In a “final update” posted yesterday to the sword-fighting game Clang’s Kickstarter page, Neal Stephenson officially announced “the termination of CLANG.”
A year ago Stephenson said that Subutai Corporation’s development on Clang would “hit the pause button,” and insisted that “the project isn’t dead.” However, in the time since, despite “intense dedication” and “large personal contributions of time and money,” the lack of any additional funding to bring Clang to the next level has “forced the team to cut their losses and disband in search of steady work.”
Although he reiterated that Subutai Corporation “delivered the CLANG prototype and the other donor rewards as promised,” he also announced in the post that they had processed refunds for “around two dozen CLANG backers” who had requested one to date. No mention was made of additional refunds going forward, but dozens of the 100+ comments to the post are from backers requesting that they receive refunds as well.
So what’s next for Stephenson and other members of the Clang development team? We’ll have to wait and see…
…new ideas and opportunities presented themselves. These reflect a lot of experience that was gained and connections to the industry that were made during that project. Although these ideas and opportunities may ultimately wind up in some of the same places we wanted to take CLANG, they will do so in non-obvious ways, by starting from a clean sheet of paper in each case, building new teams, and pursuing projects that in some cases have no obvious connection to historical swordfighting.
I have delayed talking publicly about these projects for a long time because I kept thinking that at least one of them would reach a point where I could describe it in something other than generalities. I apologize for that delay. But now a year has passed since the last update and I’ve decided that it’s cleaner and simpler to cut the cord, and announce the termination of CLANG. Future announcements can then happen in their own good time, giving any new projects a fresh start.
Hat tip: The Verge
