iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

S-Bahns spotted. Almost in Berlin!

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Pulling out of Hannover, last stop before Berlin. On time! Something about the old-school carriages made me feel closer to the route and to others. People shared food, started conversations. Felt more social and open than normal IC trains, which are very flight-like.

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Byebye Train Charter, hello "Train Pool"

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Locomotive change at Bad Bentheim as we cross into Germany. 20 min stop has become a really nice unplanned social gathering on the platform.

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Crossing the IJssel river into Deventer. On time!

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Train is running on an Alstom 1700, used by the NS in the 90s, repainted here for "Train Charter". Wondering if it'll change at Bad Bentheim on the German border.

And we're off, on time! 7.5 hours to Berlin Gesundbrunnen (Not Hauptbahnhof), but that works for me since it's closer to A MAZE. - also this train was 40% the cost of the regular IC Berlijn.

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Disappointed at the lack of cute thumbnail for this train on the NS app :(

The GoVolta train to Berlin on the NS app - it shows just a yellow-blue NS locomotive with no carriages.

Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Let's GoVolta! My "booking" that was a "reservation" is now a "boarding pass" after "check-in"

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My game "Don't Get Your Hopes Up" is shortlisted for the 2025-26 New Media Writing Prize✨ It's in both the main award + "Social Good" categor. Grateful to be in such amazing company. If you haven't yet, you can play it for free here: krishraghav.itch.io/dont-get-you...

A screenshot of an email showing the shortlisted works for the 2025-26 New Media Writing Prize. The entry "Don't Get Your Hopes Up" by Krish Raghav is highlighted in red.

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Join us in Amsterdam for @untitledgamesevent.bsky.social #2 this Sunday 15 Feb! Feat. talks from the creators of Plum Road Tea Dream, Benches and card game LINKS. Games and conversations, free and BYOB. Bring all your friends. ❤️ All the details here: buttondown.com/untitledgame...

A mosaic of screenshots, from card game LINKS and How a Body Sounds, to Benches and Plum Road Tea Dream

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out for the trial edition of [Untitled Games Event] Amsterdam! Amazing turnout, great chats, and we have a stacked slate of speakers and games lined up for next time. Save the date: Sun Feb 15 for Edition #2, and watch this space for newsletter + social media links ❤️

A group of 30ish people, some standing others sitting on low benches, listen to a panel of speakers seated on a couch in the corner.

A group of people watch a screen where a game, The Sea Between, is being demo-ed

A group of people seated around a television screen listen to Krish present

A long studio space dotted with gaming stations where groups of people are chatting, conversing, and playing games.

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Excited to announce a trial run of [Untitled Games Event], a new Amsterdam-based space for experimental games and playable arts 👾 This will be a monthly 'book club' of sorts for games and conversations about play, inspired by @molleindustria.org + others' LikeLike. Help us spread the word!

A poster for [Untitled Games Event] on Sunday the 18th, in Amsterdam!

Sunday 18 Jan 2026
5-7PM

Tussen de Bogen 46
1013JB Amsterdam
(canal side through the gate)

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Sudden vivid memory of the night we launched, hitting 888 followers @tfa.ng. Miss chaoyang trap, miss everyone ❤️❤️

A phone showing the Substack dashboard, with 888 subscribers

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I also made and released a videogame - Don't Get Your Hopes Up - which went to place I would have never expected. Thank you to everyone who played it, shared it, and shaped it. ❤️ Free on Itch / Steam here: store.steampowered.com/app/3795490/... krishraghav.itch.io/dont-get-you...

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and finally, favourite music of 2025: loved all the local Amsterdam heroes - Glinted Records, Nusantara Beat, and forever grateful to Le Guess Who festival for bringing over Snakeskin, BITOI, Smote and many other artists that have become enduring faves.

Krish's favourite music of 2025:
BITOI - Sirkulu
Snakeskin - We Live in Sand
Ida-Urd - Duvet
Tiberius b - Neverything
TAMTAM - Where they Dwell
glinted01
Simon Frank - Victim of a New Age
Ogre You Asshole - Nature and Computers
Ganser - Animal Hospital
Sara Udon - II = II
Smote - Songs from the Free House
Nusantara Beat

Favourite books of 2025. @dominicpettman.bsky.social and Eugene Thacker's "Sad Planets" was a revelation, "More and More and More" should be compulsory reading to understand our energy systems, @dayofthemutants.bsky.social's "More Bugs" really lingered with me, and I love every Sofia Samatar book.

