Historical and science fiction author Neal Stephenson (author of Snow Crash) is asking Kickstarter for $500,000 to fund Clang, a new type of sword fighting game.
Stephenson, who's currently "dissatisfied" with the current portrayal of sword fighting in games, promises "a revolution."
Clang will initially be a "PC arena game based on one-on-one multiplayer dueling." For the past few years, the Subutai Corporation, which the author co-founded in 2010, has worked on a history of Foreworld for the company's premiere saga, beginning with the first installment, the novel The Mongoliad. It seems Subutai plans to incorporate that same lore into Clang.
The game will use "a commercial, third-party, off-the-shelf controller," design sword fighting maneuvers with depth, and expand its MASEs (Martial Arts System Embodiments) style.
Watch the video below for more details from Stephenson himself. In it, he discusses how the real-world customization and variations present in shooting games is absent from sword fighting games and how he plans to change that standard.
The campaign features a number of pledge-level incentives, from concept art to your own steel longsword.
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