Starting life as a Bigmode jam game in early 2026, Bas takes some of the core concepts of the original game jam game that lead to it mixes it up with a new aesthetic, and builds out a fully fledged offering of arcade modes, and a single-player story mode. Development was restarted in June 2026 as the game was converted from messy gamejam code to being built upon the Unity asset Top Down Engine. This has been critical in building out a game with two very different modes that ultimately need to work off the same basic concepts.
Before we dive in any further though... are you based in Chicago, Illinois? The very first demo of Bás: They Must Die will be playable at the Chicago Indie Game Showcase (CIGS, for short) this Sunday, September 13th. Buy tickets at https://www.indiecitygames.org/calendar/cigs-2026 (use code "dumpsterdiver" without quotes for 15% off). The demo will be focused exclusively on the "Choreographed Chaos" mode in Arcade.
Story Mode
Set in a dying, abstract world you play as a marfóir, one chosen to bring redemption to the masses. You will do whatever it takes to bring about their demise. You will bloody your hands for the liberation of the people. You will ensure that your one directive is met: They. Must. Die. You'll explore a vast overworld filled with secrets, fight your way through dungeons, and face off against larger-scale bosses all while upgrading your arsenal of weapons and learning new skills to traverse the world around you.
We'll be talking about the overworld more later on, but you can catch an early glimpse of it in the reveal trailer. You'll see the player interact with an NPC, use a grappling hook to traverse a gap and upgrade their health, and get into an encounter with some enemies.
Arcade Mode
Arcade Mode is really a suite of modes. There will be a classic Geometry Wars or Robotron style survival mode - simply last as long as you can and aim for the highest score. But, we'll also have other unique modes, like "Choreographed Chaos", where enemies are spawned in to the level based on the music utilizing a Unity asset called Koreographer. This will be the focus of the CIGS demo.
Let's talk about that some more.
CIGS Demo
By the time the game is shown at CIGS, the game will have been in development for about three months. Tehre's still lots of work to be done, from gameplay feel to visuals to bug fixing. This is a super early version of the game, and the footage in the reveal trailer reflects that as well. Hell, the build of the game at CIGS already looks fairly different from what's in the trailer footage. Nailing the feel for Bás is extremely important, so getting it in front of people early and often is a priority. And changes to things like feel and enemy behavior impact the story mode as well. While the player will evolve over the course of the story, it's an important design pillar that the same tools, abilities, and feel persist across both (although not every mode will enable every skill, for example you can't use the grapple hook in the mode being showcased in the demo).
There will be two demo stations available: one running on a Steam Machine and one on a Steam Deck which is to say, that getting this thing working well on SteamOS is another priority for the game. Folks who play the game will also get a free sticker (well, assuming they're ready for pickup in time) of the marfóir.
And that's it for now! Stay tuned, October will feature new gameplay footage alongside a dev diary about the game's inspirations, showing it at CIGS, and what's next.