San Francisco, CA — March 8, 2007 — Three Rings, a leading independent developer of massively multi-player games, today announced Whirled, an web-based virtual world based on games and player-created content. The follow-up to Puzzle Pirates™ and Bang! Howdy™, Whirled will be unveiled today at the Game Developers Conference by Three Rings' founders, Daniel James and Michael Bayne. Whirled has commenced private alpha testing with a limited invited audience, with public launch later this year. A public glimpse can be found at whirled.com.
In Whirled players chat, change avatars, decorate rooms, play games and make things, all via the web. Easy navigation based on your friend network and in-world activity lets you find popular rooms, group lounges and party games. At every point, players are encouraged to create and upload their own content: avatars and furniture, pets, and Flash games, all using Whirled's easy creation and 'remixing' tools. Successful creators stand to profit handsomely in US dollars from sales of their work.
"Whirled is about having fun -- and making fun!" said Daniel James, CEO of Three Rings. "We've made a tremendously easy place for people to hang out, play games and then create their own stuff, from avatars and furniture to complex multi-player games. Using Flash opens up content creation to the vast number of skilled Flash content creators. We're excited to see what in the Whirled people make!"
Whirled continues Three Rings' innovation with the business model of free play with sales of virtual currency and items. Players upload their creations to the Whirled catalog and can earn in-game money and thereby US dollars on sales. This follows the success of Puzzle Pirates and Bang! Howdy, which allow unlimited free play with an open player market between virtual currency and attention.
Three Rings is seeding Whirled with multi-player games such as 'Chiyogami Dance Battle', a dance-off game played with Whirled avatars, 'Underwhirled Drift', a kart racing game, and classic word, arcade and puzzle games. Three Rings will be releasing the source code for its own games and other creations in the hope that players will further customize the Whirled. Three Rings pioneered this open-source approach to empower game creators at at Game Gardens, where over seventy games made with the Three Rings toolkit can be played. Game Gardens games will also be available from Whirled.
"We hope our players treat Whirled like a Youtube for games; a place to enjoy, but which also inspires people to contribute and create at whatever level they wish. Peas." said Michael Bayne, Three Rings CTO.
For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Daniel James | CEO | Three Rings | daniel@threerings.net | 415 615 9596
About Three Rings
Three Rings is a leading developer and operator in the rapidly growing casual massively multi-player online games space. The company launched Puzzle Pirates, the first casual massively multi-player game, in 2003, and its second game Bang! Howdy in 2007. Puzzle Pirates and Bang! Howdy are free to play, with optional micro-currency purchases of virtual items and content. Founded in 2001 in San Francisco, Three Rings has over thirty employees, open source code platforms, and its games are played by over 250,000 players every month. Read more about Three Rings at http://threerings.net.