Three Rings Design, Inc. was an

online game An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and s ...

developer Developer may refer to: Computers *Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web de ...

that was founded on March 30, 2001, by Daniel James and Michael Bayne. The company was named in honor of the

Three Rings In Tolkien's mythology, the Three Rings are magical artefacts forged by the Elves of Eregion. After the One Ring, they are the most powerful of the twenty Rings of Power. The Three Rings were made by Celebrimbor after Sauron, in the guise of ...

of the Elven-kings in Tolkien mythology. The company's first product was ''

Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates ''Puzzle Pirates'' (also known as ''Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates'') is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Three Rings Design (Later owned by Grey Havens LLC). The player takes the role of a pirate, adventuring on the high seas and pillagin ...

'', a skill-based open-world MMOG in which player is tasked with action puzzle games corresponding to tasks of piracy, crafting and carousing. The player joins a crew to sail with other players and participates in a player-driven trading economy. The company's second product, released December 1, 2006, was a western-themed Tactical Multi Player game named '' Bang! Howdy''. Whirled, the company's third virtual world, was a player created content platform using Adobe Flash and html5. Whirled allowed creators to list virtual goods such as avatars, in-world toys or game content and earn real-world currency from the system. Whirled went into beta testing in 2008 and became unavailable in April 2017. Three Rings created a number of Flash games for Whirled, notably Corpse Craft which was later released on iPad. In 2010 the studio tested Facebook games including The Everything Game, a collectible card game. Spiral Knights was the company's fourth MMOG, launched in April 2011. Spiral Knights is an action adventure world where players cooperate to defeat the denizens of The Clockworks, a mysterious ever-changing maze. In 2011 the studio launched Doctor Who: Worlds in Time, in partnership with

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadca ...

. Three Rings was an independent developer from its founding in 2001 until 2011 when it was acquired by

SEGA is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...

of Japan. The company had been funded by the founders, revenue from Puzzle Pirates and other games, and investors including True Ventures. Following the acquisition, the studio operated as a label within SEGA until March 2016, when SEGA reduced its San Francisco R&D staff. Puzzle Pirates and Spiral Knights remain operational under the banner o
Grey Havens
a small crew that seeks to keep the games operational for as long as feasible.

Games

* ''

'' * '' Bang! Howdy'' * '' Whirled'' (open

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...

as of March 25, 2008, closed April 2017) * '' Corpse Craft: Incident at Weardd Academy'' * '' Spiral Knights'' * '' Doctor Who: Worlds in Time''

Game Gardens and open source code

Shortly after Puzzle Pirates' launch Three Rings Design open-sourced substantial parts of the underlying technology for creating multi-user virtual worlds, available on GitHub. The company created a site called ''Game Gardens'', which hosted free tools for creating and playing

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

games using these libraries, a precursor to ''Whirled'', which allowed players to upload client and server-side AS3 (Adobe Flash) code to create complex multi-player games.

References

External links

Three Rings Design site
(Broken website) {{Sega Sammy Holdings Sega divisions and subsidiaries Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies established in 2001 Video game companies disestablished in 2016 2011 mergers and acquisitions Video game development companies Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area 2001 establishments in California 2016 disestablishments in California