Puzzle Pirates developer Three Rings has secured USD 3.5 million in venture funding.
The casual games outfit is currently working on a social networking game world, called Whirled, which is in its alpha testing phase, according to a report on Venturebeat.com.
WorldsinMotion: "Casual MMO developer Three Rings has announced the winners of their contest, 'Design Your Whirled'-run in association with deviantART.
The contest asked deviantART members to create the best individual or multiple rooms for Three Rings' new player-created virtual world and Flash game development platform, Whirled. Winners included user Pareia, awarded a Macbook Pro; Omer, awarded a Wacom drawing tablet; five honorable mentions received Whirled t-shirts and stickers."
The Standard: "It's worth noting that Gaia Online launched its massively multiplayer online game as an adjunct to its virtual socializing world on Thursday. Three Rings is going after Gaia Online's core business, while Gaia Online is going after Three Rings' game business.
James was an early believer in the virtual goods business model. He founded Three Rings on a shoestring budget in 2001 and pulled off what seemed impossible: creating a massively multiplayer online game as an independent developer. He did so by focusing on simple, casual game interaction at a time when other MMO companies were creating truly massive virtual."
