iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 10/06/2026

I am very excited and deeply moved to announce that I've been accepted as a member of the European Film Academy. This community has welcomed me with open arms, and I can't wait to see what lies ahead in the years to come. #europeanfilmacademy

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 02/06/2026

It's been a while, so #promosky for Pride. I'm Joonatan (Jonathan), a queer audhd pop culture critic and autism awareness advocate. I've written for both films and games, essays on the art of adaptation, short fiction, and comics. Find me on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic and regionfree.net

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 01/06/2026

I have a cat called Spock. As a kitten, Spock lost his mom too early, so he struggles with a lot of stuff. He's also a dummy. Today, he pooped himself pretty badly, and he came to tell me about it by rubbing said butt on my clothes. Spock has now had a bath, and I'm the enemy. Life of a cat owner.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 16/05/2026

Aaron Pierre is right there. Everyone go watch Rebel Ridge and you'll see it too.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 06/05/2026

Shovel Knight is one of my all-time favorites. I'm so excited for Mina the Hollower!

The poster art for Mina the Hollower showcases the release date of May 29th, 2026.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 03/05/2026

"Yks kakkaa, kaks kakkaa!" (This is probably funny only to Finns, and even that's debatable.)

Don Draper pitching a Finnish biowaste solution of chicken poop.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 01/05/2026

"I saved Latin, what did you ever do?" Happy birthday to one of my favorite filmmakers, Wes Anderson.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 12/04/2026

As with all of these things, these choices might and will change tomorrow.

Many games on yet another arbitrary best of listing.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 10/04/2026

I spent a good month testing out the Early Access version of The Last Caretaker, the new survival-crafting game from Channel37. I love its narrative ambitions and the immense sci-fi themes it evokes; I'm a little less enthusiastic about the grind. Link: regionfree.net/preview-the-... #indiegame

key art for the game The Last Caretaker, featuring the titular caretaker looking not-at-all ominous standing before two massive generators.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 29/03/2026

It's always a source they can't remember but of course will quote with all confidence, and it's always this huge sign that the problem isn't the shows, it's them. Insane how fast Weir is determined to wreck all the good will his work has accrued. www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/p...

Quote from the variety article saying: "Yeah, I saw a... I forgot who it was - I wish I could remember what it was who said it, some analyst - he said something like:'All modern science fiction TV shows and movies have been heavily influenced by the original Star Trek - except for the current batch of Star Trek shows," Weir said.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 23/03/2026

It's not that I write reviews for stuff like this, but oh man is it a thrill to see a quote from my review on the official poster for a joyous action romp like this one!

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 22/03/2026

Excuse me, just one more thing. You said you used GenAI to explore tone and style for your game, but this is a prequel/sequel to your own MMO with over a decade of material already in place, stuff that you also reuse in this title. So I'm confused, what were you exploring?

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 10/03/2026

#WhatAGameDevLooksLike Not at GDC, but usually at an even or two every year. I'm Jonathan, journalist, writer, and narrative designer when hired. I've written dialogue, lore, missions, and tutorials since the Windows Phone era. I also write comics and consult on films and autism awareness.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 26/02/2026

"Friends" is a beloved American sitcom that aired from 1994 to 2004, following six young adults—Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe—living in New York City. The show explores their friendships, romances, careers, and personal growth over ten seasons.

The cast of Deadwood posing in period attire of the late wild west era.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 23/02/2026

Platforming games I love that aren't Mario or Sonic 💜

Key art for the game Glyph featuring a little bronze ball in a cotton candy colored landscape.

Key art for the game A Hat in Time, featuring an evil-looking man in a red coat and chef's clothing sneering after our two heroes, who are chasing a glowing hourglass.

Key art for Gunpoint, featuring a pixel art noir style with a man in an overcoat standing against a silhouetted skyline.

Key art for Celeste, featuring a red-headed hero reaching out towards a flying creature as four other figures watch from below.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 21/02/2026

LLM curation at its finest. I miss the days of rental stores where you could actually get an opinion of a person.

The Netflix selection screen with the text "because you liked the Hunger Games" followed by an image for Eat Pray Love.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 17/02/2026

I was going to play some Overwatch, instead I was met with this, which prevented me from even getting into the main menu, and just uninstalled the whole thing immediately. Sorry, Blizzard, but there is an endless supply of things to play that don't demand this level of spying and babysitting.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 11/02/2026

Lots of good ones on that list! I fondly remember attending the world premiere of 2012 in Los Angeles. It's still one of my all-time favorites in sheer scale alone. Other great ones:

The poster for The Day the Earth Caught Fire

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 10/02/2026

Weird, but consistently named sequel, I'll give them that.

