Lodestone Games
 |
 | |
| Company type | Limited liability company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Defunct | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Charlottesville, Virginia |
Key people | Lorin Jameson, President and Technical Director Matt Shaw, Principal Engineer Jeff Hanna, Art Director |
| Website | web |
Lodestone Games was a game development studio based in Charlottesville, Virginia. The majority of its employees came from EA/Kesmai after Electronic Arts closed that studio in the fall of 2001. Lodestone Games specialised in the development of both online PC games and client/server technology for online PC games.[citation needed]
History[edit]
The company's first project was a futuristic car combat game titled, Driving Force. Before the game could be finished Sony Online Entertainment halted the production and re-tasked Lodestone to develop network hosting technology as well as a real-time weather system for the massively multiplayer online game PlanetSide. After PlanetSide shipped, Sony Online Entertainment contracted with Lodestone to create a third person fantasy role playing game, named Soul Forge.[citation needed]
Due to a budgetary shortfall Sony canceled the production of Soul Forge. Unlike the cancellation of Driving Force Sony Online Entertainment had no other work to give to Lodestone. As a result of this Lodestone Games was forced to lay off all employees and cease operations at the end of October, 2003. The majority of Lodestone's employees went on to work at Mythic Entertainment. Others ended up at Sony Online Entertainment, Volition, and Obsidian Entertainment.[citation needed]
Games developed by Lodestone Games[edit]
- Driving Force (Unreleased)
- PlanetSide
- Soul Forge (Unreleased)
Staff[edit]
- Lorin Jameson, President and Technical Director, now at Sony Online
- Matt Shaw, Lead Engineer, now Chief Technical Officer of Amazon Lumberyard
- Jeff Hanna, Art Director, now at Volition
- Chris DeBaun, Production Manager
- Colin Shannon, Engineer, now at EA Mythic
- Ed Teffeau, Engineer, now at ZeniMax Online Studios
- Kyle Forbes, Engineer, now at Sony Online
- Paul Suggs, Engineer, now at VGT
- Robert Haschart, Engineer
- Greg Grimsby, Lead Artist, now at EA Mythic
- Brian Traficante, Artist, now at Volition
- Chris Woodum, Artist
- Jeremy Dale, Artist, now at EA Mythic
- Steve Marvin, Designer, now at Tencent Boston
- Nick Laiacona, Designer
- Frank Coker, Designer