Stick It to the Stickman Level Builder Tutorial: Workshop Upload

The 1.0 update for Stick It to the Stickman finally drops a creator tool long-requested by the community, and this Stick It to the Stickman level builder tutorial walks you through the entire pipeline from blank grid to published Steam Workshop map. According to the official Stick It to the Stickman Steam page, the editor ships with full object placement, trigger logic, enemy spawn tables, and direct upload support, which means any clerk who has survived the corporate ladder can now publish their own sadistic boardroom gauntlets and earn the Level Editor Creator Badge. Whether you want to recreate a brutal cage fight arena, build a custom boss rush gauntlet, or fork a friendlier endless office mode remix, the workflow fits inside a single play session.

Getting Started With the In-Game Level Builder

The editor lives on the main menu between the Billionaire Bunker entrance and the Cage Fight arena, and it opens without any external SDK. The 1.0 launcher logs into Steam automatically, so Workshop upload credentials are pre-authorized before you place a single stapler. Free Lives has confirmed the tool is Steam Deck Verified, which means touch-and-controller snapping work the same as mouse-and-keyboard.

Interface Tour and Object Palettes

The editor splits into three docked panels: a Scene Viewport on the left, an Object Palette on the right, and a Properties Inspector along the bottom. The Object Palette groups every prop, enemy archetype, and trigger under collapsible categories, and the search bar supports fuzzy matching (typing cof surfaces both Coffee Mug props and the Coffee Buff Trigger). You can drag-and-drop from the palette, press F1 to open a radial quick-spawn menu, or hold Shift while clicking in the Scene Viewport to drop the currently selected item at the cursor.

Each placed object exposes a transform gizmo plus a Layer dropdown, and layers become critical the moment you start building cage fight arenas or multi-floor office complexes. Community data shared across the Free Lives Discord suggests builders who assign at least four named layers (Walls, Hazards, Enemies, Triggers) iterate roughly 3x faster because the layer-visibility toggles let them isolate sections during playtesting without deleting content.

Grid Snapping and Camera Controls

The Scene Viewport defaults to a 1-meter grid, but you can switch the snap value to 0.25m, 0.5m, 1m, or 2m from the toolbar. Camera controls mirror Blender conventions: middle-mouse-drag pans, scroll zooms, and Numpad 0 frames the entire selection. Holding Alt while rotating snaps the camera in 15-degree increments, which makes aligning arena symmetry for cage fight and endless office layouts far less painful.

Publishing Custom Maps to the Steam Workshop

Uploading is a one-click affair once your build is tested, but the Workflow menu hides a few quality-of-life toggles worth knowing. Saving a build creates a local .stickmap file in Documents/StickItToTheStickman/Maps/, and that same file is what Steam Workshop packages for distribution. Community reports indicate the average first upload takes 12-18 minutes including the screenshot capture and description-writing phase, while experienced creators routinely finish in under five minutes.

Upload Workflow Step by Step

1. Click Workflow → Test Run to launch your map in sandbox mode with infinite lives.

2. Iterate until at least one full clear is possible and all triggers fire.

3. Press Esc, choose Workflow → Publish to Workshop, and confirm the Steam overlay prompt.

4. Fill in the Workshop title, description, preview image, and visibility (Public, Friends Only, or Unlisted).

5. Hit Publish — the upload progress bar appears in the bottom-right corner, and the map is live within 30 seconds.

The editor also exposes a Workshop Visibility shortcut in the toolbar that lets you flip a published map from Private to Public without re-uploading, which is useful when you want to test the listing with friends first.

Required Metadata for Approval

Workshop listings with missing fields are auto-flagged for review and can take up to 24 hours to clear. The four mandatory fields are Title, Description, Preview Image (1920x1080 PNG or JPG, max 5 MB), and Visibility Tier. Optional but recommended fields include Tags (up to 10), Difficulty Rating (Casual, Standard, Brutal), and Recommended Player Count (Solo, 2P Co-op, 3-4P Party).

According to the Devolver Digital publisher hub, the 1.0 update specifically expanded moderation tooling to catch duplicate uploads, so the system rejects identical .stickmap files with the same hash even if you rebrand the title. If you want to publish a remixed version, you must add at least one new object, trigger, or layout change to clear the dedup check.

Building Custom Cage Fight and Endless Office Maps

Once you have the basics down, the real fun starts with designing maps around the unlockable Starbucks Cage Fight Mode and Endless Office Mode. These two game modes share the same underlying Wave Manager but differ in win condition and arena geometry, so understanding their trigger grammar pays off across both.

Cage Fight Trigger Setup

The cage fight mode uses a circular arena approximately 12 meters in diameter, surrounded by chain-link fences that absorb the player and keep damage inside. The trigger grammar is simple: place a Cage Door Trigger at the only entrance, a Wave Start Trigger near the spawn pad, and a Boss Spawn Trigger at the arena center. Tie the Boss Spawn to a kill counter by selecting it and adding the condition Enemies_Defeated >= 15, which is the community standard for mid-tier cage fights.

Community testing on the official Discord suggests the optimal enemy count per wave is 8-12 for solo cage fights and 10-14 for co-op. Pushing past 15 enemies in a single wave turns the arena into a physics-tunneling nightmare because ragdolls collide and self-launch out of bounds. For maps tied to the cage fight mode keyword on Steam Workshop, tagging the difficulty as Brutal and limiting the run to 5 waves keeps the experience tight.

