In Death: Unchained’s Siege of Heaven Is Getting a Standalone Quest Release

Superbright is turning Siege of Heaven into a standalone Quest game, giving the more approachable mode in In Death: Unchained its own store presence and room for technical upgrades. The move also offers the studio a way to fund ongoing development without building a new expansion from scratch.

A separate storefront for a different audience

Siege of Heaven replaces the roguelite’s close-quarters enemies and teleport navigation with wave-based archery defense. Superbright CEO Wojtek Podgorski said on Discord that the mode is hard to discover because Unchained’s store presentation centers on its darker setting and demanding main campaign.

The problem is that outside of our community, almost nobody on Quest knows Siege of Heaven exists. Because the main mode of Unchained is our flagship experience, all of the store presence is focused on that and the dark, intense setting and demanding controls can be intimidating for more casual VR players who would actually love Siege. Giving Siege of Heaven its own spot on the store lets us finally put it in front of those players.

Superbright says 40 percent of Unchained players have tried Siege of Heaven. Players have described using it to introduce friends and family to the game’s archery without putting them in close proximity to enemies or asking them to learn teleport movement. The mode also has skill-based scoring; its standalone release will have separate leaderboards, giving experienced players a fresh start in the first season.

In Death – Siege Of Heaven: Undeniable, Accessible Wave-Based Fun

There’s something alluring about the entire creepy feel of In Death: Unchained. When that haunting chorus of voices starts up over the Superbright logo, the tone is set perfectly and you know you’re in for a good time. This isn’t a new revelation for me – In Death

UploadVRHarry Baker

A funding path alongside technical changes

The standalone edition also answers requests from the In Death: Unchained community for a paid way to support Superbright. Podgorski said the smaller team lacks the capacity to build a full DLC from scratch right now, while a separate Siege release could bring in new players and help pay for continued work. Existing players can keep accessing the mode inside Unchained without buying the new game.

There's one more big reason we're doing this, and it goes back to the messages you've been sending us. So many of you have asked us to release a paid DLC or give you some way to buy the game again just to support us and keep development going. As a smaller team, building a whole new DLC from scratch right now is a huge undertaking and we just don't have the manpower to do it.

Releasing Siege of Heaven as a standalone title is a realistic way for us to reach new players and help fund our ongoing work - and if you're one of the people who asked for a way to support us directly, picking up the standalone version (or grabbing it for a friend or family member who found the main game too intense) helps us out massively. And of course, if you'd rather just keep playing Siege inside In Death: Unchained as you always have, you don't need to buy a thing.

Separating the mode also gives Superbright room to make changes it considered too risky in the larger game. Podgorski cited a new rendering setup with Mobile HDR for richer lighting and glow, a redesigned lobby menu and new gameplay music. The team updated parts of Unchained after Quest 3 launched, but these further changes would have been difficult to introduce in its existing build.

Building it as a standalone app also let us make some upgrades under the hood that would have been impossible (or way too risky) to do inside the massive main In Death: Unchained build - most notably a new rendering setup with Mobile HDR for richer lighting and glow, a redesigned lobby menu, and new gameplay music.

Other VR studios have also split off modes or versions into separate apps: GOLF+ is preparing a standalone putting app, Combat Waffle Studios released Ghosts of Tabor: Legacy, and Soul Assembly spun off Home Invasion, the mixed reality mode from Drop Dead: The Cabin.

Superbright hasn’t announced a release date, and Siege of Heaven wasn’t listed on the Meta Horizon Store when the announcement was reported. For now, the standalone release’s clearest pitch is its combination of easier discovery, a direct support option and room for focused technical changes.