Jet Li posing on the poster for Romeo Must Die

An animated cyborg with a human eye peaking out from under the armor in the poster for Romeo is a Dead Man

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 09/02/2026

This is Jim, aka James T. Jerk. He is here to cleanse your timeline.

A derpy cat named James T. Jerk sits on the edge of a table.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 07/02/2026

I refuse to be impolite. I lose sleep over the thought that I've been unkind to someone. It's like people forget the basic truth. You always do the right thing.

Da Mayor saying always do the right thing.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 12/01/2026

Rory looks a lot like Jim, who is a similarly aggressive cuddler.

A floofy cat called Jim snoozing on his back with his paws perched in front of him.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 07/01/2026

I reviewed 70 games in 2025 in both Finnish and English. Indies, AAA, passion projects, and service titles, all got a moment to shine. If you're looking for someone to review stuff in 2026, don't hesitate to reach out. #gaming #gamereviews

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 29/12/2025

Manifesting goals for 2026. I got to do some of the things I wanted this year. Let's keep that momentum going. Next year I will: - Write for RogerEbert.com - Serve in a FIPRESCI jury - Write a new comic book - Write for a new game project Here's to new opportunities and friends in 2026.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 28/12/2025

Jim might pose well for photos, but don't let him fool you. He's actually a giant himbo.

A very pretty but very dumb cat called James T. Jerk

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 25/12/2025

My favorite films of 2025. A full top 50 coming to the site early next week. It was a good year for cinema. #filmsky

A collage of photos with posters for the films:
Sinners
Train Dreams
The Furious
Blue Moon
Wake Up Dead Man
The History of Sound
Sîrat
The Testament of Ann Lee
Alpha
Frankenstein
A House of Dynamite
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 21/12/2025

Tired: using genAI to "express ideas you don't know how to express" Wired: using Minecraft to draft out the entire layout to your film so everyone can have a visual outline of what you're doing. Source: regionfree.net/night-vision...

We used visual planning to make the script work because it was in real-time. You could get disoriented really quickly if you didn't have a strong sense of geography because decisions you make in the first minutes find the characters all in the wrong places for the things you'll need them to do at minute 60.
So it was planned like that, and then we built it in Minecraft.
I'm sorry, Minecraft?
Wheatley: Andy's son built it, in fact.
I sketched it out and he filled it in, but it was so that we were all logged on and we could walk around the space together and talk on the phone as we were doing it. That way people got an idea of what the geography was.
After that, we got cardboard boxes which were the same dimensions as the Minecraft cubes and we when we got to the location we put those boxes in where the set was going to be. That way we could look at all the angles and all the action blocking to make sure that it all worked, so there was a series of checks to make sure we didn't fuck it up.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 19/12/2025

The #1 movie when you were 10 years old is how your 2026 is going to go. Sigh, you know what, fine.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 18/12/2025

The head of Warhorse just casually saying all of his programmers are easily replaceable by AI is certainly a fucking take. Imagine hearing something like this from your employer after shipping a critically acclaimed game the same year.

Vávra concluded that the growth of generative Al use in the industry is inevitable, and that people need to get on board with it.

"Programmers have a problem. The work of most of them will probably not be needed very soon," he wrote. "We will have software architects, and Al will do the programming. Very soon. Resisting this is probably as meaningful as resisting the use of sewing machines in the textile industry. Or going back to riding on horses while we could use planes and cars. How many horse breeders lost their jobs thanks to Henry Ford?

"Who and how will recognize if the game was programmed by a human or Al? And who would want to spend months of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars when the same thing could be achieved in minutes for free?

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 16/12/2025

Well, that's tacky and gross. No matter how Larian wants to spin this, all it says is fuck concept artists and writers, because clearly who needs them in development.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 12/12/2025

Plus a couple of embargoed ones. It has been a rough couple of weeks.

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Joonatan Itkonen ➡️ TIFF @regionfree.net · 10/12/2025

So, this happened. Tune in tomorrow for all kinds of fun on my #thegameawards co-stream. @thegameawards.com

The poster for the game awards featuring the famous award statue and the text watch my official co-stream.

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