Mitch Sabbagh

Award-Winning Writer and Narrative Designer Halifax, NS

Wrangling words and venturing into the creative unknown since 2015. Currently looking for work.

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Award-winning writer and narrative designer with eight years of experience authoring featured articles, essays, fiction, and game content. Especially skilled in writing characters, locations, item/mission descriptions, and dialog for games.

Self-disciplined, open-minded, and humble team player who's eager to learn, research, and brainstorm ideas to complete tasks effectively. Deadline-driven, but not at the cost of excellence.

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Recently served as a narrative designer on Sovereign Syndicate (Crimson Herring Studios) and Hunter's Moon (Zugalu). Formerly wrote and proofread content for Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (Frogwares). One year of experience as a QA tester at Bethesda Softworks. Was credited on Skyrim: Special Edition, The Evil Within 2, and Prey: Mooncrash. Also worked as an editorial fiction assistant at Qu Literary Magazine for two years.

Gold Award recipient in the Narrative Review Competition at the 2017 Game Developers Conference, Narrative Award recipient (shared with other Frogwares writers and designers) at the 2023 Central & Eastern European Game Awards, and was interviewed by The Telegraph about my fish farming visual novel “Streams of Nurture.”

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Recommendations:

  • "What a pleasure to work with Mitch. I could always rely on him to respond quickly, receive an assignment and execute, and be very communicative about all aspects of the dev cycle. When I needed feedback or something drafted swiftly, he was my go-to employee. His rapid improvement in technical abilities in Gem, our cloud-based dialogue management tool, and Unity, made him an indispensable member of the team." - Nicholas Popkey, Narrative Lead at Crimson Herring Studios

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  • "I recommend Michel for his commitment, kindness, and work ethic. Throughout a challenging production, Michel was always available and proactive. He proposed constructive solutions and even though we were working remotely, he made sure not to stay away. He has great attention to detail, a real passion for writing, and a keen knowledge of the language. He is also someone who listens and accepts criticism to move forward together. These are qualities guaranteed to help him grow." - Aurelie Ludot, Game Producer at Frogwares

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  • "Mitch was fantastic to work with; very welcoming and generous with his help and expertise when I was brought on board. Mitch is meticulous, knowledgeable, has a great work ethic and excellent communication skills. He would absolutely be an asset to any team." - Jessica Lucas, Narrative Designer at Crimson Herring Studios

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  • "Michel was very pleasant to work with, especially because of his attention to detail and great time management. I also cannot avoid mentioning his dedication and passion for creating games - he always had useful ideas and showed a lot of initiative during production. He's also good at receiving feedback even if it required a wide bunch of corrections to be done." - Antonina Melnykova, Lead Narrative Designer at Frogwares

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  • "Michel (Mitch) is a hard worker like few I have met over my few years in the games industry. His minute attention to detail, love for our craft, and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge make him one of the best, enthusiastic writers I could ever have asked for to have joined my team over at Cathnoquey." - Miguel Guerreiro Lourenço, Lead Narrative Designer at Frenzoo

Elsewhere

Experience

Narrative Designer and Quality Assurance Tester

Zugalu Entertainment

4/2025 – 1/2026 • Halifax, NS

THRIVE: HEAVY LIES THE CROWN

• Playtested the city management game to uncover issues related to gameplay and audiovisual performance.

HUNTER'S MOON: A SOVEREIGN SYNDICATE ADVENTURE

• Authored character profiles, card descriptions, and encounter texts for the roguelike deckbuilding role-playing game using Google Sheets and Unity.

• Implemented writing and gameplay rewards for in-game encounters using Unity.

• Did full playthroughs to identify and fix audiovisual, gameplay, and writing bugs recorded in HacknPlan.

• Updated build with tweaks to game assets using Git and wrote patch notes detailing what changed.

• Collaborated with developers in all departments to brainstorm/review design features and narrative content.

Localization QA Tester

Crimson Herring Studios

11/2024 – 2/2025 • Halifax, NS

• Did full playthroughs of the computer role-playing game Sovereign Syndicate to look for issues in the title's Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish, and Russian localizations.

• Catalogued issues on Trello and kept track of changes to the game build to review bug fixes on time.

• Reviewed bodies of in-game text and compared them to localization spreadsheets to make sure that no typos are present or any words are missing.

Narrative Designer and Quality Assurance Tester

Crimson Herring Studios

12/2022 – 11/2023 • Montreal, Canada

• Designed story flow in Figma for some chapters in the computer role-playing game Sovereign Syndicate.

• Authored character dialog and descriptions for loading screens and in-game items using Backlight Gem.

• Implemented writing in Unity and scripted cutscenes for gameplay sequences and story moments.

• Did full playthroughs to identify and fix audiovisual, gameplay, and writing bugs recorded in Trello.

• Updated build with tweaks to game assets using Git and wrote patch notes detailing what changed.

• Produced story content guides and mentored other narrative designers on dialog and cutscene scripting.

Writer and Proofreader

Frogwares

5/29/2022 – 11/30/2022 • Montreal, Canada

• Penned and reviewed dialog lines and comments uttered by characters.

• Wrote text for marketing material, in-game lore/objects, and art assets.

• Offered feedback to narrative and design teams for improving dialog and gameplay sequences.

