{"id":527188,"date":"2025-10-15T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northernvirginiamag.com\/?p=527188"},"modified":"2025-10-14T17:08:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:08:24","slug":"arlington-based-loric-games-gears-up-for-first-video-game-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northernvirginiamag.com\/culture\/2025\/10\/15\/arlington-based-loric-games-gears-up-for-first-video-game-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Arlington-Based Loric Games Gears Up for First Video Game Release"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When you think of video game development, Northern Virginia might not be the first place that comes to mind. But Arlington\u2019s Loric Games<\/a> is trying to change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 2022, the startup gaming studio isn\u2019t completely new to the scene. Its four founders \u2014 Brian Johnson, Rob Denton, Colin Shannon, and Ray Soto \u2014 met when they worked at Mythic Entertainment, a studio that was part of the Electronic Arts (EA) umbrella, in Fairfax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four went their separate ways, and Mythic closed in 2014. But the group stayed connected by playing video games together, and they eventually decided to dive back into the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we look at what we\u2019re doing \u2014 bringing us all back together, growing the team \u2014 one of the core pillars of our studio is culture,\u201d says Soto. \u201cIt\u2019s that passion. It\u2019s never left us. We want this. It\u2019s a challenge, for sure. \u2026We want to make games.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The studio is preparing to release an early-access version of its first game, Echoes of Elysium<\/em>, before the end of 2025. The airship survival game is based in the ancient Greek afterlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soto says that, when players begin, they enter a world that is completely fractured. As players try to solve ancient mysteries, they will clash with armies and armadas while also exploring the ruins of these floating lands with their customized airships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Loric Games announced a partnership with Snail Games, a Los Angeles\u2013based developing and publishing company. Soto says the collaboration is a \u201cperfect alignment\u201d because of the similarities in the audiences of Echoes of Elysium and Snail\u2019s best-known survival game, ARK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soto hopes that Loric can continue to grow in Northern Virginia. And he dispels any plans of the company moving to another city: \u201cWe\u2019re staying here. We\u2019re going to help build a community. We\u2019re Northern Virginians. We love this space. We love it here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feature image courtesy Loric Games<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story originally ran in our\u00a0October issue<\/a>. For more stories like this,\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0to Northern Virginia Magazine.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Echoes of Elysium’ is an airship survival game based in the ancient Greek afterlife. ","protected":false},"author":1001795,"featured_media":527191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nArlington-Based Loric Games Gears Up for First Video Game Release<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Arlington-based video game designers Loric Games have designed a new game, Echoes of Elysium, to be released soon.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/northernvirginiamag.com\/culture\/2025\/10\/15\/arlington-based-loric-games-gears-up-for-first-video-game-release\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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