Indie platformer Only Up! has been pulled from Steam for a second time—though this time it's seemingly forever—with its developer saying they need "peace of mind and healing". Their Twitter account also appears to have vanished.
In a post on Steam regarding the game's future, 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. And yes, the game won't be available in the steam store soon, that's what I decided myself. What I need now is peace of mind and healing."
It seems like this won't be the last we see of SCKR Games, however. "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,'" the post continued. "It will be a new experience and a new concept with realism, a completely different genre and setting, and the emphasis 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."
Only Up! proved a smash hit on Twitch over the summer, with streamers like xQc taking on its janky platforming in front of thousands of viewers. Its popularity was soon tainted with accusations of asset ripping and copyright infringement, however, such as the inclusion of Final Fantasy's iconic Victory Fanfare theme and models allegedly ripped from other games. It was also criticised for its use of images from the Goblintown NFT series, which were peppered throughout the game as well as being present on the character's jacket.
The game was already delisted once back in June, around the same time German artist Aboulicious accused SCKR of misusing a 3D model they had created. The model of an anime girl was subsequently removed but appears to have been added back in as a final fix before SCKR delisted the game for good: "Hi everyone, waifu is back, thanks Aboulicious."
