Three Rings today announced Whirled, a web-based virtual world based on games and player-created content. The follow-up to Puzzle Pirates and the IGF award winning Bang! Howdy, Whirled was 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 U.S. dollars from sales of their work.

Three Rings is seeding Whirled with multiplayer 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 Game Gardens, where over seventy games made with the Three Rings toolkit can be played. Game Gardens games will also be available from Whirled.