Neal Stephenson Launches Kickstarter for CLANG

[News Portal]

Neal Stephenson, famed cyberpunk and science fiction author, is spearheading a new Kickstarter campaign to get funding for his new, realistic sword-fighting game/toolkit, currently known as Clang. Built around improved motion control interfaces, the game aims to create sword-fighting that stays true to the difficulties and complexities of actually using a sword in real life. Plus, they somehow managed to wrangle Gabe Newell into appearing in the video, forging a crowbar, which is already a huge win! Take a look.

Source: Kickstarter. Thanks to Wyld for shouting very loudly and happily about this to us in a number of different ways.

Read full article by GON News

[caitsith01]

Sounds great - this is what motion controls are for, surely, yet no-one's really nailed it properly.

[brimlad]

yes it does look like a good title.
Does anybody here own or have tried the Razer Hydra controller ? Is it any good ?

cheers

[Mythor]

Sounds great - this is what motion controls are for, surely, yet no-one's really nailed it properly.

And nobody will with current technology. You need the feedback of the hit and the weight of the blade and a dozen other things you don't get from waving a piece of plastic in the air.

It's a great idea but if you want to get into "realistic swordplay" a better investment would be a gym membership and scouting out any local clubs where they use real weaponry. Or medieval re-enactment groups.
Not a pipedream Kickstarter.

[caitsith01]

And you don't get the weight and kick of a real gun in shooting games... but you can make it a convincing and fun experience.

I think 1:1 mapping of real life motion into the game is the key.

[CJGordon]

And you don't get the weight and kick of a real gun in shooting games... but you can make it a convincing and fun experience.

I think 1:1 mapping of real life motion into the game is the key.

Playing a game involving shooting guns is fun at times but in no way compares to actually firing a real gun, it's the same with sword fighting, I went to a re-enactment group down near Melbourne whilst on holiday's and it was great fun having the weight of a sword and shield coupled with the weight of gambisons (however you spell it) and armour like helmets etc is nothing like playing a game that involves motion control.

The only genre that is getting better for such things is racing games while using a good force feedback steering wheel or whatever, and that isn't even motion controlled.

[Minkelz]

The difference is that for sword fighting, collision with another object is essential to the actual mechanics of the experience, not just a cool addition of immersion.

For this reason I can't see any sort of motion control technology ever being useful for a decent sword fighting game, you'll always have more fun making some swords out of newspaper rolls.

That being said I love M&Bs sword fighting, and I hope more games take that approach. I just don't think motion control is the answer.

[Nekosan]

I can only imagine how bad this will be if it's anything like his other work, guy is a pretty decent writer but he suffers from the same problem as most other cyberpunk authors, he spends way too much time holding a huge circlejerk over who can come up with the geekiest tech and by the time you've read 3 descriptions you're just thinking "wow, for an author who specializes in fictional technology based stories this guy is really **** at writing technical stuff".

[Bek]

That being said I love M&Bs sword fighting, and I hope more games take that approach. I just don't think motion control is the answer.

+1 but I will still keep an eye on this. Super hl3 conspiracy with the gabe video too. Does Wyld know something we don't, or does he just read reddit?

[Vencha88]

Pretty interested in this. The guy is one of the best sci-fi writers of our generation.

[Nebby_99]

A vibrating controller can provide SOME minimal tactile feedback, but simulators are always kind of a sad shadow of the real thing unless you spend BIG bucks.

It's definitely challenging for the reasons mentioned above, but that doesn't mean these guys won't come up with a unique and enjoyable experience.

Still on the fence about backing though. Seems character judgement on the project lead plays a big role with these things :/