faculty

Mikael D. Sebag (BA, MA, MA, MS) is a Ph.D. candidate in Informatics at the University of California, Irvine where he studies the history and design of magic systems in fantasy games. He has presented his game studies research at numerous academic conferences including the History of Games conference, Generation Analog, and the conferences of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), the Society for Literature, Sciences, and the Arts (SLSA), and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). He has published articles in peer-reviewed venues including Gamevironments, Revenant, and Games & Culture.

As a game designer, he co-created the tabletop roleplaying game Hellguard: Curse of Caina from Granite Glyph Publishing Co. and served as a historical consultant for Historica Arcanum: Echoes of Renaissance from Metis Creative. He has taught previously at the University of California, Irvine and currently serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the Interactive Media and Games Division of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (USC).

Courses

Fall 2026

• GA105 Game Design 1