Krish's favourite books of 2025:
Dominic Pettman and Eugene Thacker - Sad Planets
Helen Phillips - Hum
Jean-Baptiste Fressoz - More and More and More
qntm - There is not Antimemetics Division
Sofia Samatar - The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Rebecca K. Reilly - Greta and Valdin
Em Reed - More Bugs
Paz Pardo - Shamshine Blind
Adam Shatz - The Rebel's Clinic
Kyla Wazana Tompkins - Deviant Matter

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Favourite films of 2025. I was drawn to films that were made WITH community rather than pointed at them, films that felt like gifts to people you love - "Endless Cookie", "Letters from Wolf Street", "Fiume o Morte!", and works of archival repair like "No Magic for Socialists" and "KOREAN DREAM".

Krish's favourite films of 2025:
On Falling
No Magic for Socialists
Un Gran Casino
Fiume o Morte!
Do You Love Me
Endless Cookie
Removal of the Eye
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
The Messiah
Letters from Wolf Street
KOREAM DREAM: The Nama-Jinheung Mixtape
Boys go to Jupiter

Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

A thread of games, books, films, music and other things I enjoyed this year:

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1. Grounded (En Tierra) stunning film on the DC-3, a ruggedly reliable pre-WW2 plane still in use in the Colombian Amazon to connect remote communities. We see the culture of repair and acts of care that keep the DC3s running / these communities functioning, but also rage at abandonment boxd.it/Yrms

A man on a red buggy watches a DC-3 plane coming in to land on a forest clearing acting as improvised runway. The setting: the Colombian Amazon

Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Genuinely in disbelief that Don't Get Your Hopes Up is an official 2025 @indiegameawards.gg nominee!! I'm honoured to be alongside my personal game of the year @wednesdays-game.bsky.social in the category "Emotional Impact" ❤️

A promotional banner revealing that the game Don't Get Your Hopes Up is an official nominee for the 2025 Indie Game Awards

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Got my hopes up and am excited to reveal that I will be in Cape Town for @playtopia.bsky.social!! I am so excited to meet everyone and do everything. Say hi if you'll be around, and send me all your best Cape Town / Western Cape recs!

A beautiful, colourful laurel says "Official Selection, Playtopia 2025" for the game Don't Get Your Hopes Up

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Replaying Anthology of the Killer to prepare for a zine fair this weekend

A screenshot from Anthology of the Killer episode 5. Two horror nurses are reading a zine and commenting that it is. "Truly heinous document" on account of mentions of "Cannibal Blood Feast" and "More Knife Murders". The protagonist BB replies, distraught: "Those are BANDS!!! It's called a scene report!!"

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Please consider "Don't Get Your Hopes Up" for your spooky season coverage! A free 40 min game about the horrors of the Amsterdam housing market, with elements of cosmic and psychological horror. A disquieting, demented experience that is all-too-real. Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3795490/...

A screenshot from the game Don't Get Your Hopes Up shows the protagonists texting each other about a cursed apartment

Review on Steam for the game Don't Get Your Hopes Up, which reads: "Simultaneously Kafkaesque yet dismally grounded depiction of the horrors of the housing market, which very succinctly puts into words the same despair I've personally been overwhelmed by when increasingly lowering my standards browsing available rentals on Willow."

Review on Steam for Don't Get Your Hopes Up, whivh reads: "Very atmospheric, short experience. The endless basements house is my favorite. Rentable apartments have a liminal space vibe anyways, so why not go with the extreme version of it?"

A poster for the game Don't Get Your Hopes Up, showcasing its selection for the Game Devs of Color 2025 expo.

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

I love that a significant source of traffic to Don't Get Your Hopes Up is, presumably, people dropping the link in their workplace group chats.

A screenshot showing sources of traffic to the game Don't Get Your Hopes Up on itch.io. the sources indicate incoming hits from Microsoft Teams and Slack apps.

