engine design

That's basically a "swashplate" engine - it's an old idea that keeps coming back.

It's not necessarily a bad idea. Attempts in the last 50 years have have a couple of major shortcomings:

Excess mechanica losses at the swashplate, especially at higher speeds. These tend to be limited to low speed, high torque applications.

Difficulty cooling the tightly packed cylinders. This could well be solved with more development.

Difficulty with valvetrains. Notice that the Axial folks are using electronic valve actuation, a relatively new development.

This design works well in hydraulic motors, the biggest problem that alternatives to the current standard piston engine have is the lack of development time and money. Notice how long the Wankel has been an "also ran"?