Stick It to the Stickman 1.0 Turns the Corporate Ladder Into a Physics-Based Roguelite Beat ’Em Up

Some games let you climb the corporate ladder by networking. Stick It to the Stickman has a different performance review process.

Free Lives’ workplace brawler spent just over a year in Early Access after launching on August 18, 2025, and its full release arrives with a wonderfully easy pitch: build increasingly ridiculous fighting styles, survive increasingly ridiculous offices, and become the boss by physically removing the competition.

It is silly, but there is a real game underneath the slapstick. Physics can turn a clean attack into a pileup. Roguelite progression encourages different combinations of moves and passives. Separate modes keep changing what your latest doomed employee is actually trying to accomplish. And the corporate satire gives the violence a joke that extends beyond “stick figures are funny when they fall down.”

What is Stick It to the Stickman?

Stick It to the Stickman is a physics-based action roguelite from Free Lives, the studio behind games including Broforce and Anger Foot.

The basic goal could probably fit into an HR complaint: beat up enough coworkers to become the boss.

You pick and combine attacks from a pool of hundreds of moves, then throw your increasingly questionable build at offices full of red stickmen. Punches and kicks are only the beginning. Staple guns, fireballs, jackhammers, chainsaws, exploding heart punches, weapons, passive abilities, and stranger options gradually turn the employee into less of a martial artist and more of a workplace accident with legs.

That would already work as a slapstick brawler. The roguelite structure is what gives the joke some staying power. Runs become opportunities to experiment with different archetypes and combinations instead of simply repeating the same combo string through another corridor.

The joke works because the combat has real buildcraft

The most interesting thing about Stick It to the Stickman is that it does not separate the comedy from the mechanics. The physics are part of the comedy.

A conventional beat ’em up usually rewards reliable spacing, combos, enemy management, and increasingly confident execution. Stickman keeps enough of that foundation to remain an action game, then allows bodies, furniture, momentum, weapons, windows, and questionable special moves to mess with the plan.

That changes the appeal. You are not necessarily chasing frame-perfect combat. You are assembling a fighting style and seeing what happens when it collides with a room full of equally disposable employees.

The pool of moves is especially important because it turns progression into experimentation. One run can lean into direct melee attacks. Another can become more dependent on weapons or unusual abilities. Passives and archetypes push those builds further.

The trade-off is obvious: players who want the precise, authored combat rhythm of a traditional fighting game or classic arcade brawler may find the physics intentionally unruly. Stick It to the Stickman wants the plan to work, but it also seems delighted when the plan falls down the stairs.

What version 1.0 adds

The September 23 launch is more than a version number change. Version 1.0 arrives with two new modes, Billionaire Bunker and Neurolink, alongside additional characters, bosses, and level segments.

Billionaire Bunker

Billionaire Bunker sends you from the top of the bunker toward the bottom, picking up new passives and special moves on the way before reaching an appropriately absurd final boss.

It is a good fit for a game obsessed with turning organizational charts into level design. The corporate ladder has finally become a literal downward assault on whoever thought hiding underground would save them from the employee evaluation process.

Neurolink

Neurolink takes another route. It lets you choose from nine archetypes and adds mind powers to the survival equation, giving the final version another space for strange builds rather than simply extending an existing campaign with more rooms.

The road to 1.0 also came with a notable scope decision. Free Lives announced in August that the team was prioritizing the modes players were most interested in and ending development on unfinished concepts including Rise of the Machines and Marketing Department. The studio openly connected that choice to the project’s development burden and the wellbeing of its reduced team.

That is worth mentioning because “1.0” does not mean every Early Access idea survived unchanged. It means Free Lives chose a finish line, focused on the parts it wanted to complete, and actually crossed it.

Solo, couch co-op, and chaotic teamwork

Stick It to the Stickman can be played solo, but its physical comedy also makes obvious sense with another person on the same screen.

Steam lists shared / split-screen co-op plus Remote Play Together, meaning a friend can join the workplace violence remotely through Steam without the game becoming a conventional online matchmaking brawler.

That distinction matters. If you want ranked online fights or a competitive PvP ladder, this is not trying to fill that role. The multiplayer appeal is cooperative chaos: two people, a room full of targets, a large collection of bad ideas, and an increasingly questionable interpretation of teamwork.

The Level Builder makes the office somebody else’s problem

The other big replayability layer is the Level Builder and Steam Workshop.

Free Lives added the builder during Early Access, allowing players to create their own workplaces and customize things such as enemies, player abilities, weapons, visual details, and props before sharing creations through the Workshop.

That matters because Stickman’s core joke is unusually well suited to user-created nonsense. A tightly scripted story eventually runs out of punchlines. A toolkit that lets the community build new arenas, encounters, and bizarre combat situations gives the game somewhere to go after the official corporate structure has been demolished.

It also separates Stickman from plenty of compact roguelite brawlers. The official modes provide the progression and authored challenges, while Workshop creations can become the place where balance goes on annual leave.

What should Stick It to the Stickman fans play next?

If Stickman’s mix of slapstick combat, roguelite repetition, local chaos, and Free Lives energy works for you, these games scratch different parts of the same itch.

Who is Stick It to the Stickman for?

Stick It to the Stickman makes the most sense for players who like systems capable of producing their own punchlines. The appeal is not just watching a stickman get kicked through office furniture. It is choosing a strange collection of moves, trying to make the build work, and watching physics decide whether your promotion strategy was genius or catastrophic.

It should be especially interesting if you enjoy roguelite experimentation, compact action games, local co-op, absurd physical comedy, or the particular brand of aggressive silliness Free Lives has already explored in games such as Broforce and Anger Foot.

It is a weaker fit if you mainly want a long narrative campaign, highly technical competitive fighting, or traditional online matchmaking. The unpredictability is part of the point here. Anyone who wants every attack to produce exactly the same clean result may eventually feel like the only sane person trapped in a very bad quarterly meeting.

More roguelites and beat ’em ups on G2A News

• Games Like Absolum – more options if the roguelite beat ’em up combination is the part you want most.
• 10 Best Roguelike Games to Play – a broader look at games built around repeated runs and changing possibilities.
• Roguelike vs Roguelite: What’s the Difference? – useful if the terminology surrounding games like Stickman has started becoming its own boss fight.

Stick It to the Stickman FAQ

When did Stick It to the Stickman leave Early Access?

Stick It to the Stickman reached version 1.0 on September 23, 2026, after entering Steam Early Access on August 18, 2025.

What did the 1.0 update add?

The full release adds Billionaire Bunker and Neurolink, plus new characters, bosses, level segments, passives, special moves, and other additions. Neurolink features nine archetypes and mind powers, while Billionaire Bunker builds toward the game’s final corporate confrontation.

Can you play Stick It to the Stickman with a friend?

Yes. Steam lists shared / split-screen co-op and Remote Play Together alongside the single-player mode. It is built around cooperative play rather than traditional online competitive matchmaking.

The corporate ladder is ready for demolition

Stick It to the Stickman has the kind of pitch that works before you even see it move: take a roguelite, fill it with physics-driven beatings, turn corporate promotion into the progression fantasy, then let players assemble combat builds out of increasingly stupid ways to injure coworkers.

Version 1.0 gives that idea a proper finish line. Billionaire Bunker pushes toward the top-level corporate absurdity the premise has been promising, Neurolink adds another excuse to build strange fighters, and the Level Builder gives the community room to make the workplace even less compliant with basic safety regulations.

Plenty of games ask you to become stronger.

This one asks you to become management.