Neal Stephenson Pauses Kickstarter Swordfighting Game

Fanghawk

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Neal Stephenson Pauses Kickstarter Swordfighting Game

Clang's latest statement suggests that the best way to support development is to support Sixense's STEM Kickstarter.

The entire appeal of Kickstarter is that you can fund unique projects while giving designers creative freedom to fulfill their vision. Unfortunately, being freed from the shackles of restrictive publishers doesn't always see projects to completion. The latest example is Clang, <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117829-Neal-Stephensons-Sword-Fighting-Kickstarter-Has-an-Awesome-Cameo>Neal Stephenson's successfully-backed swordfighting game that would use the Razer Hydra to mimic hacking motions. Clang backers were supposed to get an SDK and arena mode to play with in February 2013, which is the first clue that trouble was afoot. Now the dev team has released a statement confirming that Clang has been put on hold, despite raising over $500,000 during its campaign.

"We've hit the pause button on further CLANG development while we get the financing situation sorted out," the update reads. "We stretched the Kickstarter money farther than we had expected to, but securing the next round, along with constructing improvised shelters and hoarding beans, has to be our top priority for now. We hope we'll be able to make an announcement on that front soon."

The post goes on to describe the financial situation in some detail, but the core problem is that development has slowed until motion sensing technology catches up to Stephenson's vision for Clang. Since Clang's budget couldn't pay the team during the interim, developers had to take on temporary work, eventually turning the swordfighting game into an "evenings and weekends" project. The situation will likely stay the same until motion technology improves, or until the team secures additional funding.

In the meantime, Clang's dev team is encouraging fans to back <a href=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/89577853/stem-system-the-best-way-to-interact-with-virtual?ref=live>Sixense's STEM System, a wireless motion tracking device that will ultimately replace the Razer Hydra. The team also assures users that the project shouldn't be considered dead as long as its core developers continue to support it. "Paradoxically," the update reads, "we feel better about the future of CLANG now than we did when the clock was ticking down."

Source: <a href=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/260688528/clang/posts>Kickstarter, via <a href=http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/09/19/author-neal-stephenson-hits-the-pause-button-on-successful-500000-swordfighting-kickstarter-.aspx>Game Informer

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Gezzer

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Jul 7, 2012
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Oh drat.
Now I don't have a reason to blow the 1/2 inch layer of dust off my Hydra.
 

RandV80

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Ah I remember this. I would have loved to back it but considering I would need another expensive peripheral to use it I had to pass. But I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Stephenson's vision for a proper sword fighting games so I would love to see this completed still and would be a definite buyer in the future.
 

WanderingFool

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Cant say I blame him. Motion controls, IMO, are still pretty weak. His idea is fucking awesome though, so Im still hoping for it.
 

MatsVS

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Nov 9, 2009
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Aww... I supported this due to its potential applications to games further down the road. In fact, it was the first Kickstarter I ever backed. Hope it works out for them.
 

gabycms

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Fanghawk said:
Neal Stephenson Pauses Kickstarter Swordfighting Game


Clang backers were supposed to get an SDK and arena mode to play with in February 2013, which is the first clue that trouble was afoot.

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But we did get the Arena mode, it was a bit late, but they worked on it more with the same money. Its not a full game but its what they promised, a proof of concept tech demo.
 

Callate

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On one hand, yeah, they're heading out in a new direction and it's not entirely unreasonable that it be hard to predict just how long and how much money it would take to get there.

On the other hand, it's not a ringing endorsement of their professionalism that whatever blueprint or milestones they might have imagined, they have fallen so short that they aren't even very successful at clearly explaining how far short of their original goals they might be, a luxury that Kickstarter regrettably affords while a more mainstream publisher would be rolling heads.

And it would look really bad for such a high-profile Kickstarter to fail; I hope they've taken that into account as they proceed.
 

Smooth Operator

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Well I'm glad people are so calm about it but this doesn't sound good at all.
Blowing the budget and half a year after some releases would need to happen they tell people things are on hold, waiting for more funding and completely new hardware to be developed... that is whole lot of unforeseeable events before this thing might get done.
 

gabycms

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Mr.K. said:
Well I'm glad people are so calm about it but this doesn't sound good at all.
Blowing the budget and half a year after some releases would need to happen they tell people things are on hold, waiting for more funding and completely new hardware to be developed... that is whole lot of unforeseeable events before this thing might get done.
X| This is why I hate the news on this site sometimes, you got a completely false idea because of misleading wording from the article that might not have even meant to mislead
 

Imre Csete

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Jul 8, 2010
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From what I hear they pulled a Double Fine and planning to get funding from selling early access.

I hope it works out for them, this is a potential game changer and their idea about making a foundation for future games first is pretty reasonable from a guy with no past in the industry.