Only Up, this summer’s viral Twitch hit, has been pulled from Steam

While many streamers are constantly busy playing big new releases like Starfield, which has recently taken over from Baldur’s Gate 3, a less highly-anticipated title got a lot of attention on Twitch and YouTube earlier this summer.

The game in question, Only Up, challenged players to climb up piles of precariously placed objects in a manner that often led to frustrating falls, especially among those who had a go at beating it using their voices, their eyes, or a musical instrument.

Now, however, if you visit the game’s Steam page to try and get in on the action yourself, you’ll find that it’s no longer available, having been pulled by its creator.

Have you taken on the challenge of Only Up at any point this summer?

In an update post on Steam addressing the game’s future (thanks, PCGamesN), developer SCKR Games wrote: “I'm a solo developer and this game is my first experience in Gamedev, a game I did for creativity, to test myself, and where I made a lot of mistakes. The game has kept me under a lot of stress all these months. Now I want to put the game behind me.”

They then confirmed that the decision to pull it from Steam was theirs, adding: “What I need now is peace of mind and healing.”

That said, it seems they aren’t done with game development, revealing in the post: “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,” the developer added regarding their plans for this fresh title. “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.”

Only Up was previously pulled from Steam back in July, returning following a temporary hiatus due to the use of some copyrighted assets, which were removed before it reappeared on the platform.

The game also attracted criticism for its ties to NFTs, with various images from the Goblintown NFT series appearing in the game.

Regardless of whether you gave Only Up a go while it was available, make sure to follow us for coverage of some interesting streamers.