Design Engineering Narrative

Michael
Wahba

I create worlds, design systems, and build the tools that bring them to life. Across indie releases, triple-A studios, and academia, I work at the intersection of craft and technology, where the art challenges the technology and technology inspires the art.

Michael Wahba

About Me

I'm a engineer, designer, and writer who builds across the full stack of game development, from the first sentence of a design document to the last merge before ship.

My work spans indie and triple-A: I was Lead Writer on Atrio: The Dark Wild, a commercially-released survival game on Steam, and Creative Director on Egregore, a USC MFA thesis game selected for the Advanced Games Program and exhibited at the Game Devs of Color Expo. As XR Technical Lead on The Immersive Archive, the project won Best in Show at AWE 2024 and was exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2023. At Maxis (Electronic Arts), I build the developer toolchains that empower Sims creators.

Press & Media

Circuit Stream interview feature

Circuit Stream

August 2025

From Biology to Game Design Excellence — an interview about my journey into game development and what it takes to build across disciplines.

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iGEM blog feature

iGEM Blog

November 2023

From SynBio to Game Design — how competing in the iGEM synthetic biology competition shaped my path to an MFA in game design.

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The Logic Magazine feature

The Logic Magazine

July 2021

Top Prospects: Leading Innovators from the Class of 2021 — recognized among Canada's most promising emerging tech and creative talent.

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CBC News interview

CBC News

November 2020

Creative Writing Student Tapped to Moonlight as Video Game Writer — on being recruited by a professional studio while still in school.

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Wahba's Workshop

1-on-1 game dev coaching — design, engineering, and breaking into the industry.

I offer private coaching sessions for aspiring game developers and career switchers. Whether you want to ship your first game, debug a Blueprint, get a portfolio review, or land your first industry role — let's work on it together. First consult is free.

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