Stick it to the Stickman

In Stick it to the Stickman, players must fight their way through the floors of a corporate skyscraper (and beyond), eliminating colleagues and superiors to ultimately take over the CEO’s position in this roguelite physics brawler (beat'em up). The game satirises the modern world of work and capitalism, where nothing is ever enough, and features an extremely chaotic, slapstick combat system. As well as classic punches and kicks, players can access an arsenal of bizarre abilities and weapons, including chainsaws, fireballs, parcel bombs, staple guns and jackhammers, as well as many other surprises. These can be added to and upgraded within their combo arsenal during a run. The combat and combo system is fairly simple and 'wobbly', but offers satisfying hit feedback and unleashes utter chaos. There are also many office archetypes, including temps, caffeine addicts, ninjas, negotiators, and egomaniacs, and cooperative play is available both locally and via Remote Play.

During a run, players can unlock new upgrades and level up their abilities. If they die, they have to start the run again, although new characters and fighting styles can be permanently unlocked. However, over time, the humour and gameplay can become repetitive, which is why the game introduces mini-games that offer a similar level of silliness, absurdity and hilarity. These include a minimalist, top-down retro open world that strongly resembles the original Grand Theft Auto games. Here, players must carry out illegal corporate activities to drive up the share price, complete with a wanted level.

Version 1.0 of Stick it to the Stickman features two new game modes. In Billionaire Bunker, players fight their way from the top to the very bottom using new passives and special moves. In Neurolink, players select from nine archetypes and use mind powers to survive. This mode is essentially survival-like, and is also packed with perks, upgrades, and crazy build options. Unlike in the standard game, where players control every combat action or combo with a button press, the character's mental abilities trigger automatically.

Free Lives from South Africa is the studio behind Stick it to the Stickman. Based in Cape Town, the studio is best known for Broforce, Gorn, Terra Nil, Anger Foot, Cricket Through the Ages and Genital Jousting. The team has been working on the game since 21 January 2021. To mark the launch of version 1.0, Free Lives wrote: "Five years, eight months, and two days ago, the "Boss-fighter" Github repository was birthed into this world and received its first commit. The plan was simple, a Stickman game where you beat up your coworker and press Z to attack. The plan was to make it less complicated than all our other ideas… but that plan changed when over a million people played the prototype. (...) Five years, eight months, and two days is a long time to wake up every morning and 'Get Back To Work' on the same project. We did our best to do the game justice, and to make something that players would love, but we found we couldn’t finish everything we started. Game modes we teased, like the Marketing Department, the Robot Takeover of Fulfilment, the Science Center and Employee Evaluation Trials would have taken another year (or more) to finish, and it's time for this team to move on."

The game's publisher, Devolver Digital, is set to release a number of titles in 2026, including Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 (Auroch Digital) on 14 October, Virtue and a Sledgehammer (Deconstructeam, Selkie Harbour) on 27 October, Volvy's Adventure: Reslimed (doinksoft) on 19 November 2026 and the major Risen Ballbylon expansion for Ball X Pit (Kenny Sun and Friends) on 12 November 2026.

Stick it to the Stickman was launched on 23 September 2026 for PC at a price of €11.99. A major optimisation update, bug fixes, Steam Trading Cards and other community features, as well as minor refinements, are planned for the coming weeks.

Conclusion

Stick it to the Stickman is a highly entertaining physics brawler that’s as funny as it is chaotic.

Features

• Funny, chaotic physics brawler
• Lots of moves, mini-games and modes
• Satire on the modern world of work and corporate greed