{"id":4500,"date":"2014-12-18T20:33:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T20:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=4500"},"modified":"2014-12-18T20:33:08","modified_gmt":"2014-12-18T20:33:08","slug":"former-lindens-making-the-news-games-music-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=4500","title":{"rendered":"Former Lindens Making The News, Games, Music & Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some former Lindens are making the news or quietly making moves in certain areas. Hamlet Au over at New World Notes reported :\u00a0Cory Ondrejka Leaving Facebook to Launch New Company: Second Life Co-Creator Helped Drive Oculus Acquisition<\/a>. Cory, who was once Linden Lab CTO and played an extremely important role in the evolution of Second Life. Cory, whilst praising Mark Zuckerberg as his best ever boss is also quoted as saying :<\/p>\n

December 22nd will be my last day at Facebook. From high-performance javascript through mobile to virtual reality, I could never have predicted a journey quite like this one. I will miss working with everyone, but I am excited about building my next company from scratch.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We’ll come back to that quote later because it’s not an easy step to make. Meanwhile, VentureBeat reports :\u00a0Metric Insights\u2019 $2M funding reflects the feisty nature of the business analytics market<\/a>. Metric Insights<\/a> are, as the title of the linked article suggests, in the business of business analytics. The founder of Metric Insights is not a name I’m familiar with, his name is\u00a0Marius Moscovici. However the article provides the link to Linden Lab :<\/p>\n

Moscovici originally got the startup going in 2010 after he had been frustrated by the lack of extensive and consistent usage of analytics tools at Second Life developer Linden Lab, where he was head of the company\u2019s data warehousing and real-time-analytics group. Previously he had run a business-intelligence consulting company.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not sure if Marius was ever a Linden we’d know from inworld. Maybe someone else knows. However rather interestingly the article also suggests that Philip Rosedale\u00a0participated in the funding.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Fort Mills Times Informs us :\u00a0Tom Hale and Larry Kutscher Join ReachLocal Board of Directors<\/a>. ReachLocal<\/a> are a company who specialise in online marketing for local business. Tom Hale is currently the chief product of officer of HomeAway<\/a>, a company who specialise in vacation rentals such as Beach Houses and cabins. Tom Hale was Linden Lab’s Chief Product officer between September 2008 and some time in 2010.<\/p>\n

Then, a more quiet development that involves a certain Rod Humble, former CEO of Linden Lab.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rod Humble announced he was leaving Linden Lab in January this year, Jo Yardley reported his departure<\/a> and included this quote :<\/p>\n

Its been a great 3 years! All my thanks to my colleagues at Linden Lab and our wonderful customers I wish you the very best for the future and continued success! I am starting-up a company to make Art, Entertainment and unusual things! More on that in a few weeks!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The weeks went by, so did the months and very little has been heard of him since. I mean I did dig up some clues about a Chap in a Hat<\/a> but there hasn’t been much information. However there have been developments, one of which is the much improved ChapHat website<\/a> which now informs us :<\/p>\n

Chaphat was founded in 2014 by Rod Humble. The company makes unusual computer games, music and art.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The music, I had seen before whilst digging around. However not much was said of the games. However now there is a lot more information about the games, well one game anyway, Cults & Daggers :<\/p>\n

Cults and Daggers is a strategy game set in the Hellenistic era between the death of Buddha and the birth of Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n

You create your own religion and fight a secret war for the soul of the world. With your disciples you spread your faith throughout the Mediterranean world by preaching to the people and converting noble families.<\/em><\/p>\n

You and the other cults are the hidden powers behind history, you secretly manipulate the rise and fall of great city states to further your ambitions.<\/em><\/p>\n

But the Old God\u2019s are also stirring, taking advantage of the time between Buddha and Christ to try and destroy the world they can no longer rule. You must stop them by sending your disciples to their places of power and defeating their evil.<\/em><\/p>\n

A sprawling, deep and complex game which covers over 400 years of history, spies, assassinations, double dealing, occult forces , martyrs , prophets and blasphemers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Write your own myths. Single player against the AI or upto 4 player Multiplayer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cults and Daggers. Faith, Hope and Conspiracy.<\/em><\/p>\n

-Turn based Strategy over 400 years of history.<\/em>
\n-Create an customise your own Faith<\/em>
\n-Procedurally generated technology tree and adventure system<\/em>
\n-In depth modelled spying system allows for deep subterfuge<\/em>
\n-Complete ambient music Album “Cults and Daggers” included<\/em>
\n-Single player. Hotseat & PBEM multiplayer<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The game is now scheduled for a January 2015 release via Steam for PC and Mac. Earlier in the year it was suggested it may be released in the summer.<\/p>\n

Rod Humble’s slow progress is why I said right near the top that Cory Ondrejka’s move to build a business from scratch won’t be easy. ChapHat has moved slowly and quietly but now, almost a year later, is starting to take shape and contains some substance. The quiet approach may well be a more peaceful way forward, but it also displays that patience is required when building something new.<\/p>\n

I have no idea what Cory’s new company will be and it may well be that he has plans to gain some sort of venture capital funding. He has enough experience to know how this works.<\/p>\n

I wish all of them the very best of luck.<\/p>\n

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