Viral Hit Only Up! Pulled From Steam by Creator Due to ‘Stress’

The creator of viral Steam hit Only Up! has pulled the game from the storefront, citing “stress”.

Only Up! is a rock-hard physics-based platformer that went viral in May after high-profile streamers and YouTubers showcased their often futile attempts to make it to the top.

In an update on Steam spotted by PCGamesN, Only Up!’s creator described themselves as a solo developer, and said the unexpected hit was their first experience of video game development.

Only Up! is “a game I did for creativity, to test myself, and where I made a lot of mistakes” they admitted. “The game has kept me under a lot of stress all these months. Now I want to put the game behind me.”

The developer, who published Only Up! on Steam under the name SCKR Games, said they were moving on to their next game, codenamed Kilth.

“What I need now is peace of mind and healing,” they continued. “I plan to take a pause, and continue my education in game design and further with new experience and knowledge to direct my energies to my next game with the working title ‘Kith’ — it will be a new experience and a new concept with realism, a completely different genre and setting, and the emphasis is on cinematography.

“This time I hope the project will be created by a small team. This is a challenging project on which I want to significantly improve my skills in game design.”

This isn’t the first time Only Up! has been pulled from Steam. At the end of June the game was removed from Valve’s platform due to the use of copyrighted assets, but returned a day later with the infringing assets removed.

This appears to have been a recurring problem. In an update dated July 5, the developer said an “anime girl” asset “got into the game by mistake”, but had resolved the issue with the asset’s creator “on friendly terms”.

“Thanks to those who noticed the flaws in the game,” the developer said at the time. “Sometimes novice developers find themselves in such situations, and even official marketplaces for developers can sell kits containing other people’s assets.

“It’s tricky to follow and humble young developers are not safe. But thanks to those authors who are sympathetic and friendly to colleagues.”

Only Up! was also found to have quietly promoted NFTs.

The comments from the creator of Only Up! echo those of Dong Nguyen, creator of 2014 mobile phenomenon Flappy Bird, who pulled the game from the App Store and Google Play. At the time, Nguyen said he felt guilty that Flappy Bird had become “an addictive product”, and that his life had become uncomfortable. “I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a mistake. I have thought it through.”

At the time of publication, Only Up! is unavailable to buy from Steam, although its Steam page remains online. The game’s title was changed to “not available”, and its developer renamed to “
Indiesolodev”. Only Up!’s mostly positive user review rating and near 13,000 user reviews remain online.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].