Yesterday marked the second full year that I have been writing at Kotowari.org.  Since last year’s anniversary the site and I have taken quite a few steps forward.  Don’t believe me?  Here is a list of achievements, bullet-ed for your convenience:

• Attended E3 2009 and approved for E3 2010
• Had my first job interview for a game industry position
• Appeared as a guest on podcasts with PSNation and Amplified Gamers
• Started broadcasting a rather unique program on UStream
• Appear as co-host weekly on the Bit-Speak podcast

That’s quite a bit of activity in a year, if I maintain this level of momentum I should be the CEO of Square Enix in five years!

Yesterday’s celebration was pretty muted:  I played White Knight Chronicles until my head hurt, went to my boxing class, ate a pizza, and finished by watching The Shining mini-series with Sarah.  It was pretty lax but enjoyable just the same.

I definitely want to thank everyone who has in some way offered their support.  This includes Sarah, my maintenance person, Joel, my intrepid co-host, and all readers and commenters.  You guys have made me feel like my interests and dedication have a place on the internet.  I look forward to what the next year may bring and hope you’ll all be around to be a part of it.

Related Entries:
Kotowari 1 Year Anniversary Celebration

Roy housekeeping 7 comments

Last night, for a small audience, Nutgarden5 and I held a live streaming session of us playing Tekken 6 and discussing games.  It was rather spur of the moment, planned mostly by maintenance person Foxes and announced via twitter.  We used UStream and around 8 people showed up.

It was a lot of fun and I believe this is a good medium to combine posts with vlogs to provide more casual, up-to-date information.  Our vlogs tend to take a while to edit and we usually have to cut out some of the back-and-forth between NG5 and myself in the interest of space.  Well, no more!

Anyway, we’re planning a second session for tonight, this time from NG5’s place.  We are planning on starting around 9:00 PM until 10:00 PM EST.  You can find our UStream channel here.  I will of course announce it again on Twitter as well as any possible delays such as picking up a pizza, etc.

I realize a number of readers are not within the continental U.S. and probably don’t wanna wake up at 3 AM to listen to our nonsense.  I apologize for this, and we are currently looking into other options.

Future sessions will either be announced via Twitter or from the site.  Hope to see you there!

Roy housekeeping 2 comments

I decided to add a page on the site for anything submitted by readers.  You can find it here, or by checking under the “Article Collections” tab on the sidebar.  Currently we have a collection of photos of a Prinny parfait submitted by commenter Kabling, but I am hoping to add more in the future.

I appreciate any junk you guys wanna send my way.  Hopefully we will have some new videos of how to make more delicious game-themed foods in the near future.  We have ideas, I swear!  But you can send in other junk too, be creative, or don’t.

Roy housekeeping 1 comment

Sunday was the 1 year anniversary of Foxes kicking me into the warm glow of a computer where I slapped my clammy hands against a keyboard until coherent thoughts were expressed. Since then my life has changed for the better, and I believe it is all because of Kotowari.org and the people who support it.

One year ago I was studying abroad in Japan, which was a great experience. When I returned home, however, opportunities were few and far between. I spent about a month job-searching before finally settling on a crappy job taking insurance claims. The only positive thing about the job is that I can work on Kotowari. Despite my suffering, the site is flourishing and in addition to gaining a few followers, I have been allowed to preview games by some of my favorite publishers.

To celebrate the 1 year anniversary me and Foxes ate a “Blooming Onion.” It may seem like a truly bizarre way to celebrate anything and I am sure our waitress was a bit confused. The idea came up while reminiscing about childhood and seemed like the right thing to do. On an interesting side note, an entire Blooming Onion (dipping sauce included) contains over 2,000 calories. That’s fucking disgusting – but we ate it anyway.

After that I spent the night playing Disgaea 3 while largely ignoring the Oscars (other than Heath Ledger’s win).  I pretty much got the gist of things via twitter.  I know the quality is pretty horrible, but here is what my Asagi currently looks like:

She’s my Oscar winner!

Anyway here are some people I would like to thank for their support:

• Foxes: You saw some potential in my feverish obsession with video games and gave me an outlet for it.  Without that, none of this would be possible.  Also, your continued maintenance and care for the site keeps it presentable while costing me nothing – I only wish you could help more people with your gift!
• Nutgarden05: Your contribution encouraged me to put more of myself into the site, something which was frightening to me at first.  I think the humor that we believe we bring to the site has given it more appeal.  I look forward to making more videos, no matter how far off topic we may stray.
• Readers and Commenters: It’s nice to know that I am not just talking into a void and see that some people hear and possibly appreciate what goes on here.  I know some of you have been around for a long time, other not so long.  Whoever you are, thank you!
• Atlus and NIS America: Currently these are the publishers/distributors that have allowed me to preview games, a benefit I never imagined possible.  I really appreciate their consideration and trust in the site and look forward to previewing more titles in the future.

The combination of having a crappy job and loving my site so much has given me some goals for the future.  I have seen that my passion can possibly lead to a job and want to pursue this possibility.  It may be a long shot, but I would rather take a chance than waste away in a cubicle.  If anyone is in a similar situation, I encourage you to find the thing you like to do the most and do it the best that you can.

Roy housekeeping 15 comments

For the past few weeks I have been steadily toiling away on a new layout for Kotowari. I am proud to present its new layout just in time for the New Year.

I hadn’t originally planned to make a new layout, but being a freelance web designer with no other projects gave me ample time to try to buff up my portfolio and learn a few new things.

Also: Persona 4.  Watching Roy play it for the first time, I was so inspired by all the details put into the game’s interface that I quickly sketched a new layout on some paper while he played away.  The rounded corners along with the smooth and flat colors were elements that really jumped out at me and so I attempted to work them into the layout as well.

As you can see, there is now a dedicated section for our little videos.  This is so that Roy can continue posting quality content without drowning it in multiple video posts, which are often part of a series. Currently the newest video features a special high-strung Holiday vlog.

As for comments, you will notice that there is the addition of Gravatars.  You can get your own Gravatar, which is an icon that attaches itself to your e-mail address and pops up whenever you leave a comment on a Gravatar-enabled website.

There have been many other subtle changes in terms of organizing the side menu and all that, but probably the thing that Roy is most excited about is the addition of these crazy fresh smilies:

:x

I hope you all enjoy the new layout this year.  If you find any bugs or have issues with the website, definitely drop me a line.  Or on the other hand, if you like what you see and need some work done, let me know and you will be my BFF Forever (yeah, that’s Forever-Forever)!

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you all in 2009!

Sarah housekeeping 5 comments