Twitch phenomenon, Only Up! has been pulled from Steam with its developer, as indicated above, relaying that they plan to have the game available in the future. The widely speculated reason for the game disappearing from the marketplace is that many of its foreground and background monuments and environmental work likely pulled assets from a database and some of those featured copyrighted models and artwork. One of the 2D/3D artists to bring up the game using their works without credit or compensation was German artist Aboulicious on Twitter:

It is worth noting Aboulicious' model is free on Sketchlab as they uploaded it under the Creative Commons licensing structure. However, as Only Up! initially charged users $10 to play it, its entry price made it a commercial product and thus in violation of the Creative Commons licensing structure. Other known assets that led to calls of the game using "stolen assets" can also be found on Sketchlab leading some to suspect the developer may have batch downloaded content listed as "Free" on Sketchlad or other databases without checking the rights agreements to those models.

Likewise, many users voiced displeasure in the game using artwork that promoted NFTs and blockchain companies. The game's developers have yet to clarify if they designed Only Up to promote investments in or actions associated with NFTs. For example, the hoodie worn by the player character in Only Up! is the logo of an NFT creation outfit known as Goblintown and they have repeatedly used the game's burgeoning popularity to try and redirected players to its NFTs goods and marketplace.

However, it seems some of these NFT-derived assets may have been included in the same asset directory that included copyrighted artwork. Despite the game being pulled, people who already have a copy of it can continue playing it. As a result, the game remains one of the most watched titles on Twitch despite not being available to download. Nonetheless, does this controversy impact your ability to seek joy from it or relate to the streaming excitement surrounding it?

It’s been a ride watching this “genre” evolve its way to the mainstream.

-Sexy Hiking, an extremely obscure Czech game

-Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, inspired by Sexy Hiking. A deeply weird, philosophical game, that has indie cred but also pretty wide appeal

-Jump King, the most absolutely straightforward Flash platformer version of Getting Over It’s structure that one could possibly create

-Only Up, which I’ll concede the dev had to put some thought into for the level design, but otherwise feels like an absolutely soulless asset rip for the Roblox generation. God help us all

@zombiepie: I heard Grubb and Lucy mention the stolen assets on UPF but they weren't too clear on what happened. So, thanks for this write up. You do good work.

I think you hit the nail on the head with the developer just not understanding the limitations of Creative Commons Licensing, but that could be me just giving them the benefit of the doubt. It just feels more like the creator of the hoodie NFT artwork is trying to piggy back on the popularity of the game, as opposed to the game trying to push NFTs.

When I first saw it, I thought it was endlessly procedurally generated, and I think I'd prefer it that way.

It didn't take them long to get it up again.