The moving finger rants

Yesterday was machinimaguruhughhancock's 41st birthday. Unfortunately, we've been unable to celebrate properly, since Hugh dropped dead suddenly in early February this year.

Typical Hugh, defying norms, always one step ahead of everyone else.

I've worked with Hugh on countless projects since 2004 and I was proud to call him a colleague as well as a friend. When we first met, at the auditions for Bloodspell, he was running around trying to develop the techniques that would allow one to make a full-length feature film in one's basement. He still took the time out to teach me method acting, which I didn't believe in at the time, but it sounded like fun, as it always did. I've since developed those skills professionally and I use them to this day.

We last met in person at the launch party for Left Hand Path, a project with which he'd revolutionized the field of roomscale VR. I'd been privileged to play the Angel of Death in the Samael section, which had been a great deal of fun, as it always was. At the party, we talked about his next big project. He was going to bring the concept of manipulable objects with weight and heft into the VR world, and I was going to help him with the runes. All unpaid of course, but it would have been fun, as it always was.

A few weeks after that, we'd agreed to meet up, get drunk, and talk about technomagick. I wanted to hear his argument about the potential for pushing back the boundaries of Clarke's Third Law. And he had a gig lined up for me. He was going to pass me the client's details when we met up. It sounded like fun, as it always did. A few days after that, he was at a conference in London and randomly dropped dead.

A few weeks after that was the funeral, held in Bournemouth, and a few weeks after that we held a memorial event in Edinburgh. At the event, I got drunker than I'd expected and realized that Hugh's death had affected me in ways I hadn't acknowledged. I still managed to give a memorial speech that wasn't completely terrible, but I didn't get to say ten per cent of the things I wanted to say. I suspect I'll never get to say all of the things I wanted to say about Hugh.

In lieu of words, the irrepressible Johnnie Ingram has released this video, which pays tribute to just a few of the remarkable aspects of Hugh's career. It's worth watching. I'm not even in it and it's still worth watching.

At the end of the funeral, in Bournemouth, as we all filed out of the chapel, I laid one hand on the coffin and said: Hugh, I know this isn't the last time you're going to surprise me.

It hasn't been. He continues to surprise me and he will continue to do so for a long time yet.

• We’ve Lost One Of Our Own: Hugh Hancock (Rest In Peace)
• Obituary: Hugh Russell Paul Hancock, "Machinima" founder and Virtual Reality pioneer
• https://www.pcinvasion.com/machinima-strange-company-founder-hugh-hancock-passes-away/

It's traditional at times like this to say requiescat in pacem, but I'm not going to. Hugh, wherever you are right now, I hope that there are paradigms in dire need of subversion, and I know you will be subverting them with glee. And I hope it's fun, because with you involved, it always is.

Happy birthday, old friend.