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Aaaah thank you so much for playing (and your very kind review ❤️). I actually have this guy on a t-shirt, albeit in white and with a rare misprint too close to the collar haha

A t-shirt from Amsterdam with a cartoon drawing of a Eurasian Coot, with the text "meerkoet minder politie", a play on words that roughly translates to "more coots, less police"

Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Nic makes a good point about the moustache-twirling villainy of some characters in the game. BUT the housing market here is so fucked that I actually had to tone the villainy down. Almost all ridiculous lines in the game are DIRECT QUOTES, including everything Prof. Dr. Landlady says in the prologue

Text from an article about the game "Don't Get Your Hopes Up". It reads: "I think I've probably already written about my thoughts on subtlety when trying to explore an issue before (e.g I don't think it's necessary. Sometimes you want three power chords and a chanted chorus). This said, characters being this definitionally villainous in a "You'll never achieve your perfectly reasonable dreams, wayward heroes!" way does make me wonder where the line is. I bring this up because I think it's fair to describe at least one of the parallel journeys I took with the game as me challenging it to overcome a certain automatic weariness I have for projects that are very distinctly "about" something in a polemic sense. It doesn't take much though, honestly. Be righteous - just be charming about it. Luckily, this thing is charming as hell."

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Don't Get Your Hopes Up is out now! Free on Steam + @itch.io A 40-60 minute experience about the horror of the Amsterdam housing market, and that feeling of home that's always just beyond reach. A mix of fiction, non-fiction, and social commentary. 🔗: store.steampowered.com/app/3795490/...

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Also deeply humbled to reveal that the game is an official selection for the 2025 @gdocexpo.com. Being a part GDoC is a dream - thank you @aprilsoetarman.bsky.social for encouraging me to apply, and to @sfpc-study.bsky.social, where the idea for Hopes took shape. <3

A poster for the game "Don't Get Your Hopes Up", with a laurel showcasing its selection for the 2025 Game Devs of Color Expo

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

🎉 Don't Get Your Hopes Up is out Tue Sep 16! A short game about housing shortage and horror in architecture. A wayward history of Amsterdam that has evaded archival capture. A weird, disquieting, experimental non-fiction piece. Free on Steam / PWYW on itch: store.steampowered.com/app/3795490/...

A poster for the videogame "Don't Get Your Hopes Up", revealing a release date of September 16, 2025. The game will be free to play on Steam and itch.

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Doing a small playtest for my upcoming game about the Amsterdam housing crisis: Sat 16 Aug, 7pm onwards at Electric Shadows Amsterdam. Come for games, aloo tikki and 凉拌杏鲍菇. Stay for an experimental workshop on making non-fiction / documentary games! Just DM me to RSVP ❤️

A poster for a playtest for an upcoming game about the Amsterdam housing crisis called Don't Get Your Hopes Up. Saturday 16 Aug, 7pm onwards at Electric Shadows Amsterdam: Lauriergracht 116 D2. There will be a game making workshop (covering Bitsy, Downpour, and Ink) and drinks/snacks.

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

I'm briefly demo-ing my game, "Don't Get Your Hopes Up", at a book-club event in Post Office Amsterdam next week! Thu the 17th, 7:30pm. Come on down if you're around (free, byob), and get a freshly baked build to take home! tally.so/r/3yb4xx?fbc...

A poster for a "bookclub turned lifestyle discussion" event at Post Office Amsterdam, on Thu 17 July 7:30pm. The videogame Don't Get Your Hopes Up will be demo-ed, alongside a discussion of the novels Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, and Things by Georges Perec.

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Incredible sentence from Robert Macfarlane's "Is a River Alive?" (spoiler: it is)

A paragraph from Robert Macfarlane's "Is a River Alive?". It reads:

"We walk Kotturpuram together. Seen through Yuvan, Sridevi and Mithul’s eyes, I begin to realize, this little slice of woodland, sandwiched between a roaring road and a dying river, bustles with life. A Burmese lynx spider waits in its hunting pose: a lethal assassin, legs bristled as blackthorn boughs. A leaf-cutter bee snips an intricate doily out of a banana frond. A lacewing nymph has created a collaged carapace out of the bodies of beheaded ants and snippets of snail shells, before gluing its folk-horror assemblage to the bark of a tree and retiring inside it to consider its options."

