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Neal Stephenson's 'Clang:' changing the sword fighting game

Neal Stephenson's 'Clang:' changing the sword fighting game

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Famed sci-fi and speculative fiction writer Neal Stephenson is heading development of a Kickstarter-funded sword fighting game called 'Clang.' The game will use a low-latency motion controller to provide a deeper game experience than other sword games.

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neal stephenson clang 640
neal stephenson clang 640

Neal Stephenson, the celebrated sci-fi and speculative fiction writer, is sick of the superficial way that sword fighting is treated in video games, and the self-described "swordsmanship geek" wants to fix the injustice. He's heading up the development of an arena combat game called Clang (video below) that aims to bring the "obsessive attention to real-world detail" found in today’s immensely-customizable shooters to the more nuanced world of sword-to-sword warfare. In order to make Clang a reality, he's turning to Kickstarter to raise the $500,000 his team needs.

Clang will use a "low-latency, high-precision motion controller" to give people the kind of deep, physical gameplay that isn’t possible with a stick-and-button game pad. While the first release of the game will be limited to two-handed longsword duels, Stephenson points out (via Gabe Newell), that "every 13 year-old kid wants to see a knight fighting a samurai," and the team wants to build tools so that others can use Clang’s foundations to add different weapons and fighting styles. We've been dying for a real sword fighting game since the first time we laid our eyes on a Wii Remote, and with a team of devotees to Western martial arts on the team, Clang could be the real deal, provided it raises the remaining $400,000 and change it needs by July 9th.