The slow-growing trend of initially free, independent games being extended onto retail shelves in console or handheld form, as seen in The Behemoth's
Alien Hominid (formerly a Flash game on NewGrounds.com), and Omega's
Every Extend (soon to be a PSP title, courtesy Q? Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi), now has another excellent example, in Kermitt Quick's puzzle game
Tringo.
Value publisher Crave Entertainment has announced a Game Boy Advance edition of
Tringo to debut this holiday season. Intriguingly,
Tringo itself was originally written as a game event in
Second Life, the 'virtual world' created by Linden Lab that allows users to creative extensive custom content which they continue to own the rights to.
Tringo itself is a combination of chance games and puzzle-solving, somewhat like
Tetris crossed with
Bingo, has amassed a large audience within
Second Life, and worldwide licensing rights for the game were sold to Donnorwood Media earlier this year, leading to this deal.
"Tringo has developed a huge following in a remarkably short time," said Crave President and COO Rob Dyer. "It really demonstrates that there is still a high demand for simple, well-executed gameplay."
Tringo will be released as a standalone portable title in North American this November for $19.95.
