Episode 55- How to let your imagination drive your career with Sean Smillie of Planet Fiction Studios
What is it you really love doing? I mean really love doing to the point that you could do it for days on end and not get tired of it? What if you could turn that into your full time job and career? What if you could tell all of the nay-sayers and folks telling you that you can’t do that, you have no training or formal education, “No! This is what I love to do. This is what I am awesome at, and I am going to do what it takes to follow my dreams!”
Sean Smillie grew up in Rossland, letting his imagination run wild, being inspired by the beautiful surroundings and awesome skiing, snowboarding and mountain biking that surrounded him. At an early age he fell in love with comics, books and movies, anything that fit with his imagination, creating new worlds, fantasies and adventure. When he ran out of things to read he began writing his own stories and continuations of comics and stories he loved. That love of writing, untameable imagination and love for gaming stayed with him into his adult life. With perhaps a stroke of luck or just a recognized opportunity he was introduced to a big time gaming company through a snowboarding buddy and ended up getting hired on as a game tester. It was a unique and bold move thereafter that led to the rise of a prolific writing career, developing and designing big time video game titles. Now coming full circle he has moved back to Rossland and launched his own creative design / writing studio to push out more of his ideas, and is also teaching the next generation of writers from his home in the Kootenays.
I sat down with Sean in the AZcreative studio in Rossland to hear his amazing tale.
This episode graciously supported by Austin Engineering