| Component | Status |
|-------------------|--------------------------------|
| Wine version | ✅ 8.0+ recommended |
| Wine prefix | ✅ 32-bit, Windows 7/10 |
| DirectX | ✅ d3dx9 installed via winetricks |
| Audio | ✅ xact / xaudio2_7 installed |
| Game executable | ✅ Squirrel Stapler.exe present |
Once everything is set, you should be able to enjoy this bizarre, cult-classic horror game on Linux.
Squirrel Stapler is a surreal, retro-style horror hunting simulator developed by David Szymanski, the creator of
. While it is natively built for Windows, Linux users can run version 1.0 effectively through compatibility layers like The Game: A Macabre Hunt Squirrel Stapler - 1.0 - ENG - GNU Linux Wine -...
The game satirizes low-budget "edutainment" hunting titles from the late 90s, featuring a low-poly aesthetic and a disturbingly dark premise.
: A man living in a remote cabin attempts to make his "beloved" (a decaying corpse) beautiful again by hunting squirrels and stapling their skins to her.
: Players explore a nonlinear forest, tracking squirrels using a "call" and a bolt-action rifle while avoiding eerie predators like squirrel bears and ghost squirrels. : A man living in a remote cabin
: It is a short, atmospheric experience that typically takes less than an hour to complete, culminating in a meeting with "God". Running on GNU/Linux with Wine Squirrel Stapler uses the Unity engine and requires DirectX 10 , it is highly compatible with modern Linux setups. Squirrel Stapler - The Elite Institute
this is more of a hunting game the goal is to track and kill squirrels with your limited amount of ammunition. The Elite Institute Squirrel Stapler on Steam
Yes, literally. But metaphorically, Squirrel Stapler is about obsession, the futility of trying to "fix" death, and the horror of being alone with your creations. The 1.0 version adds a poignant (and deeply disturbing) ending that contextualizes every staple. Running on GNU/Linux with Wine Squirrel Stapler uses
As a Linux user, by playing this game, you are participating in a niche intersection: the open-source philosophy of freedom and transparency meeting a closed-source horror game about monstrous acts. There is a certain poetic absurdity that the game itself would appreciate.
Squirrel Stapler is not a game you “play for fun.” It’s an experience—a piece of interactive folk horror. The act of running it on Linux, through a compatibility layer, somehow adds to the weirdness. You are bending the will of your operating system to perform an unnatural act: stapling digital squirrels to digital trees in a simulated forest.
And it works. Gloriously.