Neal Stephenson's Clang sword fighting game reaches Kickstarter goal

The Kickstarter drive for author Neal Stephenson's sword fighting game, Clang, has reached its funding goal.

With eight hours to go (at the time of writing), the total stands at $518,830. The goal was $500,000.

That's a fairly close finish.

Nine people pledged an astonishing $10,000. Eight of those people opted for the real-life, specially designed longsword. They'll also be invited on a studio tour of developer Subutai, and have lunch with the team. Plus all the other rewards.

The ninth $10,000 pledger opted for a real-life Gotlandic war knife, which is more of a short-sword than a knife. They'll also be invited for the tour and lunch as well as get all the other rewards.

Clang's a very nerdy sword fighting game for PC that will be controlled by Razer's Hydra motion sensing controller, which is very similar to PlayStation Move.

Clang's aim is to be as realistic a simulation of sword fighting as is technically possible.

The initial focus will be on longsword fighting, with scope for more styles and techniques to be added further down the line. Subutai will heartily encourage user-generated content as well.

Clang has no release date yet, but with sensibly-restricted design goals - at least at this stage - we've faith that this will see the light of day.

Eurogamer spoke to eccentric project figurehead Neal Stephenson in a Skype video call recently. He was on a treadmill throughout.

Below is Stephenson's most recent Clang project update all the way from CombatCon. It's very entertaining.