Stick Fighters

Stick Fighters
Also known as	SF Stick Fighters
Genre	Action-adventure Science fiction Comedy-drama
Created by	Freddie Goodwin
Developed by	Freddie Goodwin
Written by	Freddie Goodwin Skim
Directed by	Freddie Goodwin Skim Guzzu
Composers	Aaron Grooves Scott Buckley
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	12
Production
Executive producer	Freddie Goodwin
Producers	Freddie Goodwin Skim
Running time	3–31 minutes
Original release
Network	Newgrounds
Release	June 3, 2012 (2012-06-03) – present
Network	Atom.com
Release	November 4, 2012 (2012-11-04) – October 4, 2014 (2014-10-04)
Network	YouTube
Release	September 12, 2013 (2013-09-12) – present

Stick Fighters is an American animated web series created by Freddie Goodwin. Blending action, comedy, science fiction, and digital-realm mythology, the series follows a group of sentient stick-figure warriors who escape their origin code and evolve into fully independent beings fighting across the vast “Outernet”—a simulated dimension hidden beneath software, devices, and abandoned networks.

The series debuted on Newgrounds on June 3, 2012, before expanding to Atom.com and later YouTube, where it developed a dedicated following for its fluid animation, fast-paced battles, and near-absence of traditional dialogue, relying instead on visual storytelling, expression-based symbols, and interface effects.

Premise

Stick Fighters centers on artificially generated stick-figure entities created within a defunct animation engine called FrameForge Studio, which unintentionally produced self-aware constructs. When one of them violently rebels, it triggers a chain reaction that unlocks contact with the Outernet, a hidden digital world that mirrors the abandoned scraps of internet history. As new threats form—including corrupted AIs, rogue code weapons, and long-lost prototypes—the Stick Fighters must uncover their origins while battling forces that threaten both the Outernet and the human world.

Characters

Humans

• The Creator: A reclusive programmer who originally designed FrameForge Studio. Believed to have abandoned the project years before the Stick Fighters became sentient. The Creator appears only in silhouette or through system logs, serving as an unpredictable external force in the narrative.

Stick Figures

Artificial Stick Figures

Sentient stick figures accidentally produced by the FrameForge codebase.

• Obsidian (formerly Victim): The very first sentient stick figure, created on June 3, 2012. Originally unstable and tortured by repeated resets inside FrameForge, he eventually escaped to the Outernet, turning gray as his code deteriorated. After losing his partner, Mitsi, during an attack by the rogue stick figure Cinder, he founded Rocket Corp, a tech syndicate dedicated to processing corrupted code. Later, he forcibly rebrands himself as "Obsidian," gaining destructive cybernetic abilities.

• The Chosen One / Cinder (later "Null"): The second sentient prototype created in 2013. Designed with layered combat subroutines, Cinder became unstable and turned on Obsidian and the Creator alike. After years of self-improvement and absorbing rogue modules, he rechristens himself “Null” after Obsidian forcibly strips his identity in Season 2.

• The Dark Sovereign: A red-coded enforcer created in 2014 as an emergency failsafe meant to destroy Cinder. After initially failing his mission, the Sovereign reactivates in the Outernet and transforms into a virus-generating tyrant. Though destroyed in Season 1, dormant fragments later reassemble him.

• The Second Spark (TSS): A bright orange stick figure born from a failed auto-save recovery. TSS becomes the leader of the Stick Fighters, possessing rare “Threadborn” abilities—telekinetic control of digital constructs, limited file manipulation, and temporary regeneration. These powers activate unpredictably and often overwhelm him.

Fighting Stick Figures

A group of solid-headed stick figures originally imprisoned on a combat-testing website before escaping into the Outernet.

• Red: Hot-headed brawler who is impulsive but fiercely loyal. Loves animals and often rescues Outernet creatures.
• Blue: A mellow potion-brewer and digital botanist who grows data-plants from corrupted memory.
• Yellow: A coder capable of threading scripts into physical form. Kidnapped by Rocket Corp in Season 1.
• Green: A music-obsessed fighter able to weaponize vibrations. Known for being arrogant—and constantly suffering for it.

Mercenaries

Four powerful, uniquely coded fighters hired by Obsidian.

