HN Explorer

Show HN: My RIP Goodbye to my Co-Founder Carlos Icaza

261 points by ewmailing ↗ HN
Carlos Icaza was my co-founder at Lanica (an Appcelerator backed company). He passed away this summer unexpectedly. I wasn’t able to find the right words to say at the time. But since we spent so much in code, I decided I should code something in his memory instead.

Carlos was also the co-founder of the Corona SDK, and was also a lead/manager for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Flash before that. He also ran @codinginswift on Twitter with over 18,000 followers.

I finally finished my tribute and debuted it at the try! Swift conference in Tokyo last month at the end of my Swift on Android talk. That whole talk has just been publicly posted, but I wanted to make it more accessible so I’ve uploaded just the demo part to YouTube. (It also contains some fixes and improvements since the conference.)

Dance of the Fairies

https://youtu.be/ciphph8R4sU

It’s also inspired by an old Sierra On-Line game series, Quest for Glory. I wrote more about both Carlos and the demo on my blog.

http://playcontrol.net/ewing/jibberjabber/dance-of-the-fairi...

Thank you for reading/watching

23 comments

[ 15.1 ms ] story [ 139 ms ] thread
alanfalcon
I did not see news of Carlos's passing last year - very sad. He was always a helpful and hopeful voice in the Corona SDK community, and I thought very highly of him as I used his product to develop my first iOS game.

Thank you for sharing your tribute.

gorkemcetin
I feel sad. I was puzzled as I checked his twitter account some time ago since it wasn't updated. Now found out why. RIP Carlos.
matt4077
That's the cheesiest thing I've seen in a long time and also I'm crying now.

Thank you

salimmadjd
I was camping in Patagonia and away from internet. When I got back to civilization, I had a long group messenger thread that started from his stroke to his untimely death.

The morning after I learned about him passing away, I got up for sunrise photography, and we have a beautiful sunrise in Patagonia. I took the photos thinking of him and dedicating that photo to him. It was my way of saying goodbye.

http://imgur.com/a/DuFvn

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
Paul_Dessert
I met Carlos about 15 years ago while I was in school. He helped me with a project I was working on. Very helpful and friendly guy!

I also remember going to lunch with him as he was building Corona. His passion was contagious.

We hadn't talked for a while and this is the first time I'm hearing about him. Very sad. RIP Carlos.

wyldfire
Can someone help me clear out the cobwebs? I played the first couple of Hero's Quest / QFG games lo those many years ago.

But how specifically does this animation relate to the game? Was there a scene like this one? Or is it only the background illustration that's similar?

ewmailing
I wrote a little about the QFG1 vs. QFG5 inspirations in my blog entry.

But here is a video of the QFG5 dryad dance which will probably start making it clear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2dTxSCGeNE

And this is from QFG1, which is where the concept of dancing and personality of the fairies originate from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYpN8Uii6ng

I don't remember if that clip shows all the dialog, but they talk about how they rule the forest and make rainbows and "fairies just want to have fun". They like to dance and don't know if humans can dance.

This video does show you making them mad by walking into the fairy ring (because the human smell is impossible to get rid of). So they make you dance to your death as punishment.

The last fairy message at the end of the credits is also borrowed straight from the game. When you leave the screen in the game, a fairy will fly to you in the next screen to say a randomized good bye message before flying off.

balls187
RIP Carlos.

I wrote my first mobile app in Corona.

dccoolgai
Hope he's somewhere like Erana's Peace now. RIP to Carlos.
hyuuu
I met Carlos few years back, Corona was just starting and he invited me to the office to debug performance issues on the game i'm working on using Corona SDK. He was helpful and accommodative, even during his busy schedule, a nice person overall, you will be missed Carlos :(
canes123456
Damn. I am pretty sure I meet you two in a random FIU presentation a bunch of years ago. Sorry to hear this happened
igorpcosta
That's sad news, just got the attention now.
phodo
I am saddened by this news. I met Carlos a few years back in Palo Alto In the early days of corona. I am sad to learn about this. I was just thinking about him yesterday and wondering what he was up to as I had lost touch with him. RIP. Condolences to his family.
jpgvm
Sorry for your loss.

This is great tribute, I hope it brings you happiness for many years to come when you think about your friend.

WhitneyLand
It's crazy how so many people come to HN from all over the planet, yet we always see many connections in the comments for threads like this. Other communities this large I don't seem to notice it as much, maybe just confirmation bias.

In any case, I remember chatting with Carlos shortly after the launch of Corona. It was still exciting times in mobile. The opportunities were big. It's easy to forget the courage it took to leave a senior role at a top company and face the risk and challenges.

jayrparro
woah?!? I didn't hear any news he passed away.. only just now..

RIP Carlos

jayrparro
woah?!? I haven't read any news he'd passed away.. only just now.. been know him once he started the Corona SDK.

RIP Carlos

i336_
I wasn't totally sure when I checked this last night; confirmed while browsing other threads this morning.

Mods: thanks for making the links in the post clickable. :)

It's the little things.

tzm
RIP Carlos. What a nice tribute. Carlos was a friend and adviser to my company, just prior to him starting Lanica. We both were considering funding from Appcelerator and had met for coffee in Palo Alto many times.