Solely Up! Is a brutal janky platformer that blew up on Steam earlier this summer season after turning into a success with Twitch viewers. Various controversies later, its creator has eliminated the sport from Valve’s digital storefront seemingly perpetually, saying they made a variety of errors and wish time to heal earlier than making their subsequent recreation.
“The sport has stored me below a variety of stress all these months,” the sport’s developer, Indiesolodev, wrote in what seems to be the ultimate replace for Solely Up! (through PCGamesN). “Now I wish to put the sport behind me. And sure. the sport gained’t be out there within the Steam retailer quickly, that’s what I made a decision myself.” The sport now exhibits as “not out there” on its retailer web page, although gamers who already bought it nonetheless have entry.
A parkour recreation about always ascending to new heights, Solely Up! launched again in Might and rose to recognition in June with over 10,000 concurrent gamers and 90,000 viewers on Twitch. Critiques of the sport’s precise high quality had been combined, nevertheless, with some gamers praising the surreal and capricious 3D platforming whereas others critiqued its glitchy physics and hasty design filled with what seemed to be low-cost asset flips.
A success amongst Twitch streamers who discovered viewers had been drawn to it as a form of voyeuristic failure porn, Solely Up! was however briefly pulled from Steam for a day in July after it was accused of stealing one other developer’s copyrighted 3D anime mannequin. As PC Gamer identified on the time, the sport additionally seemed to be loosely affiliated with NFTs, from photographs of Goblintown tokens showing in ranges to the title itself which is a standard rallying cry amongst crypto scammers.
“What I want now could be peace of thoughts and therapeutic,” Indiesolodev wrote in at the moment’s replace. “I plan to take a pause, and proceed my training in recreation design and additional with new expertise and information to direct my energies to my subsequent recreation.” They’re sophomore challenge is at the moment titled “Kith,” which suggests mates or acquaintances, although it’s additionally the title of a well-liked streetwear model. Indiesolodev describes it as utterly completely different from Solely Up! with an emphasis on “cinematography.”
“This time I hope the challenge shall be created by a small group,” they wrote. “It is a difficult challenge on which I wish to considerably enhance my abilities in recreation design.”
Some gamers are already mourning Solely Up!’s surprising disappearance, asking why Indiesolodev didn’t simply determine to provide it away without cost. However many of the feedback on their replace are simply congratulating them for making a viral recreation out of nowhere. “You probably did a incredible job with this recreation and needs to be nothing however happy with your self,” wrote the_drummernator. “I’ve had an amazing expertise with it to this point, and eventually attending to the highest after many setbacks was very fulfilling.”