• Agent: A tall, dark-gray stick figure wearing digital sunglasses. Wields a UI-toolbar that grants rudimentary animator abilities. Loyal to Obsidian after witnessing Mitsi’s death.
• Hazard: A pictogram entity who uses iconography to unleash unpredictable abilities—cloning, electricity, explosives, and giant hazard symbols.
• Primal: A caveman-style stick figure built from ancient ASCII art. Channels “raw code” to enter a berserk enhanced form.
• Ballista: A pixelated shapeshifter from a discontinued animation engine. Can morph into weapons, shields, or tools.

Others

• Purple: Once a friend, later corrupted by gaining admin-like power inside a sandbox-game universe. Not evil by nature; driven by ambition.
• Pink: Mother of Purple. A calm, strategic stick figure uploaded by a long-lost animator. Killed during the fallout of Navy’s experiments.
• Navy: A deep-blue warrior and Purple’s father. Secretly trained Purple for combat and inadvertently sparked his fall into corruption.
• ViraBots: Mechanical spider-like virus drones created by the Dark Sovereign. Mostly eradicated—until fragments revive him.
• Mitsi: Obsidian’s partner and co-founder of Rocket Corp. Her death becomes the emotional core of Obsidian’s villain turn.
• Corn Dog Guy: A tall maroon stick figure known for inventing absurd businesses inside disasters. Upload date: March 15, 2012.

Episodes

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	6		December 1, 2025 (2025-12-01)	TBA

Season 1 (2025)

No. Overall.	No. In Season.	Episode Title	Directed by	Written by	Original airdate
1	1	"Awakening"	Freddie Goodwin	Freddie Goodwin	December 1, 2025
In a distant digital desert, Green escapes a glitch entity known as the Void King after stealing a glowing Data Core, triggering a system-wide threat as the creature demands its return; Green reunites with Blue, Red, Yellow, and Purple in the Hub World, where the team learns the Core carries an Alpha-level cipher bound to Green’s code signature and the Void King begins corrupting the city with a massive portal. As glitchborn minions overrun the plaza, the Stick Fighters attempt to defend the grid while Purple discovers only Green can unlock the Core, but the Void King arrives personally, overwhelming the team and nearly destabilizing the Hub. Forced into action, Green instinctively opens the Core, unleashing a surge of golden code that transforms him into a higher-tier combat form and reveals the object to be a legendary Patch Key — a system-cleansing failsafe long thought erased. The Void King retreats after being struck by its purifying blast, warning that his corruption has barely begun; afterward, the team views a hologram from a faceless entity known only as Infinity, who explains that the Patch Key was created to defeat the Void King when he reaches full corruption. Realizing the enemy is currently at just one percent of his eventual power, the Stick Fighters prepare for the inevitable escalation as a new breach triggers and the team rushes out together to face the next threat.
2	2	"The First Corruptor"	Freddie Goodwin	Freddie Goodwin	December 1, 2025
In the North Sector’s digital forest, Blue and Yellow discover that a dormant guardian has transformed into a rare Corruptor-class glitch creature, prompting Green, Red, and Purple to mount a rescue when the pair go silent; the group arrives to find the forest ravaged and the Corruptor pursuing Yellow, and Purple confirms that the monster still contains remnants of its original base-code and can be salvaged. As the Void King briefly manifests through the creature and reveals direct control over its corruption, the team battles to restrain it while Green struggles to channel his unstable Patch Key abilities, eventually unlocking a new “restore” capability that can rewrite corrupted code in short bursts. With the others trapping the Corruptor in a containment formation, Green finally manages to overwrite its core and revert it back to an unconscious forest guardian, proving he can disrupt the Void King’s influence. As the forest stabilizes, Purple detects a far larger threat emerging in Sector West — a Titan-class entity not seen in generations — forcing the Stick Fighters to regroup and prepare for the Void King’s escalating assault on the system.
3	3	3	Freddie Goodwin	Freddie Goodwin	December 1, 2025
4	4	4	Freddie Goodwin	Freddie Goodwin	December 1, 2025
5	5	5	Freddie Goodwin	Freddie Goodwin	December 1, 2025
6	6	6	Freddie Goodwin	Freddie Goodwin	December 1, 2025