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

If you like cardamom buns, highly recommend baking a batch with korarima / Ethiopian cardamom! It's nuttier, tastier and more intense.

A batch of cardamom buns with korarima or Ethiopian cardamom. One has been eaten :)

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Sublime @warringtonruncorn.com set at Roadburn tonight. Hoping "Industrial Growth" gets a release soon!

The artist Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan playing on stage at the music festival Roadburn 2025

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

One of my favourite art micro niches is "fucked up cubist guitars"

Detail from Juan Gris' "The Guitar on the Table", 1913

Detail from José Moreno Villa's "Still Life", 1927

Detail from Salvador Dali's "Still Life", 1926

Detail from Juan Gris' "Violin and Guitar", 1913

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Dutch trash collection should be a videogame. It is already a videogame.

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Replugging for the weekend! I'd love for you all to try this 20-min short game about trying to find an apartment in Amsterdam: krishraghav.itch.io/dont-get-you...

A Screenshot from the game "Don't Get Your Hopes Up", by Krish Raghav. Text on screen reads, "Disclaimer: the following is a work of fiction. Amsterdam does not exist."

A Screenshot from the game "Don't Get Your Hopes Up", by Krish Raghav. The image shows a cold man looking at his phone, and the phone screen, on left, has 3 messages from a person named Yan: "omg, what is this place. This is the most cursed apartment I've seen yet."

A Screenshot from the game "Don't Get Your Hopes Up", by Krish Raghav. The images show, from right, a grey heron, a bottle of beer with the text "Butcher's Tears", and a beer tap with a Palestinian flag on it

A Screenshot from the game "Don't Get Your Hopes Up", by Krish Raghav. The image shows an excerpt from a comic, detailing the weirdness of Amsterdam's architecture. Text reads: "pile driving is a crucial, desperate practice - needed for stability on its peaty, wet soil. Underneath the city is a petrified forest of stilts, suspended on swamp and sand. A doomed, sinking biosphere of wood, beam, and cement."

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Here's an early Tumblr review that made me very emotional 😭

Don't Get Your Hopes Up is a good game because not only is it good commentary on the (many, worldwide) housing crisis (especially how those intersect with racism and the climate crisis), it also understands that yes, I probably would rent a flat that contained an exact replica of itself in dollhouse form, complete with a little doll me, and inside that replica another replica of another flat, another future, spiralling in on itself forever. Housing market's in shambles isn't it

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Here's a trailer if you need more convincing! The music is by the incredible Simon Frank (simonfrank.bandcamp.com)

Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

It's a national obsession and many crimes are committed in its name

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Thank you! Drew this in 2020/2021. Full comic here:

A comic book page about a man who redistributes shared bikes.

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

"An upsetting, watery betrayal." (From Tim Anderson's wonderful Hokkaido cookbook, submitted for @lifewinning.com's consideration)

Screenshot from the book Hokkaido, by Tim Anderson, which reads, under the title Sapporo Miso Ramen:

"Miso ramen is criminally misunderstood. Here in the UK, anyway, a lot of ‘miso ramen’ is just ordinary miso soup with noodles plonked into it. I suppose that is, technically, miso ramen. But it’s miso ramen in the same sense that instant coffee is coffee: an upsetting, watery betrayal."

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Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

5. TERMITE FEEDING SHOW Amazing costume drama + stop motion animation about two dancing termites feeding on a power cable, while a termite DJ plays piano ballads. Film of the year, give it all the awards.

Two costumed actors with beautiful orange/black termite masks and extravagant termite costumes dance around an actor in a black rubber suit meant to represent a power cable.

Krish Raghav @krishraghav.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

4. UN GRAN CASINO A beautiful rage directed at the monstrous Casinò di Campione, a puzzle the film approaches by solving AROUND the architectural abomination - advancing, surrounding, submerging. This really worked for me, not least because of an incredible @diegruppejapanik.bsky.social soundtrack.

A front view of the Casinò di Campione in Northern Italy, Europe's largest casino