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 sp ...
developer 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 guis ...
of the Elven-kings in
Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...
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