Second Life Co-Creator Cory Ondrejka Co-Creates Game Dev Platform for HTML5 -- Can It Help Save Second Life?

Yesterday when Linden Lab was reporting downcast performance numbers for Second Life, there was a presentation that's probably far more important to the future of SL. Second Life co-creator Cory Ondrejka, who is now a developer with Facebook, showed off the project he and his development partner Bruce Rogers created after joining the social networking giant: JSGameBench, a very very early stage, free Apache-licensed platform for creating games in HTML5, which will soon be the standard code for web browsers. Watch his high level geek talk here, with an impressive graphic demo happening about 10 minutes in:

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Read more about JSGameBench here. As Cory mentions in his presentation, we're in extremely early days of game development in HTML5, but the demo suggests impressive results even now. Of course Facebook's incentive in this are games that will run within the social network. But for those with any investment in the power and potential of Second Life, it's also a development worth watching:

Callum Linden watches Cory's talk in SL

Eventually, running in WebGL, a platform like JSGameBench will be able to create a version of Second Life that can run in standard web browsers. Which is why, when I noted the downbeat activity figures for Second Life, the one ray of hope I saw were strong sales numbers on Second Life's official web commerce platform. This is the one place where Second Life's activity is much more consistent (and comparable) with the massive activity and user numbers happening in web-based social games and web games -- or for that matter, the iPad, which already runs HTML5. I have no idea if this was foremost in his mind when he co-created JSGameBench, but I do believe Cory Ondrejka's latest project is the best (perhaps last) hope for making Second Life relevant to the future of the Internet.

Update, 12:15PM: More on Cory's move here on GigaOM.

Comments

[Dusan Writer]

I'm having trouble figuring out why JSGamesBench is the "last hope" for SL?

WebGL/Canvas is clearly where the next generation of 3D virtual worlds will reside - whether the back-end of those worlds is OpenSim, Second Life or neither one.

But I'm not quite following the connection between Cory's gaming/benchmarking platform and how that translates to it being used to create an SL "viewer in the Web"?

My personal opinion - SL won't be "saved" by WebGL, but the ubiquity of immersive worlds will be facilitated by WebGL, which are two different things. Where Cory's work on creating a game development platform fits in seems a bit abstract right now.

[Cisop Sixpence]

Given the economical situation the World is in, I think Second Life's numbers looked amazingly great. Even if we were in better economic times, compared to other virtual worlds, I think Second Life is doing a very good job of maintaining its customer base.

I don't think that WebGL is the magic bullet, but it certainly can help fill in the gap. I also think "Can It Help Save Second Life?" is a bit of an excessive attention getter and maybe an attempt to invoke fear among the residents. I'm all for making Second Life the best it can be, but "Save" makes it sound like we are all on life support.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

This work focuses on sprite-based development; 2D, isometric, side-scrollers and the like. I don't think it has much relation to Second Life, although it might provide a path for resurrecting The Sims Online.

[Hamlet Au]

"immersive worlds will be facilitated by WebGL, which are two different things. Where Cory's work on creating a game development platform fits in seems a bit abstract right now"

Because Cory's platform will lead to more game development on HTML5, which will lead to more consumer adoption, which will lead to demand for more and better games, which will lead to growing use of WebGL in HTML5, which will lead to more 3D games and experiences on HTML5, which will lead to a larger and larger potential market for people who can enjoy Second Life and related worlds in a much much more seamless way than they do now.

[shockwave yareach]

The problems with SL are managerial incompetence rather than technical limitation. SL will still be unpopular no matter how it is accessed because LL has an adversarial relationship with its customers. That hostility will make people avoid it like plague whether you run it on a gamer box, a PS3, a phone, pocket calculator, or toilet paper dispenser.