Steven-Elliot Altman


Steven-Elliot Altman is an American author, graphic novelist, video game writer-director, producer, screenwriter and the current Chief Executive Officer of a software company called Social Impulse that services the videogame industry.

Novels

An avid gamer and award-winning writer, Altman was mentored in social game metrics by industry rock star David Perry. Altman’s first game writing assignment was reportedly in 1996, writing the CD Rom DC Universe for Judson Rosebush in a seedy back room of Carnegie Hall. Altman was later enticed to join Acclaim Games by former Activision co-Founder and Chairman Howard Marks, initially as the writer for the game 9Dragons and later as Game Director/Director of Marketing. After assessing Altman’s business acumen and marketing experience, Marks gave Altman full directorial control of Acclaim’s download division. Altman also wrote Facebook social games for Acclaim, including Mafia Payoff, and oversaw the hiring, training and content of all writers on all games, including Ponystars, MyDivaDoll and Tribal Nations, while managing staff in multiple global offices. In May 2010, Acclaim was purchased by Playdom, the fourth largest Social Game company, which in turn was acquired by Disney. Altman was offered the opportunity to come on board with Playdom, but declined in lieu of the offer to become an advisory board member of a software company called Manumatix to help develop the popular Bamboo software platform for the branded entertainment space, and eventually found Socialtype LLC, and transform Bamboo to serve the videogame space. Altman has also served as the Vice-Chairman elect of the steering committee of the Videogame Division of the Writers Guild of America since 2008, and has served as a Finalist Judge for their Video Game Awards since 2009. In 2013, Altman wrote and narrative designed the popular Facebook/IOS story-driven Hidden Object game Pearl's Peril for Berlin-based Wooga, currently the fifth biggest video game producer.

Authorial field

Altman is a bestselling Science Fiction author, an outlet that he self-proclaims, "allows him to infuse his passion for technology into envisioning how social networks will transform the society of tomorrow". Altman’s novels include Captain America is Dead, Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires, Batman: Fear Itself, The Killswitch Review, The Irregulars and Deprivers. His writing has inspired illustrations and cover art from artists such as Edward Gorey, John Jude Palencar and Ben Templesmith.

Honors and awards