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A 'Snow Crash' TV series is coming to HBO Max
Neal Stephenson's influential Snow Crash is finally poised to reach screens, although you'll have to be picky about where you watch it. HBO Max has ordered work on a TV series adaptation of the sci-fi novel that will be written and co-run by the Scott Pilgrim movie's Michael Bacall, and directed by Attack the Block's Joe Cornish. The L Word's Angela Robinson will run the show alongside Bacall.
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."
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.
The Soapbox: Applying Neal Stephenson's Innovation Starvation to MMOs
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. You've probably heard of Neal Stephenson. The celebrated sci-fi author recently released his 13th novel, Reamde, and while it treads a little closer to traditional thriller territory than some of his more cerebral efforts, it still packs a futurist punch (and even led the author to comment on MMOs, virtual worlds, and World of Warcraft in a recent interview). In addition to speculative fiction, Stephenson is also prone to the occasional essay, the latest of which found its way onto the intarwebs a few weeks ago. While not directly related to the gaming or massively multiplayer industries, the piece does feature some interesting observations about the stagnant creative culture to be found in contemporary corporate America, and Stephenson also offers plenty of food for thought that can be applied to the current state of the MMO space.
Neal Stephenson talks MMORPGs and virtual economies
"The virtual reality that we all talked about and that we all imagined 20 years ago didn't happen in the way that we predicted. It happened instead in the form of video games," says Neal Stephenson, nerd icon and noted author of Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. In a new interview at Forbes, Stephenson talks up his latest sci-fi opus, Reamde, and also offers his opinion on everything from the Metaverse to gamer stereotypes to players converting their in-game labor into real money. "It's undoubtedly happening right now on an informal level all over the place. A huge amount of money is changing hands, and the thing that prevents it from coming out into the open and working the way it's depicted in the novel is a number of legal and regulatory hang ups," Stephenson says. He also mentions his own gaming experiences as well as his new novel's tendency towards adventure in place of the brainiac speculative fiction he's famous for. Head to Forbes for the full report.
Mongoliad apps out now on iPhone and iPad
We've been following the Mongoliad project by author Neal Stephenson ever since it was announced last May, and the iOS apps for the project have finally been released on the iOS App Store. The apps are free, but you'll remember that the project is actually a subscription-based universe of fiction, so while there are some free things to read in there, you'll have to buy a membership or a subscription if you want access to everything. You can do so from directly within the app -- it's about seven bucks for more than a novel's worth of material, so it's not a bad price at all. If you already have a subscription, the app will let you access the content you've got from anywhere, and/or download them so you can read offline. Even if you're not a fan of Neal Stephenson (and you probably should be -- read Snow Crash, and then read The Diamond Age, because they're both terrific), the model itself is quite interesting. We've seen a few other publications decide to publish subscription content on iOS devices, but this is the first time we've seen a fiction author publish a novel as a subscription app. It's the kind of model that should really appeal to authors with the right audience -- we'll have to see what the response to The Mongoliad turns out to be.
Mongoliad project has launched, apps still coming soon
Neal Stephenson's Mongoliad project has launched -- you can go browse the website right now and read through the offerings available. As Cory Doctorow posts, the project is a series of episodic stories and materials portraying a universe put together by Stephenson and a few other author friends. The idea seems to be that you pay a subscription fee ($5.99 for six months, or $9.99 for a year), and then get access to whatever fiction content is being posted at that time, as well as a giant online Wikipedia-style database of the universe's background. There's not much about the story itself, but Doctorow calls it "epic, a swashbuckling swordplay novel with the sweep, charm and verve of the major Stephenson epics, such as System of the World." That right there sounds interesting enough to pay six bucks and see what's going on. Unless, that is, you want to actually wait for it on the iPhone. Originally, this was announced as a project that would make its way to mobile devices (like the iPhone), but it looks like we'll have to wait for that. The main page of the project says that they'll "soon be taking subscriptions for app delivery to some of the most popular mobile devices," so I'll probably wait on paying any money until that service comes up -- don't want to pay twice. But we'll keep an eye out for it and let you know when it's available.
