Katherine Anna Kang (born December 15, 1970) is an American video game designer.

Career

In 2000, as founder and CEO of Fountainhead Entertainment, she championed machinima and became known as one of machinima's biggest supporters. Through Fountainhead Entertainment, she produced, wrote, and directed a variety of machinima pieces and co-founded the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences. In ''Machinima For Dummies'', the machinima piece ''Anna'' is mentioned as “… one of the top ten list of every prominent machinima maker in the world.” While at Fountainhead Entertainment, Kang produced and designed mobile games for

id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...

. Mobile game titles '' Doom RPG'' and the '' Orcs & Elves'' series were heralded as some of the best mobile games of their time. ''Orcs & Elves'' was eventually ported to the Nintendo DS with Kang producing and designing. In 2000, Kang wrote, directed, and produced the documentary Gamers. The documentary included interviews from video gaming luminaries, with a brief focus on history and predictive trends. The documentary was release in limited distribution throughout Europe and the US in 2001. Formerly, Kang was the Director of Business Development for

where she worked on ''

Quake III Arena ''Quake III Arena'' is a 1999 multiplayer-focused first-person shooter developed by id Software. The third installment of the ''Quake'' series, ''Arena'' differs from previous games by excluding a story-based single-player mode and focusing prima ...

'' and various mission packs and ''

Quake II ''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the ''Quake'' series, but not a direct sequel to '' Quake''. The game's storyline is continued in its ...

'' ports. In 2008, she returned to id Software as President of id Mobile where she produced and designed ''

Wolfenstein RPG ''Wolfenstein RPG'' is a first-person shooter and role-playing video game developed by id Software and Fountainhead Entertainment, released in September 2008 for mobile phones and in May 2009 for iOS. Plot While the original ''Wolfenstein 3D'' ...

'' and ''

Doom II RPG ''Doom II RPG'' is a first-person shooter role-playing video game developed and published by id Software. It is the sequel to ''Doom RPG''. It was released for mobile phones on November 23, 2009 and for iPhones on February 8, 2010. It uses the ...

''. She also produced the iPhone-only game '' Doom Resurrection''. A 2014 article listed her as a "former director of business development at id Software", following her husband's departure from id in 2013. Kang is also co-founder of

Armadillo Aerospace Armadillo Aerospace was an aerospace startup company based in Mesquite, Texas. Its initial goal was to build a crewed suborbital spacecraft capable of space tourism, and it had also stated long-term ambitions of orbital spaceflight. The company ...

Personal life

Kang married computer programmer and businessman John Carmack on January 5, 2000. In August 2004, Kang gave birth to their first child. Their second child was born in November 2009. Due to her involvement with id Software and John Carmack, she was mentioned in the final chapters of ''

Masters of Doom ''Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture'' is a 2003 book by David Kushner about id Software and its influence on popular culture, focusing chiefly on the video-game company's co-founders John Carmack and John ...

''. The couple divorced in 2021.

Awards

Through Fountainhead Entertainment, Kang has won the following awards:
AMAS Best Technical Achievement
for ''Anna''
AMAS Best Direction
for ''In The Waiting Line''

for ''Doom RPG''
1UP.com Mobile Game of the Year
for ''Doom RPG''

for ''Doom RPG''
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Best Cell Game
for ''Orcs & Elves''

for ''Orcs & Elves''

for ''Orcs & Elves''
Leipzig Game Convention Best Mobile Game
for ''Orcs & Elves''

Machinima

Fountainhead's machinima include the award-winning short ''

Anna Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century) * Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 12 ...

''; ''In The Waiting Line'', aired on MTV; ''Game Over'', aired on UPN; and ''Sidrial'' released via Fileplanet.

Games

* ''

'' (1997), for Microsoft Windows,

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

, developed by

, published by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

* '' Kingpin: Life of Crime'' (1999), for Microsoft Windows, Linux Interplay Entertainment Corp * ''

'' (1999), for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, developed by id Software, published by Activision * '' Doom RPG'' (2005), developed by id Software, published by JAMDAT * '' Orcs & Elves'' (2006), for mobile phone, developed by id Software, published by EA * ''Orcs & Elves'' (2007), for Nintendo DS, developed by id Software, published by

EA Mobile EA Mobile Inc. is an American video game development studio of the publisher Electronic Arts (EA) for mobile platforms. The studio's primary business is producing games for mobile phones. It has also produced other entertainment-related softwa ...

* '' Orcs & Elves 2'' (2007), developed by id Software, published by EA Mobile * ''

'' (2008), for mobile phone, by id Software, published by EA Mobile * '' Doom Resurrection'' (2009), for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

, developed by id Software * '' Doom 2 RPG'' (2010), for mobile phone, by id Software

References

External links

Gamasutra: Fountainhead's Kang on Orcs&ElvesCNN Money article on MachinimaMachinima ''Anna'' video on YouTube created by Katherine Anna Kang
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kang, Katherine Anna 1970 births Living people American aerospace businesspeople American film producers American technology chief executives American women chief executives Place of birth missing (living people) Id Software people Machinima American women company founders American company founders American women film producers 21st-century American women Women video game designers