iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

If I had a nickel for every show I'm currently watching where someone mentions playing New York Times games I'd have two nickels!!!!!!

Gilles from Belgian De Mol S14 in a BTS video playing NYT Games

Kumail from Taskmaster S21 revealing he still plays Wordle

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

if I had a nickel for every show I'm currently watching where contestants try to complete ridiculous challenges and one of them happens to be dressed like a minion I'd have two nickels

Adam and Ben in Taiwan from S17 of Jet Lag: The Game

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

ok huge kudos to PokeCryptic I'm absolutely obsessed www.pokecryptic.com

One playing Smash or Pass is critiquing hot & unattractive faces (5)

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

The synth at the beginning of Such Great Heights is really good

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie is such a triumph, please watch it in theaters if only to experience one of the funniest movie jokes of all time, involving a packed theater, alongside a packed theater

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Newsletter's back!! Here are my top 10 games of 2025, plus a bunch of other favorites. open.substack.com/pub/robertvi...

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

AND if you want to do this too you can have my 2026 design!! I just printed this out at my local FedEx at 24x36". drive.google.com/file/d/1Jt00...

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

In 2025 I put up a full year calendar that I designed and this is how it turned out at the end of the year! I really enjoyed having the analog ritual and love looking at the entirety of it. I'm excited to do it again in 2026!!!

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

I have been wearing this shirt all day (purchased from a game of Tee K.O. two years ago) and only just now realized the insane coincidence

A shirt from a game of Tee K.O. with a badly drawn picture of a Poliwhirl and the text "I'll have what she's having".

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Happy Bandcamp Friday!! Did you know you can buy a physical CD of my boy band album, Our Time To Shine? There's a foldout poster in it and everything. robertvinluan.bandcamp.com/album/our-ti...

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Losing it at this tiny tiny disclaimer on the very first screen of YouTube Recap 2025

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Ah didn't realize the pic cropped out Geeta's shoes

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

As other people have said, the correct answer is King from Tekken 3, but here are some contenders imo

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

More puns: since it's set in an underwater homage to NYC, of course there's a SUBway. And here are a bunch of unused neighborhoods I didn't have a chance to get into the manual somewhere: Puffer East Side West Krillage Shellsea Ashoreia Clown(fish) Heights Eelmhurst Red Hook (lol)

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Also—the underwater setting is a rich vein of puns, the title included. These two didn't make it into the manual but I had to make these logos.

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Another big part is the fashion. Originally it wasn't the focus but I think since the game is so much about the intersection of NYC, hip-hop, and the 00s, I really couldn't avoid it. J is specifically wearing Timbs and I feel like that is a crucial part of their character design.

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

In Old School, Dr Shark is a character that represents the exploitation of the music industry and is actually the antagonist. He used to be a huge rapper and producer but now he's the CEO of a streaming company, Tsunami (That reference wrote itself).

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Narratively, I thought it'd be fun to tell a story that is the opposite of how games about musicians usually go. Instead of rising to stardom playing bigger and bigger venues, what if it was a game about realizing the value of your local community?

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

The cast is my favorite part and was so much fun to design. Originally it was going to be more about one main character and maybe 2 best friends, but when I was designing all the characters I just got so attached to them that I just decided to make it about a whole crew.

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

My video game holy grail is a rhythm game where you're actually making music. So a huge part of Old School is this interface where you take songs and sample them and chop them and make new beats. The game then generates a chart based off this that you can perform to, with rap/vocal accompaniment.

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Old School is a PS1-era rhythm game about a crew of aspiring hip-hop musicians in the underwater town of New Shark City. Obviously Parappa The Rapper is its biggest inspiration but I also wanted specifically to reference some of my biggest loves: NYC, 00s fashion, and music production.

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

This past weekend I participated in @boshis.place 's Game Manual Jam to make a manual for a speculative video game. I'm really pleased with how this came out so I want to talk about it—here's my submission: Old School! (thread!)

