Krish Raghav
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krishraghav.bsky.social
Krish Raghav
@krishraghav.bsky.social
580 followers 440 following 140 posts
Bullshit comic book artist. Chaoyang Trap stagehand. Working on a comic book about Beijing underground music // krishcat.com
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krishraghav.bsky.social
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
November 13, 2025 at 3:14 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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
October 31, 2025 at 7:11 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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!!"
October 11, 2025 at 12:18 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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.
October 2, 2025 at 6:32 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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.
September 27, 2025 at 6:41 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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"
September 21, 2025 at 8:53 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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."
September 19, 2025 at 12:06 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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/...
September 16, 2025 at 8:03 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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
September 9, 2025 at 2:03 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
🎉 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.
September 9, 2025 at 2:03 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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.
August 3, 2025 at 9:47 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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.
July 9, 2025 at 10:37 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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."
July 7, 2025 at 4:37 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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 :)
May 25, 2025 at 10:22 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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
April 18, 2025 at 7:28 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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
April 11, 2025 at 9:56 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
Dutch trash collection should be a videogame. It is already a videogame.
April 2, 2025 at 6:32 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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."
March 28, 2025 at 3:41 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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
March 23, 2025 at 10:50 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
Here's a trailer if you need more convincing! The music is by the incredible Simon Frank (simonfrank.bandcamp.com)
March 23, 2025 at 10:50 PM
krishraghav.bsky.social
It's a national obsession and many crimes are committed in its name
A packet of "vegetarian satay schnitzel" from a Dutch supermarket brand
March 21, 2025 at 10:25 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
Thank you! Drew this in 2020/2021. Full comic here:
A comic book page about a man who redistributes shared bikes.
March 2, 2025 at 9:41 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
Absolute must-play
A Screenshot from alienmelon's "Individualism in the Dead-Internet Age" - text on screen reads "When convenience becomes a hook got consolidation, who really benefits?" A panel from my old comic, Bullshit Jobs in China. A man who collects stray shared bikes and returns them to app-determined parking spots says "sometimes efficiency is just deflected exploitation" A panel from my old comic, Bullshit Jobs in China. A man who collects stray shared bikes and returns them to app-determined parking spots says "convenience is a scam"
March 2, 2025 at 7:43 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
"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."
February 21, 2025 at 9:17 AM
krishraghav.bsky.social
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.
February 4, 2025 at 10:53 AM