Development and history

Becker was inspired by many popular animations and stories, such as Duck Amuck and the 1959 animated version of Harold and the Purple Crayon. Many other Flash games, such as Cursor Thief on Newgrounds, also gave him the spark to create the animation. Approximately three months after starting the animation, Becker posted it to Newgrounds. The next day, the animation received second place for the entire day. Becker began receiving numerous emails and instant messages from website owners who wanted to host the animation on their websites, with one of the websites even offering $75, provided they received exclusive rights to the animation. Becker declined after reading an email above from Steven Lerner, the owner of Albino Blacksheep.

AtomFilms offered to fund the making of a sequel, which was released on November 4, 2006. Becker used his real AIM username in the animation, which made him unable to use the service without his desktop screen being flooded by hundreds of fans who attempted to message him online. Becker began uploading the videos to YouTube, manually reporting clones of the videos using YouTube's copyright report system, but it reportedly took several years. Becker uploaded "Animator vs. Animation 3" onto Atom.com on October 4, 2010, intending for it to be the final episode. He then went on to study animation at the Columbus College of Art and Design and tried to get an internship at Pixar but was rejected. Becker launched a Kickstarter campaign for the funding of Animator vs. Animation 4 after being motivated by his teacher's words and encouragement to keep going. The campaign launched on July 10, 2013, and the $10,000 funding goal was reached on August 9, 2013. On October 2, 2014, "Animator vs. Animation 4" was released onto YouTube. It reportedly gained almost five million views on YouTube within a month.

eBaum's World controversy

Template:Main articles Main article: eBaum's World § Copyright infringement and controversy

"Animator vs. Animation" was uploaded to eBaum's World without Becker's permission and proper credit. Legal action was threatened against eBaum's World under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. eBaum's World later contacted Becker, offering him $250 as compensation and pressuring Becker into a false testimonial. Becker later retracted the statement and officially requested that eBaum's World remove the animation and testimonial from the website.

Other media

Game adaptations

In 2006, a browser game adaptation titled Animator vs. Animation Game: SE was released for Adobe Flash Player, developed by Charles Yeh.

On March 26, 2025, a Kickstarter campaign was launched for Animation VERSUS, a fighting game slated for release in June 2028. The game is being developed with the help of Muno, who created a Rivals of Aether mod featuring characters from the series.

Spin-offs

The series has had multiple spin-offs, under the Animation vs. label, with some of them gaining more views than the original series itself.Template:Cn^{[citation needed]}

A spinoff called "Animation vs. Minecraft" was uploaded on December 14, 2015. The video briefly had the title of the most popular Minecraft video on the internet for a month. A companion series, "Animation vs. Minecraft Shorts" (AvM Shorts), which alternates between slice-of-life and serialized storytelling, debuted on November 17, 2017. Its fourteenth episode briefly became the most popular Minecraft video on the internet, and it was Becker's most popular video to date.

Another spinoff, "Animation vs. YouTube", featured cameo appearances from numerous YouTubers, including PewDiePie and Markiplier. Actual Shorts are shorts formatted for YouTube Shorts, with the name referencing the fact that most episodes in the Animation vs. Minecraft Shorts series are too long to be considered "shorts", with running times of up to thirty minutes.

• Animation vs. League of Legends
• Animation vs. Pokemon
• Animation vs. Super Mario Bros
• Animation vs. Arcade Games
• Animation vs. Education

Reception

The series has gained a generally positive reception.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Animation	Result	Ref
2007	Webby Awards	"People's Voice" Award	style="background: #9EFF9E; color: #000; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="yes table-yes2 notheme"|Won
2014	Cleveland International Film Festival	"Best of Ohio" Award	style="background: #FFE3E3; color: black; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="no table-no2 notheme"|Nominated
2024	data-sort-value="" style="background: var(--background-color-interactive, #ececec); color: var(--color-base, inherit); vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-na" | Unknown	style="background: #9EFF9E; color: #000; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="yes table-yes2 notheme"|Won

See also

• Flash animation
• Stick figure

External links

• Animator vs. Animation at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:WikidataCheck