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

One more Halloween costume. TROBBIO!!! 🌪️🌪️🌪️ #Hollowknight #silksong

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

One thing about being in a boy band is that there was no world where this wasn't going to be my Halloween costume this year

The band RV (Robby, RJ, Rob, Bobby, and Roberto) dressed up as the members of the Saja Boys (Baby, Mystery, Jinu, Abby, and Romance) from KPop Demon Hunters

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Yoooooo this character in Silksong is Filipino

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Happy #silksong day! Here's a picture I drew for Inktober back in 2021

An illustration of a person in a Hornet costume helping a child in a Knight costume keep their balance.

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Here's an announcement trailer for my new game, Sticky Hands! Play it at the link below 👐🙂

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

NEW GAME ANNOUNCEMENT! There aren't enough 2-player-1-phone games so I made one. It's called Sticky Hands and it's about slapping cards faster than your friends. Play it at this link! 👇👇 sticky-hands.com

Sticky Hands: A new game from Robert Vinluan

A rules screen explains when you should slap:
-slap when a 5 appears
-slap when two cards in a row are spades
-slap when two cards in a row are hearts

A gameplay screen shows the scores at 30 to 10. The King of Spades is on the top of the pile.

Player 2 has slapped and successfully earned 10 points.

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

This is the best description I could come up with for how it feels to play Blue Prince

You know how in animation, especially older cartoons, like Scooby Doo for example, you can tell the difference between the static painted background and the objects that have to animate which are inevitably colored or drawn differently? And how that can spoil the surprise a little bit, like you can tell the monster is going to jump out of THAT locker because of the way it looks? Blue Prince is the polar opposite of that. It’s a game where every single thing in the house seems like a painted background: static set dressing that doesn’t move and can’t be interacted with. But then you’ll solve a puzzle and an entire wall that has been there the whole time will open up and reveal something entirely new—and then you realize that could happen with literally anything, and it does.

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

I don't know when playing card layouts were standardized but I had a lot of fun making these which I find to be a lot more pleasing

The rank 3-10 cards in a deck of playing cards with different layouts for the design of the card centers

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

April Newsletter is out! -Loco Motive is very funny and very well animated -De Mol is reality TV done right -I hit credits in Blue Prince but that's barely anything robertvinluan.substack.com/p/are-we-the...

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

Google Photos automatically made this from a photo I took of watching Conclave at a friend's on Friday. More like "New Pope Out" am I right

Isabella Rossellini's character from Conclave cut out and composited on top of a bokeh background

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Sequel to this post. We first launched digital Spelling Bee on May 9th, 2018. Today is Beeatrice's 7th birthday! 🥳

Beeatrice, the mascot of Spelling Bee, wears a little birthday hat.

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

If I had a nickel for every time one of my favorite TV shows had a 2025 season premiere called "One Year Later" I'd have two nickels

Andor Season 2 Episode 1: One Year Later

Dropout's Game Changer Season 2 Episode 1: One Year Later

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Good joke: Spectrum was down at home so I was forced to go into the office today and this is the ad I got on the subway

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Important question: What do you call these things?

Children's toys from the 90's (maybe?), shaped like a hand on a string (the whole thing is one piece though) that are squishy and stretchy and usually a little bit sticky. You fling the hand at things and then they stick to them.

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Newsletter drops tomorrow so here's your last chance to get on the leaderboard! The meta question: What do you get when you complete all the lyrics?

Complete the lyrics:
1. Third Eye Blind: “I wish you would step back from that ___ my friend”
2. Semisonic: “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s ___ "
3. Prince: “This is what it sounds like when ____ cry”
4. Nat King Cole: “___, is for the way you look at me”
5. Billie Eilish: “I’m the bad guy...___.”

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Sometimes my job is literally to make little hats and I think that's neat

The Spelling Bee on April 1st 2025 has Beeatrice wearing a Jester's hat

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

The Wizards collabs folks are freaking COOKING secretlair.wizards.com/us/en/produc...

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

February newsletter is about japanese logic puzzles, rhythm games, and shoot em ups. A healthy and varied diet, I'd say robertvinluan.substack.com/p/6-are-we-p...

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Robert Vinluan @robertvinluan.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

My favorite part of my newsletter is the trivia bit! If you can get this right I'll put your name in the Leaderboard of the next issue (which drops this weekend btw) What do all 4 of these characters have in common?

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