airplane of a man". A techno-fascist vibrator is named "pre-breeder 6zr". Bathroom graffiti features "surreally hirsute cocks". I find a DIY gun manual by a man named J.W Wang who uses his own name as a synonym for killing. I internalise a thought called 'The Wang Way' and from then on Cascade does the same. Much and more of Zero Parades' overall tone occupies the polarity between Cascade's default spy-speak for death, 'zeroed out', and her newfound love for the word 'wanged'.

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Jank @jank.cool · 14/05/2026

An incremental game that's also a platformer. www.jank.cool/an-increment...

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Hit Points by Nathan Brown @hitpoints.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

New one about record shopping in the 90s, how intentional discovery used to be, how algorithms have taken that away from us and why we should probably start putting in the work again. (It's about games eventually, promise) Accidentally made it free. Oops! Go: newsletter.hitpoints.co/374-blue-note/

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adamatomic @adamatomic.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

my last 20 games!! 98% positive on steam :O store.steampowered.com/app/4044300/...

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