Matthew John Costello (born 1948) is an Irish-American writer specializing in the genres of

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

, and

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

. His articles have appeared in publications including the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' and ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''. He has scripted Trilobyte's bestselling CD-ROM interactive dramas ''

The 7th Guest ''The 7th Guest'' is an interactive movie puzzle adventure game, produced by Trilobyte and originally released by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in April 1993. It is one of the first computer video games to initially be released only on CD-R ...

'' and its sequel '' The 11th Hour'', as well as many other video games.

Career

Costello continued

Dana Lombardy Dana Lombardy is a game designer who has worked primarily on board games. Career Dana Lombardy designed the award-winning ''Streets of Stalingrad'' board wargame, published in 1979 with three separate editions since its first release. He is also ...

's "Gaming" column on ''

Asimov's Science Fiction ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine edited by Sheila Williams and published by Dell Magazines, which is owned by Penny Press. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac ...

'' beginning in April 1986, which renamed to "Neat Stuff" in April 1989 and he continued until June 1990. Along with F. Paul Wilson, Costello created and scripted ''

FTL Newsfeed ''FTL Newsfeed'', shown on the Sci-Fi Channel, was the channel FTL's first news feed and channel. The micro-series format gave viewers 30-second snippets of fictitious news bulletins that were supposed to have come from 150 years in the future. ...

'', which ran daily on the Sci-Fi Channel from 1992 to 1996. In 2005 his novel ''

Beneath Still Waters ''Beneath Still Waters'' () is a 2005 horror film directed by Brian Yuzna. It stars Michael McKell, Raquel Meroño and Charlotte Salt. It is based on a novel by Matthew Costello. Plot Studying under a disciple of Aleister Crowley, the leade ...

'' was adapted into a film by director

Brian Yuzna Brian Yuzna is an American film producer, director, and writer. He is best known for his work in the science fiction and horror film genres. Yuzna began his career as a producer for several films by director Stuart Gordon, such as ''Re-Animator ...

. Costello also wrote ''Island of the Skull'' (

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first Paperback#Mass market paperback, mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and ...

), an original prequel to

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy (2012–2014), both of which ar ...

's film, ''

King Kong King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...

''. Along with his adult genres, he has created works for children. His works include the book series ''The Kids of Einstein Elementary'' (Scholastic), and ''Magic Everywhere'' (Random House), as well as games including ''Aladdin's Mathquest'' (

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

), ''A Cartoon History of the Universe'' (Putnam), and two math games based on the hit

PBS Kids PBS Kids (stylized as PBS KIDS) is the branding used for nationally distributed children's programming carried by the U.S. public television network PBS. The brand encompasses a daytime block of children's programming carried daily by most PBS ...

show ''

Cyberchase ''Cyberchase'' is an animated series, animated science fantasy children's television series that airs on PBS Kids. The series centers around three children from Earth: Jackie, Matt and Inez, who are brought into Cyberspace, a digital universe, i ...

''. He is the designer of role-playing and board games, including ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'', '' Call of Cthulhu'', ''

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

'', ''

Lone Wolf & Cub is a Japanese manga series created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. It was serialized in Futabasha's manga magazine ''Weekly Manga Action'' from September 1970 to April 1976, with its chapters collected in 28 ' volumes. The ...

'', and many others. Recently, Costello worked on ''

Rage Rage may refer to: * Rage (emotion), an intense form of anger Games * Rage (collectible card game), a collectible card game * Rage (trick-taking card game), a commercial variant of the card game Oh Hell * ''Rage'' (video game), a 2011 first- ...

'', a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

action-adventure game 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 ...

, and wrote its novelization, as well as a new game for

Eidos Eidos may refer to: * Eidos (philosophy), a Greek term meaning "form" "essence", "type" or "species" * Eidos Interactive, a British video game publisher ** SCi Entertainment Group, its parent, which was briefly renamed Eidos Ltd. ** Eidos Hungary ...

with Neil Richards and Swedish developer

Avalanche Studios Avalanche Studios Group is a Swedish video game developer and publisher based in Stockholm. It is a parent company that includes Avalanche Studios, Expansive Worlds, and Systemic Reaction. Founded by Linus Blomberg and Christofer Sundberg in M ...

Books

Video games

Awards

Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel The Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel is an award presented by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in Horror fiction, horror writing for novels. Winners and nominees The following are the winners and nominees. Finalists ...

nominee (1993): ''Homecoming'' *

Prometheus Award The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. American author and activist L. Neil Smith established the Best Novel category for the award in 1979; however, it was not award ...

Best Novel nominee (1999): ''Masque''

References

External links

* * * *
Matthew J. Costello
a
Demian's Gamebook Web Page

Shane Christopher
(pseudonym) at LC Authorities, 1 record, an
at WorldCat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Costello, Matthew J. 1948 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American science fiction writers Id Software people American role-playing designers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Date of birth missing (living people)