What is Only Up? – The story and controversy around Twitch’s latest hit game

0
18

TWITCH is always filled with the latest game that causes a big reaction from its streamers.

The most recent of these hits is Only Up, a cheap to buy ‘rage game’ that allows streamers to share their pain with their viewers.

Only Up! sees players scaling a high tower.

But what is Only Up? The game appeared as an overnight sensation, and no one had heard of it before.

Here’s everything you need to know about Twitch’s latest hit, Only Up!

What is Only Up?

Only Up! is the first and only game both developed and published by SCKR Games.

It is a vertical 3D platformer, where mistakes are punishing and can send you back to the start.

While it only takes a few hours to get to the top of the tower, players are expected to fall down many times, and start the climb over again.

This is what has led to its popularity, as people enjoy the reactions from their favourite streamers when they lose a good amount of progress.

A similar idea can be found in Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, a game where you play as a man in a pot using a sledgehammer to climb a mountain.

Why was Only Up! removed from Steam?

It is not clear why Only Up! was removed from Steam, but we have a good idea, due to what was changed in the game when it returned.

Fans noticed a giant girl was missing and had been replaced with a statue of Atlas.

People believe it was removed due to stolen assets, with many others claiming to have noticed images and sound effects from popular media.

Among assets that people claim to have seen and heard are the Final Fantasy 7 fanfare, the house from the movie Up, and the sounds from Minecraft caves.

It is believed that SCKR Games did not predict the popularity of Only Up! and believed that the theft could have flown under the radar.

Only Up! also uses a number of low-value assets purchased from the Unreal Engine Marketplace, and a text-to-speech programme for the narration.

While Only Up! was created cheaply, it is also sold for less than £10 ($10) on Steam.

Does Only Up! contain NFTs?

You cannot buy and sell NFTs while playing Only Up!

However, it does contain a huge amount of artwork that is also purchasable as NFTs.

There is a large number of Goblintown NFTs in the game, including on the back of the main character’s shirt.

Goblintown is a popular NFT collection with over 100k followers on Twitter, which sells images of plain colour squares with a goblin face at the centre.

These NFTs can now sell for up to $16k on Cryptocurrency marketplaces.

It’s unclear why these NFTs are included in the game, though it is likely that Goblintown paid for the promotion.

Goblintown NFTs are also reportedly created using an AI and do not have a human artist behind them.

Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.