Just call me Avril!

so, i've been writing stories since i was a kid, screenplays too...and okay, now video games. but song lyrics? not quite. as an in-house game writer, however, you're sometimes asked to take on projects that may not necessarily be your cup of tea.

believe it or not, i've co-written original lyrics for songs in a few different video games, including American Popstar: Road to Celebrity (DSi) and Gangstar (iPhone). last week, i finished more song lyrics for an upcoming driving game. i'll talk more about that once it's released.

in the meantime, here's a verse or two from "Oh Mama," one of the songs i wrote for American Popstar. my direction? think "cry me a river" by justin timberlake...


Why were you
Holding back on me
About daddy?
You knew I had a dream
But you kept the reality
Away from me, oh.

Now you say
My goal is in my blood
Running through my veins.
You knew I had a dream.
Mama, you could make me scream.

Oh mama...oh mama...
Oh mama...oh mama...you are my family.

Bet you didn't think
This day would come
Smashing down, no.
But don't you realize
My love for you
Will never change, oh?

ok, i won't bore you with anymore. :-P hey, i never said it was shakespeare! you can hear the whole song in the game which is available on Nintendo's DSi.

The Best Video Game Stories Ever!

last spring, i was asked to teach a video game writing class at my undergraduate alma mater, american university in washington, d.c. unfortunately, enrollment for the class was too low and as such, it was canceled. :-( as i was preparing to teach, however, i came across a great article featured over at gamesradar about the best video game stories ever. any guesses?

Read the whole article here.

My Blog's New Look!

yay! checkie it out, peeps!

my blog is now a pretty darn good match to my website (www.tammyblythe.com). we're still tweaking the header a bit, and by "we" i really mean my expert designer!

a big shout-out to miriam dwinell of churn butter design who's busy at work helping me update my website, among other things. she's sweet as punch and has a great eye for all things design. i really can't say enough about her, so just check out her company and hire her! ;-)

http://www.churnbutterdesign.com/

Move over Cooking Mama!

let's get something straight. i am totally not a chef. i'm actually a pretty darn good baker, but that's as far as my skills go. which is why i admittedly cringed when i was assigned to write the first ever 3D cooking game called Pocket Chef. it's available now on the App store for the iPod and iPod touch.


unfortunately, there's no "host" in the game so i wasn't able to come up with all those funny cooking jokes that i've been saving up in my repertoire. instead, i was asked to clean up the tutorials quite a bit and write the recipes themselves. i didn't get to choose which recipes were used, but i did my best to keep them simple and sweet.

here's a trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS4UplCgDYs

also, just got word from hq that they're running a contest! lucky entrants have the chance of winning an ipod touch and a pocket chef apron. details about it can be found here.

My Hero is Pissed!

let me explain.

my boss got a computer virus at work. he backs files up in a drive that we writers share. eventually, i got the computer virus. then, i spread it to half our office. this ridiculously annoying virus has plagued me for the past 2 weeks. our IT department has been working furiously to remove it and i've been moved to 2 different temporary computers since. one had no internet and no microsoft office. the 2nd had no internet and no sound...but eventually got both. mind you, most of my files were not backed up because guess what? our back up drive at work has been down for the past 3 months. somehow, through this entire mess, the IT department was blaming me for my issues or just making me feel guilty in general. in their defense, they've been very stressed by all the viruses going around. still, this insanity has made me lose my mind a few times at work which, frankly, is not like me at all. long story even longer-- that virus spread to my ipod and has now infected my personal computer too.

anyway, the point of this post is to explain how it's affected my work, not my mood. every writer is influenced by various things while they're writing and it's been a struggle to continue writing my VERY URGENT project when all my months of communication about the game were lost and my files were missing for 2 weeks.

the project is super uber confidential so i can't say much about it. what i will say is that it's based on a comic book and my comic book hero is pissed. he's angry at all the other characters (even his buddies) and as a result- he keeps yelling at people and trying to fight them. at the end of the day, i review the stuff i've been writing and laugh at how unbelievably bitter my so-called hero is. he has a massive chip on his metallic shoulder. and then, yes, i spend the last few hours of my day rewriting him so that he's not so angry at the world. after all, what does he have to be so angry about? he doesn't have a computer virus!

Website Linkage

at the moment, this blog is sorta blah. but stay tuned because soon it will be linked to my website! or rather, my website will be linked to this blog. whatever, you get the point. my website designer is going to help me match all the colors and stuff. yay for designers!

And On Another Note...

a friend recently sent me a job posting for a video game writing lead at a certain video game company that shall go unnamed. it seemed like a dream job, until i got to one line within the job description:

* Zero desire to parlay your game writing experience into a film, TV show, novel &c.

what a weird thing to include in a job description! i don't know a single writer that doesn't fantasize about other mediums...do you?