Beat down, red stick-figure coworkers. Climb the org chart one violent promotion at a time. Reach the top floor and become the boss. Free Lives — the Cape Town studio behind Broforce and Anger Foot — has taken Stick It to the Stickman out of Early Access and into full 1.0 release through Devolver Digital, roughly thirteen months after its August 2025 debut, with 300,000 wishlists accumulated along the way.
Hundreds of Techniques, One Corporate Ladder
The premise is direct: defeat waves of red stick-figure employees, advance rank by rank, and eventually reach the CEO position at the top of the organization. What fills that loop is combinatorial combat depth — hundreds of techniques available for players to combine into a personal fighting style, ranging from straightforward punches and kicks through incendiary and explosive attacks, up to staple guns, fireballs, jackhammers, and chainsaws. Players can throw themselves into the middle of office politics solo or bring a partner along for co-op runs.
What 1.0 Adds
Free Lives — known for the exaggerated action and black comedy running through Broforce, Anger Foot, and this month’s earlier coverage of Dressmaker (their tonally opposite cozy sewing sim under the Cozy Lives label) — brings that same physics-driven, over-the-top comedic sensibility to the full release, backed by two entirely new modes.
Billionaire Bunker sends players fighting from the top floor down to the bottom, using new passive abilities and finishing moves along the way to reach a final boss encounter — inverting the game’s usual bottom-to-top corporate climb into a descent instead.
Neurolink asks players to pick one of nine archetypes, each granting a distinct superpower, and survive on that power alone. New characters, bosses, and stage sections round out the 1.0 content beyond the two new modes.
The Free Lives and Devolver Pattern
Free Lives operates out of Cape Town, South Africa, with Broforce, Anger Foot, and Terra Nil as its prior notable releases — the studio’s range spans from Stick It to the Stickman‘s violent slapstick to Terra Nil‘s contemplative reverse-city-builder to Dressmaker‘s cozy sewing simulation, a genuinely wide creative spread from one studio. Devolver Digital’s publishing relationship here continues a track record that includes Cult of the Lamb, Hotline Miami, and Enter the Gungeon — publisher and developer both operating with established, specific creative identities rather than chasing genre trends.
The Early Access Numbers Behind the Launch
The 300,000 wishlist figure comes directly from the developer, accumulated across the full Early Access period. Early in that period, the game held Very Positive status on Steam at 97.2% positive, with reported sales above 45,000 units and peak concurrent players above 2,400 — the specific early-period numbers that established the game’s Early Access trajectory before this month’s full 1.0 launch and its accompanying content expansion.
Who This Is For
Strong fit for: physics-based beat-’em-up fans who want hundreds of combinable techniques rather than a fixed moveset; Broforce and Anger Foot players who want Free Lives’ exaggerated comedic action applied to office-politics satire; co-op players looking for a violent, absurdist shared experience; players who followed the Early Access period and want the two new 1.0 modes; Korean-language players (supported at launch).
Cautious fit for: players who want a large post-1.0 review base before purchasing (freshly launched); anyone who prefers structured, non-roguelike fighting game progression.
Less ideal for: players who dislike physics-based slapstick violence; anyone seeking narrative depth over arcade combat progression; players wanting single-player-only design without the co-op option factored in.
The Takeaway
Stick It to the Stickman completes its journey from a 2025 Early Access debut to a full Devolver-published release, carrying 300,000 wishlists and a 97.2% Very Positive early track record into 1.0’s two new modes — Billionaire Bunker’s top-to-bottom descent and Neurolink’s superpower-survival structure. Free Lives’ specific talent for turning violent physics comedy into genuinely playable systems, already demonstrated across Broforce and Anger Foot, extends here into corporate-ladder satire with chainsaws attached.
The red stick-figure employees are waiting on every floor. The promotion requires exactly the kind of violence hundreds of technique combinations can provide. And the CEO’s office — or, in Billionaire Bunker, the ground floor — is one more fight away.
₩13,000, 50% off for the first week. Korean supported. Available now on Steam.
Information regarding ‘Stick It to the Stickman’
| item | detail |
|---|---|
| Developer | Free Lives |
| Publisher | Devolver Digital |
| Genre | Action, Fighting, Roguelike, Indie |
| platform | PC |
| Release date | September 23, 2026 (Early Access: August 18, 2025) |
| price | 13,000 won (50% off for 1 week after launch) |
| language | Korean language support |
| Reactions/Evaluations | Recorded 300,000 items on Steam Wishlist, ‘Very Positive’ rating (97.2%) during Early Access |
| Steam Page | Shortcut |
