Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
Earlier this year, Only Up! was released on Steam and exploded in popularity, primarily thanks to a plethora of streamers and creators who featured the game in their content. The 3D platformer has been compared to the likes of Jump King and Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, but its story has taken an unexpected turn. Only Up! has been delisted from Steam, with the developer citing stress.
Following Only Up!’s recent Steam delisting, PCGamesN spotted a note from the developer on the game’s Steam page, which provides some explanation behind the decision.
I’m a solo developer and this game is my first experience in game dev, 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.
They go on to reveal that they are in the early phases of development on their next game, which currently has the working title “Kith.” They also said that they plan to develop it with a small team, instead of doing the entire thing solo like with Only Up!
Many have compared Only Up!’s delisting to Flappy Bird, the popular mobile game that was pulled from the App Store and Google Play Store after developer Dong Nguyen expressed feelings of stress and guilt associated with the game.
Only Up!’s deceptively simple premise tasked players with ascending through the sky by climbing and platforming. It’s rage-inducing nature made it excellent livestream and YouTube video material, and it quickly became one of the year’s most popular indies after releasing in May.