The shooter is one of the most fundamental design templates, and so one of the most fruitful to dissect. On the analytical end, see Kenta Cho, Treasure, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and the Geometry Wars games.

Theta Games’ Ceramic Shooter – Electronic Poem, released about a month ago and slowly gaining attention, similarly takes advantage of the form.

Like a Minotaur in a Ceramic Labyrinth, I Fly This Broken Ship

Though it’s certainly not the first “anti-shooter”, where the goal is more to avoid conflict than to blast everything in sight, CSEP has a delightfully personal touch, and a mesmeric elegance of design. It’s impossible to stop shooting, and damage to objects counts exactly the same as damage to your own ship. The goal is to get through the game while causing as little harm as possible, all the while musing along to the excellent soundtrack and snippets of free-form poetry that sail your way.

In some ways it’s the game that Ikaruga wants you to find under its surface, made more overt and more contemplative. Go check it out for free at YoYo Games.