thread: 2005-04-27 : The Open House 4: Handshaking
On 2005-04-28, Andy K wrote:
Hey all, I'm Andy Kitkowski, and I've actually read everyone's intro post here. Y'all some interesting folk.
I'm a Small-Press indie games bitch. They've always been on the radar, but the gestalt shift was at like 3AM one weekend when I got through most of Sorcerer and Sword. Blew my fucking mind. I'm not always paying attention to what others are Working On, but when they're Done and Published, more often than not it's in my hands within 2-4 weeks. I game with a group of friends, who i am converting to the System Does Matter and "player participation" agenda via little tricks I picked up in other games (or just playing those other games outright, like PTA). I have a second gaming group of more aquaintences than buddies, who game to experiement with the new cool small-press stuff out there.
Since 1998 I've been on the pot, but still haven't shat - In terms of "Coming up with a game plan to design something, and not following through". So instead, I get involved with various Small Press RPG support projects: The Indie RPG Awards were born for no better reason than the fact that I was 2 pages into my Future Sorcerer Supplement, my mind started to wander, and I decided to procrastinate by engaging in a huge awards effort. Recently, I've taken on the 24 Hour RPG Project site (www.24hourrpg.com), and the upcoming Game Chef project (www.game-chef.com). I also helped Tim K auf "The Mountain Witch" with his Japanese stuff, and help others with little bits of their games: Reading, playtesting, etc.
I should really shit or get off that pot, but I've still got some Ideas. I just need to sit down and work them out.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, for those who want the game), I have a huge translation effort underway- Translating the excellent Tenra Bansho Zero game (www.tenra-rpg.com) into English and publishing it. Next month is "Get the final lap of translation done so that we can move on to editing and added text". If you're here, let me just say: This game will really knock your fucking socks off. I'm only the translator, I'm not even the game's designer, and I'm saying that. It really does turn the gaming table into a stage.
Personally, I now work (just started last month) as a technical engineer at NetApp, making sure that you keep getting your Yahoo Email. My wife Orie Hiromachi is a graphic designer (www.kneko.com) who just got a contract to design an online Hiroshima/Atomic Bomb Museum. We have two lovely cats with FIV, and one cute-as-hell kitten. I have a gaming blog on Livejournal ("zigguratbuilder"), and a LifeBlog at www.kitkowski.com . I live in Cary, NC. This year, I'm going to GenCon, and in the fall I'm going to Japan for two weeks. Time to get my Hot Springs on.
And I fucking love sushi.
-Andy