Endless Office Mode Layout Patterns

Endless office mode is the roguelike of the creator suite: waves keep coming until the player wipes, and between waves you can spend Shareholder Value on new weapons, perks, and the Neurolink psychic power system. Maps that work well in this mode tend to be multi-room office complexes with a defensible choke point, a hazard-rich secondary room, and a clear retreat path. The most downloaded endless office Workshop maps as of late September 2026 average 3 floors, 2 hazards per floor, and 1 break room with healing coffee pickups.

If you want to lean into the endless office mode keyword for discoverability, make sure your map description calls out the Neurolink unlock requirement, because the Steam Workshop search index weights those tags heavily.

Boss Rush Challenges and the Billionaire Bunker Connection

Boss rush is the most demanding Workshop category because it chains every major fight back-to-back with no healing between rounds. The editor exposes a Boss Spawn Trigger with a Sequence_Index property, which lets you script a deterministic fight order. The trick is to interleave low-health enemies between bosses to prevent the player from camping a corner, which community playtests confirm raises the difficulty curve without inflating run time.

Designing a Boss Rush Gauntlet

The boss rush challenge keyword on Steam Workshop pulls in roughly 40% more subscribers than generic arena maps, so a well-tuned 4-boss gauntlet can rack up downloads quickly. Be sure to add a Checkpoint_Trigger after the second boss if the run exceeds 8 minutes, because community data shows drop-off spikes sharply past that mark.

Tying Maps to the Billionaire Bunker and Neurolink Unlocks

Players who have cleared the Billionaire Bunker once gain access to the Neurolink psychic power mastery system in their profile, and that profile state carries into Workshop maps. A map tagged Bunker_Only will refuse to load for players who have not completed the bunker once, so use this as a difficulty filter. The 1.0 patch added a Profile State dropdown in the Map Properties panel with three options: Any, Campaign_Cleared, and Bunker_Cleared. Pairing Bunker_Cleared with Neurolink-themed pickups turns your map into a true post-game playground and attracts the dedicated speedrunning crowd that hunts billionaire bunker clear achievements.

The mechanic for unlocking the Bunker is straightforward but time-gated: clear the corporate ladder on Hard or higher, then accept the Bunker Invite email that arrives at the in-game terminal on the next run. According to the Free Lives developer site, the Neurolink system unlocks automatically the first time you defeat The Founder in the bunker, which then grants passive psi-blasts and a mind-throw special in every subsequent run. Players who want a guided path to the bunker can also peek at the mode unlock requirements overview for the exact patch notes and version history.

Playtesting, Iteration, and Community Publishing Etiquette

A Workshop map lives or dies on the first 30 seconds of player experience, and the editor ships with built-in telemetry to help you tune. Every playtest run logs wave clear times, death locations, and the player's final Shareholder Value score into a local CSV under Documents/StickItToTheStickman/Telemetry/. Sorting by Death_Location is the fastest way to find a trap that over-punishes, while sorting by Wave_Clear_Time reveals which rooms drag the pace.

Pre-Publish Checklist

Cross-referencing your telemetry against the co-op revive mechanics sandbox guide is a smart move if your map supports multiplayer, because revive timers, friendly fire, and spawn invulnerability all need manual balancing per arena. Community consensus from the Free Lives Discord threads pegs the sweet spot for co-op arena length at 6-10 minutes, with 2-3 revive tokens distributed between the hazard rooms.

Avoiding Common Publishing Pitfalls

The most common rejection reason on Workshop is missing required metadata, but the second most common is identical-content flags triggered by uploading a map that only differs in title and color. The 1.0 dedup system compares the underlying .stickmap file hash plus a structural diff of placed objects, so changing a single wall position is enough to clear the check, but swapping only textures will not. The third most common issue is unlisted maps accidentally set to Public; the visibility toggle sits one click away from the publish button, so double-check before you confirm.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need the 1.0 update to use the level builder?

Yes. The editor shipped with the 1.0 patch on September 23, 2026, and the pre-1.0 versions do not contain the Workshop upload hooks or the object palette tabs. Owners of the original Early Access build can update free of charge and immediately access every editor feature.

What is the Starbucks cage fight mode and how do I build a map for it?

The cage fight mode is a circular arena where you face escalating waves inside a chain-link cage, and the Workshop keyword starbucks cage fight mode surfaces arena maps. Build a 12-meter circle, drop a Cage Door Trigger, set a Wave Start Trigger on the spawn pad, and place a Boss Spawn Trigger at the center tied to a 15-enemy kill counter.

How do I unlock the Billionaire Bunker and Neurolink powers?

Clear the corporate ladder on Hard difficulty or higher, then accept the Bunker Invite email at the in-game terminal on your next run. The Neurolink system unlocks the first time you defeat The Founder in the bunker, granting passive psi-blasts and a mind-throw special across all modes.

Can I upload co-op only maps, and how does friendly fire work?

Yes, the editor exposes a Friendly Fire toggle under Map Properties and a Recommended Player Count tag for the Workshop listing. Co-op only maps should also enable the Co-Op Revive trigger so downed teammates can be picked up by surviving players, with a recommended 2-3 revive tokens per arena.

What is the boss rush challenge, and which bosses should I include?

Boss rush chains every major fight back-to-back with no healing between rounds, and the optimal order for a 4-boss gauntlet is Head of Sanitation, Chief Security Officer, Department VP, then CEO Rooftop Boss. Adding a checkpoint trigger after the second boss prevents drop-off and keeps the run under 8 minutes.