Squirrel Stapler is a satirical horror hunting simulator developed by David Szymanski (known for Iron Lung and DUSK). Originally a part of the Dread X Collection II (2020), it received a standalone release in September 2023 with graphical improvements and new features. Core Premise and Lore
The Narrative: You play as a hunter living in a remote cabin with the decaying, skinned corpse of your wife. Driven by the belief that she has become "ugly," you venture into the woods to hunt squirrels and staple their remains to her to restore her beauty.
The Five-Day Cycle: The game spans five days. Each day, you must meet a specific squirrel quota.
"God is Coming": An ominous countdown warns that "God is coming" on the fifth day. The game culminates in a meeting with a surreal, giant, mutilated squirrel deity. Gameplay Mechanics Squirrel Stapler
Navigate to the folder containing Squirrel Stapler 1.0 - ENG.exe. From the terminal:
cd /path/to/your/game/folder
wine "Squirrel Stapler 1.0 - ENG.exe"
If the game is in a .zip archive, extract it first:
unzip Squirrel_Stapler_1.0.zip -d squirrel_stapler
cd squirrel_stapler
wine SquirrelStapler.exe (or whatever the main executable is named)
The filename Squirrel Stapler - 1.0 - ENG - GNU Linux Wine -... suggests you already have the game files. Typically, this is a .zip, .rar, or .7z archive containing a .exe and supporting assets.
Extract the archive to a folder, e.g.:
unzip "Squirrel Stapler - 1.0 - ENG.zip" -d ~/Games/SquirrelStapler
(Use unrar or 7z for other formats.)
Inside, look for Squirrel Stapler.exe or similar.
Before diving into the technical details, let’s set the stage.
You are alone in a foggy, low-poly forest at night. In your hand is not a knife or a gun, but a heavy-duty industrial stapler. Your objective? Hunt small, defenseless squirrels, catch them, and staple them to tree trunks.
Why? The game never fully explains. That’s the horror.
The aesthetic deliberately mimics the PlayStation 1 era: low-resolution textures, vertex wobble, and limited view distance. The sound design is masterful—crickets, distant owls, and the wet thwack of a staple piercing flesh. As you progress, the forest begins to feel wrong. Trees shift. Whispers emerge. You realize you are not the predator.
Squirrel Stapler is a 15–30 minute experience, but its imagery lingers for days. It’s a critique of senseless violence in games, a surrealist art piece, and a genuine horror story rolled into one $5 package.
Solution: Squirrel Stapler may default to DirectX 11, which Wine sometimes struggles with. Force OpenGL mode.
In the terminal, run:
wine SquirrelStapler.exe -force-opengl
Alternatively, install dxvk (DirectX to Vulkan translation) for better performance:
winetricks dxvk
Open a terminal and follow the commands for your specific distro.
For Ubuntu/Debian (and derivatives like Linux Mint, Pop!_OS):
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update
sudo apt install wine wine32 wine64 wine-staging
For Fedora:
sudo dnf install wine
For Arch Linux (and Manjaro, EndeavourOS):
sudo pacman -S wine winetricks
After installation, verify it works:
wine --version
You should see something like wine-8.0.1.
If you have the standalone executable (often named something like Squirrel Stapler - 1.0 - ENG.exe), you don't need Steam. You just need Wine. Squirrel Stapler - 1.0 - ENG - GNU Linux Wine -...
Step 1: Install Wine If you haven't already, install the latest stable version of Wine. On Debian/Ubuntu systems, that usually looks like:
sudo apt install wine64
Step 2: The Launch Command Because Squirrel Stapler is built on the Unreal Engine (specifically UE4), it requires a 64-bit Wine prefix. If you try to run it with a default 32-bit prefix, it will crash instantly.
Open your terminal in the directory containing the game file and run:
WINEARCH=win64 wine "Squirrel Stapler - 1.0 - ENG.exe"
Step 3: Configuring Settings (Optional) The game usually launches in a window. If you want to force borderless fullscreen or change resolution, you can open the Wine configuration menu while the game is running or via the terminal:
winecfg
Set the "Windows Version" to Windows 10 for the best compatibility.
.zip file.~/Games/SquirrelStapler/Save this as run-squirrel-stapler.sh:
#!/bin/bash
export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Games/squirrel-prefix"
export WINEARCH="win32"
cd "$HOME/Games/SquirrelStapler"
wine "Squirrel Stapler.exe" "$@"
Make executable:
chmod +x run-squirrel-stapler.sh
./run-squirrel-stapler.sh