Game Gardens

Three Rings Design, Inc.

Former type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video game industry
Fate	Defunct
Founded	March 30, 2001 (2001-03-30)
Founder	Daniel James Michael Bayne
Defunct	March 4, 2016
Headquarters	612 Howard Street, San Francisco, California, United States
Key people	Ian McConville
Owner	Sega Sammy Holdings
Number of employees	40
Parent	Sega Games Co., Ltd.
Website	threerings.net

Three Rings Design, Inc. was an online game developer that was founded on March 30, 2001 by Daniel James and Michael Bayne. The company is named after the Three Rings of the Elves in Tolkien mythology, and the names of the Three Rings show up in various places throughout Puzzle Pirates such as in the name of the developer flag, Narya. The company's first product was Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, an MMOG in which the player plays a pirate on one of multiple oceans. The company's second product, released December 1, 2006, is a western-themed Tactical Multi Player game named Bang! Howdy.

It would be after 3 more projects that in 2011, Three Rings and BBC would team up to make the company's most popular game yet: "Doctor Who: Worlds in Time". However, on the 15 January 2014, it was announced through a member email distribution stating "We are sorry to report that Doctor Who: Worlds in Time will discontinue service on Monday, March 3rd, 2014 at noon PST". No reason was given.

On March 4, 2016, Sega laid off a number of staff at its Western mobile division, Sega Networks Inc. As a consequence, Three Rings Design was dissolved as part of the shift. In response to the layoffs, Sega released an official press release saying, "In response to challenging and hyper-competitive mobile market conditions, Sega Networks Inc., Sega’s mobile division in the West, has refocused its operations and made a reduction in workforce. As a result, we said goodbye to our talented friends and colleagues at Three Rings Design Inc. alongside a small number of team members on the publishing side of Sega’s mobile division."

Three Rings Design has also created a site called Game Gardens, which hosts free tools for creating and playing Java games. Using the toolset requires knowledge of Java, but the toolset automates many basic game-related functions. Some Puzzle Pirates players use it to create demonstrations of new puzzle ideas for the game; because the tools are the same as those the designers use, importing a Game Gardens puzzle into Puzzle Pirates would not be difficult.