Exclusive interview with Project Blue Book: Hidden Mysteries writer and best-selling author Steven-Elliot Altman
SUMMARY
Project Blue Book: Hidden Mysteries is the official hidden object adventure game based on HISTORY’s hit drama series PROJECT BLUE BOOK, created by David O'Leary, and executive produced by Academy Award and Golden Globe® winner Robert Zemeckis. The series explores the historical Top Secret investigations into UFOs conducted by the U.S. Air Force between 1952 and 1969.
The game's story is written by bestselling science-fiction author and award-winning game writer Steven-Elliot Altman, best known for similar social games like PEARL’S PERIL and ANCIENT ALIENS. WATM had the opportunity to sit down with Altman to talk about the incredible project.
1. As a best-selling science-fiction writer, what first attracted you to the topic of UFOs?
Funny you asked that, Ruddy. Because prior to 2015 my science fiction stories had nothing to do with UFOs or extraterrestrials at all. I wrote about fictitious medical epidemics, future technologies and artificial intelligence. My UFO journey started when I was abducted into writing ANCIENT ALIENS: THE GAME for the History Channel. I came to the project with an open mind on the subject, leaning believer. I thought statistically speaking there must be other intelligent life out there. had no real opinion on whether or not we’d been visited. However, during my research phase for writing that game I encountered lots of unanswered questions, and spoke with some very credible witnesses. I’ve been weaving those lingering questions into Project Blue Book: Hidden Mysteries’ storyline. I love the series, so it’s been a huge honor to help usher the story and characters into the gaming platform.
2. The game makes the player want to rewatch the series, what was your favorite moment in the show?
Yes, we purposefully adapted the first two cases you can play in the game based on the first two episodes of the series, which were written by the game’s creator, David O’Leary and his co-showrunner Sean Jablonski. This way, fans of the show who began playing would feel they were being integrated into a world they already loved as a fellow investigator who was there from the start. While new players who had not seen the series would enter the world through a similar door. I personally love every moment Mr. Unseen appears onscreen to throw Hynek a breadcrumb. But my favorite moment is the UFOs buzzing The Washington Monument.
3. There is so much material to continue the series from the unclassified documents of the real Project Blue Book. What other cases would you include?
Fortunately, I got to answer that exact question in the game. We diverged from the series in the game’s third case, entitled “The Montanna Skyrockets” using the same process the series writers used. We took an actual, declassified Project Blue Book Case about The Mariana UFO Incident (August 1950, Great Falls, Montana). which the series had not yet dramatized, and then assigned Dr. Hynek, Captain Quinn, and the players themselves on that investigation. That case involved a UFO flyover over a baseball game in progress, and may have been the first UFO incident caught on film. If the series continues, I’d like to see them tackle the Tunguska incident in the former Soviet Union. And if the series doesn’t continue, we hope that we can keep dramatizing more of those real-life cases in-game.
4. Have you seen an UFO or experienced a paranormal activity?
In short, yes. Keep in mind that U.F.O. means Unidentified Flying Object (a term which was coined by Dr. Hynek, by the way), not necessarily an alien space craft. Quite recently I did see something in the sky over the desert near Los Angeles that defied everything I know about aerodynamics, so… I guess I’ve moved into the strong-lean-toward-believer column.
5. What else have you been up to?
I’m also excited about a vampire novel published on June 1 called ZEN IN THE ART OF SLAYING VAMPIRES. Much the same way I researched UFOs for the game based on actual reports I did a lot of research on the root lore of vampirism. The result was my story of a college couple who are studying meditation and end up getting murdered by Vampires.
She dies but he comes back and manages to use the meditation technique to quench his bloodlust. Then he heads out in the world to figure out how it all came to pass and decide if he’s better off dead. Everyone who has read it claims it’s my best work. So, I hope some of the players who like my writing in the game will decide to check the book out. It’s available on Amazon.
SHARE