A very similar looking game, and name, but who's behind it?
Update: Only Up 2 is now available on Steam, having launched on Monday, December 18. It costs around $8. At time of writing it is rated Negative based on 36 reviews.
Original Story:
If you take a look over what games are coming to Steam this month, you may be surprised to see that a sequel to the short-lived viral hit Only Up is fast approaching. However, everything is not as it seems.
This new game, arriving on the Steam store on December 18 is titled Only Up 2 — but despite looking like a carbon copy of the original (which itself faced accusations of plagiarism), and sporting a name which makes it sound like a direct follow-up, it actually has nothing to do with the developer of the first Only Up game.
You may remember that earlier in the year vertical platformer Only Up had something of a viral moment, becoming a real flash-in-the-pan hit — in large parts thanks to Twitch streamers picking up and playing the hard-as-nails precision platformer on stream, catapulting the rather unpolished game into the spotlight, albeit briefly.
The game, which offered up something of a 3D take on Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, challenged players with climbing a bizarre array of items, reaching ever higher and increasingly dizzying heights. Falling was a costly and frustrating reality of playing the infuriating game, as evidenced by the countless rage compilations that quickly popped up following the game’s release.
However, Only Up and developer SCKR soon faced controversy due to allegations that various in-game assets, such as 3D models, were being used without the permission of their respective copyright holders. This resulted in the game being pulled from sale temporarily, going back up on the Steam store, before being ultimately taken down completely, for good by the solo developer — who cited experiencing stress from the entire experience.
In a final patch note update shared on the Steam page for the game the developer shared that working on this project was their “first experience in game dev” and was something they did to test their skills and creativity, adding that they “made a lot of mistakes” along the way.
The developer (Indiesolodev of SCKR) noted that working on Only Up had kept them “under a lot of stress all these months” and they wanted to now “put the game behind” them. Drawing a line under their time working on Only Up, the developer shared that they are now looking ahead, and working on their next project Kith.
It’s here where Only Up 2 comes in.
As the screenshots shared to Steam show, this upcoming game looks incredibly similar to the troubled SCKR original.
The developer/publisher currently listed for Only Up 2 is 'SKYZ Studio', itself a name that's awfully similar to SCKR — the developer of the original Only Up. I'd say it's clear that this is clone is trying to ride on the earlier, short-lived success of the rough and ready first entry.
We couldn't find any further information about SKYZ Studio.
I guess if you wanted to try Only Up but missed out on it before it was pulled from Steam, then this rather flagrant, brash dupe will likely do the job — but it's existence sure does highlight a weird quirk of the open nature of Steam — where, without any curation, anyone can come and ride on the coattails of others until otherwise stopped.
