Science fiction author Neal Stephenson has been researching sword fighting for years, seeking to gain intricate granular knowledge of weaponry and fighting styles. Now he’s posted a project on Kickstarter to fund a new game that will accurately portray sword fighting.

I don’t know about you but when I’m playing a game and trying to slay a dragon in space, my chief complaint is a lack of realism.
The game would be just the start of a larger project to transfer the ideas of Stephenson’s books into a sort of interactive online experience where, I guess, people could whack each other with swords realistically.

The BBC says it will build on the work of a company called Subutai, which Stephenson founded:

“There’s a galaxy of real weapon styles and variations just waiting to be incorporated into games,” he said. “It’s the same story with fighting styles.”
Using in-house sword makers and martial arts experts Subutai has built up a huge corpus of data about how to translate different weapons and combat moves into digital equivalents.
Mr Stephenson is seeking funds to pay developers to create a simple arena-style multi-player game in which people take each other on in sword fights.