'Have ye heard of the dread Pirates that fly the Three
Rings flag?' ask the erudite Monks of the isle
of Faq, whenever a band of ignorant brigands descend
upon their rustic shores with intent to pillage and
burn. 'Lay not a hand upon us wizened scholars! Lest the
white ship of the Three Rings' hunt ye down and rain
cannon and blades upon ye.'
Each time the oafish interlopers mumble their apologies
to the venerable clerics and return to their vessels,
sailing quickly away. Who are these legendary Pirates,
who command such fear and notoriety?
About Three Rings
Three Rings is a startup developer of persistent world
online games, based in San Francisco, California. Here
are a few facts about our little company:
- Three Rings was founded on 2001.3.30 by Mr Daniel
James and Mr Michael Bayne.
- We started developing
Puzzle Pirates
in earnest on 2001.7.9 when Mr Walter Korman joined the company and
we moved into first modest Pirate's cove. Since then we
have been joined by a host of swarthy crewmates and
moved our lair twice-over, whilst remaining within
staggering distance of San Francisco's docks.
- Puzzle Pirates went into Alpha testing on October 23rd
2002, Beta testing began on July 14th 2003. No
character wipes were made throughout
testing. Pre-subscriptions began and the 'Midnight'
production ocean opened October 27th. Beta ended and
the game officially launched December 2003. In
February 2005 we launched two new Oceans, Cobalt and
Viridian. Viridian was our first 'Doubloon' server,
offering free play with micro-payments for luxury
purchases. With the success of this model we have
rolled out additional Doubloon Oceans: Sage, Hunter and Malachite.
- Puzzle Pirates is distributed by
miniclip.com and a number of smaller
affiliate partners. We are excited to work with new distribution
partners, including international sites. Please
get in touch.
- We are singularly focused on the creation of games
that are different, interesting, and hopefully reach
new audiences. Whilst we love many current games, we
don't want to make a better mousetrap. We want to trap
the big hairy rats you get on Pirate ships.
- Puzzle Pirates was developed in Java 1.4 on Debian
GNU/Linux, and is now deployed on FreeBSD servers. We
are fans of open source, and use free software
whenever possible, which is most of the time. We have
made our game toolkit available as open source; visit
Game
Gardens, where you can also host your multi-player
creations for free, a precursor to our new project,
Whirled.
- Our second game,
Bang! Howdy, an
online strategy game set in a steam-powered wild west
world, officially
launched in February 2007. Mosey on over and have
yerself a ball!
- Whirled is our third and
most ambitious project, a web-based social world fueled at every turn
by player created content - everything from avatars, pets, rooms, and
games can be made by players. Whirled is currently in open beta, and
each month we are writing growing checks to talented artists and game
developers!
- In September 2006 we began working with the design team at
Because We Can;
transforming our downtown SOMA office space into a deep-sea exploration vessel
inspired by Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The project
has been picked up by various newswires, including a fantastic
photo essay published by Wired.com. We lub coming to work in our
Victorian submarine - even on the days when the
squid
gets angry!
- We are not a giant corporation or presently funded
by one. We value our independence, mostly because
it allows us to make wacky and unusual games. We
believe that it's possible to make really fun
online games without an emphasis on flashy
graphics technology and quantity of content.
- If you'd like to contact Three Rings regarding any
matter of business or with some feedback, please mail
Daniel James.
Please direct hiring inquiries and
public debate regarding Yohoho! appropriately.
Our Offices
- We also have offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Madison,
Wisconsin. So far there have only been rumors of giant squid invasion
there, but our officers are on alert just in case.
Our Investors
Our Vendors
