Second Life creator nabs Windward Mark tech, founders

The fate of PC first-person shooter Alliance: The Silent War is in question as five key employees from developer Windward Mark Interactive have left to join Second Life creator Linden Labs.

The move comes in a deal that also sees Linden Labs acquire the rights to Windward Mark's atmospheric rendering technology WindLight, as well as the 3D cloud simulator Nimble. These technologies will be incorporated into Second Life in the coming weeks, as well as made open source.

The five employees were founders of Windward Mark, and they'll join Linden Labs' newly established Boston studio. As for Alliance: The Silent War, Windward Mark will retain the rights to the project, but a representative with the developer said it is currently determining what it would like to do with the intellectual property.

For more on Alliance, check out GameSpot's coverage of the game from last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.