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Neal Stephenson's sword-fighting game Clang officially shelved
Historical sword-fighting game Clang has officially been axed, developer Subutai Corporation announced yesterday. The game earned $526,125 on Kickstarter in July 2012 and according to creator and sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson, the developer did eventually deliver on a prototype of the game as promised. "The prototype was technically innovative, but it wasn't very fun to play," Stephenson wrote in an update on Clang's Kickstarter page, admitting he "probably focused too much on historical accuracy and not enough on making it sufficiently fun to attract additional investment." Development paused last year to attract additional investors, which Stephenson said was part of the initial plan for the game. While Clang was slated to be playable with a mouse and keyboard, the game was expected to support peripherals like Sixense's Razer Hydra motion controller and Kickstarter success STEM system.
Neal Stephenson's crowdfunded game finally canceled
After a year of development and another year on life support, Clang -- the sword-fighting game from science fiction writer Neal Stephenson and Subutai games -- is finally dead. Thing started off well enough after it topped its $500,000 crowdfunding goal on Kickstarter and an early beta was released to Steam. But a year later the Kickstarter cash ran out and Stephenson, reduced to working part-time on the project, said that the prototype "wasn't very fun to play." With no more cash to improve it, Clang has now been terminated, though Kickstarter investors can receive a refund on request. Stephenson accepted part of the blame in the final update post, adding that the story of the failure could fill a book. In fact, he did write a short book about it, which may eventually get published -- we imagine that would be far more interesting than the game itself. [Image credit: Subutai Corp.]
Kickstarted sword-fighter Clang pauses development, seeks further investment
Developer Subutai Corporation rececntly announced that it has "hit the pause button" on the development of Clang. The project earned $526,125 on Kickstarter in July 2012, though it has apparently run out of resources in the meantime, leading the developer to focus on luring investors to fund the rest of its development. Project lead and sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson explained in the update on the game's Kickstarter page that Subutai Corporation "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." Stephenson said the plan to further fund the project outside of Kickstarter was in the cards all along, citing the team's plan to build a "functional proof of concept in the form of an exciting prototype" in order to "achieve our next level of funding" in the project's description. Numerous backers questioned the direction of the project, noting the description didn't make the developer's aspirations for additional funding particularly clear at the outset. To risk-averse publishers, Stephenson said that the sword-fighting simulator "seems extra worrisome because it is coupled to a new hardware controller." Clang uses controllers like Sixense's Razer Hydra motion controller and the STEM system, the latter having been successfully funded on Kickstarter and has three weeks left in its campaign. While the PC game can be played with a mouse and keyboard, Stephenson endorsed Sixense's Kickstarter project in the hopes that it "will get the next generation of hardware out on the market, reducing the element of perceived risk and, we hope, clearing the way for us to pursue our own quest to find financiers who have steady nerves and other anatomical prerequisites." Until then, the developer is "working on Clang as an 'evenings and weekends' project until such time as we get funding for a more commercial-style reboot."
Neal Stephenson's Clang reduced to a part-time project as cash runs dry
Crowdfunding a project doesn't guarantee that it will be finished on time, or at all. Unfortunately, we're seeing an example of that uncertainty today -- Subutai has reduced its work on Neal Stephenson's Clang to an "evenings and weekends" schedule after running out of development money. Venture capitalists weren't willing to take a risk on a swordfighting game and invest the additional cash that the team had been counting on, according to Subutai. The company has shipped almost all of its promised Kickstarter perks, but it doesn't know if or when it will finish the software in question. There's still a way to help, however. Subutai suggests funding Sixense's Stem controller, which would at least bring a Clang-friendly peripheral to market.
Insert Coin: Clang, a motion-controlled swordfighting game by no less than Neal Stephenson (video)
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. We won't lie: this might be the ultimate Insert Coin. It's not often that you get the author of Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon asking for Kickstarter funding, after all. Neal Stephenson and Subutai Corporation are tired of swordfighting in video games being reduced to abstract button presses, and they want to produce both a video game and a control system that will replicate what it's really like to fight steel-to-steel, complete with pommel hits, blocks and distinct techniques. The initial game, Clang, will focus on two-handed longsword dueling with an "off-the-shelf" controller to get out the door quickly. In the long run, however, the plan is to work on custom controllers, and the project will involve an open framework known as MASE (Martial Arts System Embodiments) that will let anyone build their own fighting game. You could create a realistic Wushu simulator... or an extremely detailed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat-em-up. Any pledge will help the cause, but if you'd like a credit in the game or an actual copy, you'll want to spend a respective $10 or $25. The rewards escalate quickly after that: $50 and $75 pledges first give downloadable concept art and later a digital fighting manual, while $100, $150 and $250 donations will add a very real t-shirt, a hard copy of the manual, a signed poster with a patch and eventually a signed poster. Are you a high roller? Spending $500 or $1,000 adds a signed manual as well as either the first book or whole collection of the related The Mongoliad trilogy, plus (at the higher tier) invitations to Subutai parties in Seattle. Pledges at $5,000 will supply the actual concept art; at the peak $10,000, you'll get a real longsword, lunch with Subutai and a tour of the offices. If you're game in the literal sense of the word, you'll have until mid-day on July 9th to help Neal reach the lofty $500,000 funding target.
Support for quad-core ARM CPU shows up in Apple's Xcode
The default compiler in Apple's Xcode developer tools is the LLVM-based Clang. Ars Technica reports that they received a heads-up from a developer who works on low-level ARM assembly coding that the latest version of Clang in Xcode adds support for a quad-core, ARM-based processor from Marvell -- the Armada XP. Ars confirmed that the source code for portions of Clang includes definitions (highlighted in the source code listing shown above) for an architecture type of "armv7k" and a CPU type of "pj4b." According to Ars, PJ4B is a specialized CPU design used in the Armada XP embedded processors. So, what does this all mean? The most likely interpretation is that Apple is using the Marvell chip in prototype iOS and MacBook Air devices. As Ars notes, a prototype logic board powered by the Armada XP would let Apple software engineers experiment on optimization of the two operating systems while the hardware design team finishes work on a future quad-core ARM design. Is this the A6, successor to the existing A5 processor? Most feel that the A6 is just a smaller and more efficient dual-core processor, but Ars comments that the smaller design would allow Apple to add more cores if necessary.
Quicksilver releases new beta 57
Macworld notes that my absolute favorite application, and one of the reasons I became a Mac user in the first place, is not quite as dead and gone as many people suspected. Quicksilver has released their first new stable version in two years, besides the developer leaving for greener pastures and setting the project completely open source. Unfortunately, there aren't many new features, but as Macworld says, let's be honest: you don't understand everything that's in there already. No seriously. No, seriously, you don't. What is new is compatibility with Snow Leopard (mostly -- some plugins are still lagging behind), and a host of background changes. Clang is being used as the default compiler, which the change notes say should speed up runtime significantly. Localization has been tweaked, and lots of previously buggy actions (mouse tracking on triggers, for one) have supposedly been smoothed out and improved. Not necessarily a marquee release, but at this point, any Quicksilver release is a good one. And if you've never actually used Quicksilver, well, now's a great time to start. Ostensibly, it's a app/file launcher, but the more you learn and use it, the more it becomes a "connector" for everything on your Mac. Your mind is connected to your fingers, and your fingers connect to the keyboard to invoke Quicksilver, but Quicksilver is connected to everything else.
