Neal Stephenson

Clang, the sword-fighting video game project led by sci-fi author Neal Stephenson, surpassed its $500,000 goal on Kickstarter over the weekend and has now raised more than $526,000 as the crowdsourced funding campaign draws to a close.

It’s the latest in a series of high-profile game projects funded through Kickstarter. The project by Stephenson’s Subutai Corp. is aiming to develop the most realistic sword-fighting game on the planet, as explained by the author in what we consider one of the greatest Kickstarter pitch videos ever made.

Existing investors in the project include Valve’s Gabe Newell, Jeff Bezos’ venture capital firm, and movie production company Kennedy/Marshall Company.

Subutai plans to draw on the talents of Stephenson and other sci-fi writers (Greg Bear also is an advisor) to create an immersive new PC arena game experience. (Some of the writings that will be featured in the game are already being published by 47 North, Amazon.com’s sci-fi publishing house). Subutai also plans to make the underlying technology available for others to use to make games.

Here’s that great pitch video again for anyone who missed it.

[Thanks to to Isaac Alexander for the tip]

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