Removal from Steam

Only Up! was removed from Steam on June 30, 2023, after numerous assets in the game were found to be copyright violations.^[7] This notably included "Blanket in the Wind" by Aboulicious, a 3D model of a girl released under a non-commercial license.^[7][8] The game additionally contained sound effects from Final Fantasy VII and Minecraft. SCKR Games consequently removed all copyrighted material and relaunched Only Up! on July 1.^[9] They also contacted Aboulicious for the creation of a replacement of their model.^[4][10]

On September 7, 2023, SCKR Games removed Only Up! from Steam permanently, citing stress.^[4][11] They said they needed "peace of mind and healing" and sought to move on from the game.^[2] Additionally, SCKR Games announced Kith as their next game, saying it would be vastly different from Only Up!.^[12]

Promotions of non-fungible tokens

Blockchain games that buy and sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) had been banned from Steam since October 2021.^[13] Only Up! placed images from the Goblintown NFT series on the player character's shirt and as one of the masks found in the starting area.^[9][14] The NFT series later sold clothing based on the game.^[14] As Truth Labs had released Goblintown under a Creative Commons 0 license, which allows for commercial use, it is unknown whether SCKR Games had partnered with Truth Labs.^[15]

Initial reception

Only Up! garnered popularity shortly after its release. By late June of 2023, it was among the most popular games on Twitch, a video game livestreaming service, at 85,000 total viewers.^[16][17] Livestreamers and speedrunners shared themselves rage quitting after falling down and losing progress from the absence of a save system.^[16][18]

Critical reception

Many reviewers felt that Only Up!'s gameplay was stressful—which is what made the game go viral^[16]—and that it was similar to the platform game Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy.^[19][20][21] Ayuo Kawase of Automaton Media praised the "high feeling of tension" players felt while in the game.^[1] Writing for TechRadar, Elie Gould believed that Only Up! could give the player "a slight adrenaline boost" with the thought that they could lose their progress by making a simple mistake.^[19] Ben Lyons of Gamereactor noted the lack of checkpoints and wrote that players must figure out a way to navigate obstacles without falling.^[20] Dexerto's Rishabh Sabarwal summarized the "captivating" gameplay, writing that the player, when close to winning, could fall at any moment, thus losing significant progress.^[21]

Most critics felt that the graphics of Only Up! were poorly constructed. Christian Harrison of Try Hard Guides, Gould, and Lyons felt that the obstacles and overall design were not polished.^[19][20][22] Lyons and Sabarwal stated that the hidden Easter eggs in each section could surprise the player.^[20][21] Although Kawase wrote that Only Up! was "poorly optimized",^[1] Harrison noted that the game's graphics settings were set to their maximum.^[22] Harrison considered it a "rushed cash grab".^[22] Gould, Lyons, and Sabarwal expressed similar sentiments and felt that Only Up! was not unique.^[19][20][21]

Accolades

OnlyUp Fortnite

OnlyUp Fortnite is a custom Fortnite map created by a user known as ARMY. The adaptation shares most gameplay aspects with its predecessor while adding Fortnite references.^[25] With eight times the player count of the original Only Up!, the Fortnite version had over 100,000 players in early July 2023.^[26]