• Researched historical and linguistic material to enhance authenticity of characters, objects, and events.

• Game received the Best Narrative award at the 2023 Central and Eastern European Game Awards.

Contributing Writer

Southern Review of Books

May 2020 Charlotte, NC

Penned reviews and interviews. Most recent ones include:

  • Drowned Town (Jayne Moore Waldrop, 2021)

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  • Palm Beach (Mary Adkins, 2021)

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  • The Blue Line Down (Maris Lawyer, 2021)

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  • The Big Door Prize (M.O. Walsh, 2021 [Paperback])

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  • The Big Empty (Loren C. Steffy, 2021)

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  • How Lucky (Will Leitch, 2021)
Editorial Fiction Assistant

Qu Literary Magazine

01/15/2020 Charlotte, NC

Reviewed submissions (short stories, novel excerpts, flash fiction, etc.) assigned by genre editors for Issues #12 - 15.

Scored each piece with regard to characterization, pacing, thematic potency, and writing style.

Penned comments and feedback sheets that I relayed to writers whose submissions were rejected.

QA Tester

Bethesda Softworks

July 5, 2017 – May 2, 2018 • Rockville, MD

Responsible for running assigned test requests and verifying bug fixes.

Worked on and was credited in The Evil Within 2, the sequel to Tango Gameworks' 2014 survival horror romp, and Prey: Mooncrash, the roguelike expansion pack for Arkane Studios' 2017 immersive sim.

Also assisted in the development of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Quake Champions, Prey, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.

QA Intern

Bethesda Softworks

May 16, 2016 – July 8, 2016 • Rockville, MD

Ran assigned test requests, tested and verified bug fixes, and identified game issues for Skyrim Special Edition.

Intern

Booz & Company

January 2010 – February 2010 • Dubai

Received training on targeted data-bases and research tools covering Thomson Reuters, Informa, and the World Bank

Worked as an Analyst in the Research Department directly supporting client engagements across industries (Telecoms, Energy, Financial Services, Public Sector)

Education

Queens University of Charlotte

Master of Fine Arts

08/26/2019 – 1/15/2022 • Charlotte, NC

Creative Writing – Fiction

Provided line edits, margin comments, and critiques for workshop manuscripts.

Partook in seminars that addressed publishing trends and literary techniques in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenwriting.

Read books assigned for specific seminars and wrote response papers that addressed the quality of said books in terms of writing style and thematic potency.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

BS in Interactive Media & Game Development

2013 – 2017 • Worcester, MA

GPA: 3.84/4.00, May 2017. Graduated with High Distinction.

Penned an academic paper on Japanese-influenced first-person shooters for my IQP (Interactive Qualifying Project) during my junior year (Fall 2015 - Spring 2016). Was praised by Monolith Productions, the studio behind Shogo, for the thesis. https://twitter.com/MonolithDev/status/1043907847052902401

Authored a narrative review paper on Thief: The Dark Project for the 2017 GDC Narrative Review Competition during my senior year (Fall 2016 - Spring 2017) and was placed in the Gold Category.

Wrote 38 game design articles on Game Developer, 20 of which were featured.

Published an article on Shogo: Mobile Armor Division in both the Worcester Journal and Kill Screen as a rising senior (Summer 2016).

Skills

Writing Storytelling Organization Skills Constructive Feedback Time Management Teamwork Microsoft Office Suite Follow-through Skills Research Project Management Game Design Final Draft Adobe CC Creation Kit Quality Assurance Twine Ren'Py Hansoft Backlight Gem Trello Unity Github Unreal Engine

Specialties

Creative Writing Narrative Design Screenwriting Worldbuilding Character Design Proofreading Editing Game Development

Awards

2025

Honorable Mention, L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest (1st Quarter for Vol. 42) [link]

2025

Narrative Game Award, Alberta Film and Television Awards (For the work the Crimson Herring narrative team and I did on Sovereign Syndicate.)

2023

Narrative Award, Central & Eastern European Game Awards (For the work the Frogwares narrative team and I did on Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened.) [link]

2021

Article of the Month - June 2021, The Artifice (My article "Artistic Merit in Video Games" was voted as one of the standout Spring 2021 articles for the Artifice.) [link]

2017

Featured in Telegraph Culture – Article on Eco-Friendly Games, The Telegraph (Was featured in a Telegraph article that covered eco-friendly video games and how they tackled environmental issues.) [link]

2017

Featured in Video Game Deep Cuts Newsletter, Simon Carless (Gamasutra) (My article, “Mind Games: Dissecting Get Even’s Narrative-Mechanics Synergy”, got featured on Simon Carless’s “Video Game Deep Cuts” list.) [link]

2017

Canadian Game Studies Association Conference essay speech, Canadian Game Studies Association (Had my thesis on Japanese-influenced first-person shooters accepted and presented for the 2017 Canadian Game Studies Association Conference) [link]

2017

Kranich Prize – Honorable Mention, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Received an honorable mention as part of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Kranich Prize.) [link]

2017

Game Narrative Review Competition – Gold Winner, GDC Narrative Summit Review Board (I’ve been placed in the Gold Category for the 2017 iteration of the GDC Narrative Review Competition as a result of my Thief analysis paper.) [link]

2013 – 2016

Dean’s List, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Appeared on the Dean’s List for six consecutive semesters.) [link]