Desktop Brawl
A stickman fight on your real desktop. Your windows are the platforms, the taskbar is the floor.
Press Ctrl+Alt+B anywhere and the fight starts on top of whatever is open. Window title bars, widgets and desktop icons are the platforms, waves of stickmen climb after you, and every kill brings you closer to the next of 13 weapons.
NextHow it plays
What it is
Desktop Brawl, in detail.
A stickman fight on your real desktop. Your windows are the platforms, the taskbar is the floor.
Desktop Brawl turns the screen you already have into the level. The overlay is click-through, so your mouse keeps working: the windows, widgets and desktop icons on your screen become ledges to fight on, and dragging a window mid-fight moves the floor under whoever is standing on it.
You start with your fists. Kills unlock a bat, nunchaku, a katana, a spear, throwing stars, a battle axe, a war hammer, a chain blade, a blaster, storm gauntlets, a laser sword and finally a reaper scythe. Each one has its own combo chain, an air move and a dash strike, and kicks have their own four-hit chain on top.
Endless mode sends waves of twelve kinds of enemy, each with its own trick: knife throwers, bombers who lob at where you stand, gunners with a sight line, acrobats who dive kick from above, shield bearers, berserkers who enrage, medics who heal the others. Only a few attack at once while the rest circle and wait, they follow you up the windows, and every fifth wave brings the Warlord.
What it does
Your desktop is the level
Title bars, desktop widgets and uncovered icons are solid; the taskbar is the floor. Floating platforms drift in and blink out, crates drop health and power-ups, and bounce pads launch anyone who lands on them.
Thirteen weapons to earn
From fists to the reaper scythe, unlocked by kills and switchable with Q and E. Every weapon has a three to five hit combo, an air attack and a running dash strike, and each new one adds health.
Real fighting moves
A four-hit kick chain, launchers into air juggles, charged strikes, a dash that slips through attacks, a block that parries into a counter, and a power meter for a Power burst or an Ultimate.
Enemies that think
Twelve enemy types, each fighting its own way. They climb the windows after you, take turns instead of swarming, and every fifth wave the Warlord crashes in with his own moves and a health bar.
Two ways to play
Endless waves with twists like low gravity, giants and crate rain, or a duel against one fighter who returns each round with a better weapon. Easy, Medium or Hard; best scores are kept.
Sound made by the game
Every punch, slash, slam and parry has its own sound, synthesised by the game itself. The keys belong to the fight while you play and go back to your apps when you pause.
Built with
- Python 3
- PySide6 (Qt) — drawing, overlay, audio and tray
- Win32 via ctypes
- Skeletal animation, drawn in code
- Procedural sound synthesis
- Windows, widgets and icons are the stage
- 13 weapons, each with its own combos
- 12 enemy types and a boss
- Block, parry, charge and an ultimate
Worth knowing
- Windows 10 and 11, primary monitor only. Maximised windows aren't platforms, so minimise a few for a bigger arena.
- The download is a single unsigned executable, so Windows SmartScreen may warn on first launch — More info, then Run anyway.
- While a fight is running the game keeps its own keys (arrows, WASD, Z, X and a few more) so they don't type into other apps. Pause or quit and they work normally again.
- To find desktop icon positions it reads them from Explorer's icon list, a standard technique that some security tools flag.
- No network calls, no account, no telemetry. The only file it writes is your best scores and settings.
- Free to download and play under a freeware licence. The source code is private; the download page on GitHub only carries the executable.
Where it goes next
- Multi-monitor arenas.
- More bosses, each with its own wave.
- A code-signed build, so SmartScreen stops asking.
Start a fight
Desktop Brawl is free, and it fits in one download.
Download DesktopBrawl.exe and double-click it. A stickman appears in the tray — press Ctrl+Alt+B, pick Endless or Duel, and fight on whatever is open.