The upcoming 2D dodge-em-up game Swordship is reminiscent of a 2D shmup, but you don’t fire bullets. Rather, you dodge things and obstacles coming at you and from all sides as you’re speeding in your titular Swordship on the sea.

Developer Digital Kingdom and publisher Thunderful has unleashed a developer commentary video talking about the game’s key features and mechanics.

According to SwordshipGame Designer Sandro, and Lead Artist Ben, from Digital Kingdom, they wanted to explore the fast-paced chase characteristics of action franchises such as Fast & Furious and James Bond. The key element in Swordship is that there are no offensive weapons. Players must use their streamlined abilities, tactics and elements around them to zig-zag, dodge and weave in and out of explosions, turning enemies’ attacks against them, and causing collisions at the last second.

In terms of game design, Digital Kingdom decided to work with a reversed camera angle which allows players to feel the chase and always be in the action. The roguelike structure of Swordship allows many elements to interact with each other, giving a fresh aspect of discovering new things on each new run.

Sounds like the “anti-shmup” we need in our lives. I always felt my dodging in the 2D space needed some work, which means Swordship could be the practice tool I need. Swordship will be slipstreaming its way on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC this 5th December; it’ll be out on Xbox on 6th December.