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From Virtual World To Mobile Gaming

Posted by Zonk on from the second-life-plus-ingenuity-equals-profit dept.

The site Clickable Culture has a piece on a game coming soon to a mobile device near you. The game, Tringo, comes from an unusual source: the virtual world Second Life. From the article: "Tringo, invented by SL resident Kermitt Quirk over his Christmas holidays, blends the sensibilites of Tetris and Bingo. It's a game of skill, but the stakes can be quite high. Not only is Tringo well-designed, taking Second Life's technical parameters into consideration, but its popularity is growing."

12 comments

  1. Sounds Interesting... by gimpynerd · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Sounds like an interesting game. I wonder who they pay to sit around and think up new puzzle games. Being a programmer myself I know it is not easy to think of puzzle ideas. Do some people have jobs where they sit around all day and think up ideas for puzzle games. I wonder if we will see clones of this on PC and consoles in the future...

    1. Re:Sounds Interesting... by DaveKap · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Actually, I don't think the developers of Second Life (as in Linden Lab workers) do much in-world development of their own. The coolest thing about this story is the fact that it was just a resident who made the game and he did it for fun. Getting an offer for it was simply a bonus. I've been a resident for a while and have made a few games of my own. I have to admit that this is awesome news in my book because I've always wondered if there was any legitimacy in the games I made inside Second Life. This is now proof that my game ideas might actually be sellable.

    2. Re:Sounds Interesting... by BudFox007 · · Score: 1

      I read an interesting article at www.pokerlistings.com about how the poker industry is now trying to make poker for real money available on cellphones. Since online poker has become such a hype, the poker rooms are now ready to cash in on a new market. I think this is a great idea and will probably take off too.

    3. Re:Sounds Interesting... by BudFox007 · · Score: 1

      Sorry, you find the article at http://pokerlistings.com/

  2. Tring licensed in the real world! by Critter92 · · Score: 4, Informative

    What the Clickable Culture story missed is that today's Wall Street Journal reported that the Second Life resident has sold the real world publishing rights of Tringo to Sean Ryan's Donnerwood Media for "low five figures." They plan to publish Tringo for mobile phones and on the web. Also mentioned over at Terra Nova.

  3. Great Stereotype.... by MBraynard · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    invented by SL resident Kermitt Quirk over his Christmas holidays

    So he spends his Xmas holiday playing Second Life? The title kind of predicates that you had a first life to begin with.

    1. Re:Great Stereotype.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean instead of getting fat on Christmas turkey and fighting with the family, this guy creates a game within a virtual world and actually sells it for real money? What a waste of time!

  4. Sounds interesting by musicman2059 · · Score: 0
    To me, Tetris and Bingo are in two completely different leagues. I truly wonder how this game will come out, and if it will or will not be a hit. I can't even imagine.

    I don't have lots of luck at Bingo, but I'm a pretty good decent Tetris player myself. (Although I'm sure there are many MANY people that have gotten past level 14 before.) Even still, if I had a better phone I would give this one a try when it comes out, but I guess I first need a way better phone than this TM-520. :P

    --
    When you need great justice, take off every zig.
  5. Original story. by DaveKap · · Score: 3, Informative

    The original story of Tringo getting purchased is with the Wall Street Journal. This link doesn't require membership either (but you do have to scroll down). It also covers another thing missed by the Clickable Culture story: The publishing rights go to Donnerwood in the real world but the developer, Keir, keeps his rights to the game within Second Life.

  6. Reportage by tony_ratboy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hi, I'm the author of Clickable Culture. I did report about the "low five figures." I didn't mention Keir retains the in-world rights. Whoever posted the Slashdot story should have just linked to the WSJ source (as I did). I certainly didn't break news on this one, although I reported on and described Tringo last month. I'm going to edit the post over at Clickable Culture to add the missing info. It was an oversight, thanks for pointing it out.

    1. Re:Reportage by tony_ratboy · · Score: 1

      Ah, I'm confused. The Slashdot story linked to my original Tringo article, which was written last month prior to the licensing deal. The more recent story, posted yesterday, discusses the licensing issues. I have edited this one to clarify the licensing arrangement.