Neal Stephenson's digital publishing platform adds a dash of Wiki to novel-reading
It's not surprising that this man -- the one responsible for some of our favorite sci-fi reading material -- has a vision of how books will work in the future. Neal Stephenson's company Subutai has developed a new digital publishing platform upon which The Mongoliad has just debuted. It feels like a cross between a Wiki, a glossary, and a serial novel. The first chapter of the epic fantasy novel about the Mongolian conquest is available to read online for free, but in order to access extra material and edit documents in the "'Pedia," you'll need a paid subscription. iOS apps are currently going through Apple's approval process; an Android version is also in the works. Stephenson and the Subutai team -- which includes writers Greg Bear and Mark Teppo -- promise to have a new chapter for subscribers out every week. [Image credit: jeanbaptisteparis' flickr]
Slim Amazon Kindle 'Shasta' to be first with WiFi?
You know what Amazon's Kindle doesn't have? No, we're not talking about color, the other thing. Right, WiFi. That looks set to change when the rumored slimster -- codenamed "Shasta" -- launches in August. The screencap above displaying the results of an internal Amazon device query shows entries for "Shasta" and "Shasta WiFi." That would seem to indicate that Amazon's next reader will launch in two flavors: WiFi + 3G and 3G-only (our source isn't sure). There's even an outside chance that one could be a WiFi-only device. Another grab after the break. Oh, and here's an interesting footnote: the original Kindle was apparently codenamed "Fiona" after Fiona Hackworth in Neal Stephenson's novel The Diamond Age. Many of the names in the device list above -- Nell (the protagonist), Miranda (mother figure to Nell), and Turing (i.e., Turing Machines) -- are all related to that very same story. What we can't figure out is how the word "Shasta" fits into all this so lay it on us Cyberpunks if you know. Update: Freddo411 seems to have nailed it in the comments: Shasta, Lassen, and Mazama are all volcanoes in the Cascades.
Neal Stephenson to release serialized story via mobile devices
Here's an intriguing idea: author Neal Stephenson and a few friends (including Greg Bear and Nicole Galland) are going to be releasing a set of serialized stories as apps for the iPad and the iPhone. The project is called "The Mongoliad," and is based on a world designed by Stephenson (author of the great novels Snow Crash and The Diamond Age). The apps will present "an ongoing stream of nontextual, para-narrative, and extra-narrative stuff," and even ask readers to interact and create their own stories in the universe with some "pretty cool tech." Interesting. There's not a lot of information out right now about what the project is exactly, but there is a Facebook page with a few more details, and a skeleton page where you can sign up for more information. I guess they're taking the wraps off of the project in a few days on May 25th, so presumably then you'll be able to download the app (which will also be available on Android and the Kindle), and see what it's all about. I'm a big fan of Stephenson (as anyone interested in computers and how they work probably should be), so I'm definitely intrigued about what he and his colleagues will do with Apple's platform. Stay tuned. [via SuperPunch]
The Daily Grind: What's your dream MMO?
Everybody dreams of an MMO that does everything perfectly, at least for them. Ours would be some kind of deep, communal sandbox cyberpunk affair. Something like "Bladerunner the MMO", with lots of emphasis on character customization ala All Points Bulletin and plenty of motivation for socialization. Combat would be of the third-person shooter variant, although with RPG systems coming into play via skill progression. Visually, it should focus on a style that's immediately noticeable -- not necessarily "cartoony" but definitely stylized. The overall palette would be something familiar yet grungy, as if it were right out of a William Gibson or Neal Stephenson book. Of course, this is about your dream MMO and not ours. Something tells us ours probably isn't very high on the popularity scale, anyhow. The dream often demands more than reality can deliver, but assuming your dream title could somehow manifest... what would it be?
