Stickman survival stories, where every choice costs something.
A plain stick figure against a huge, hostile world. Give Clippie a scenario, and it writes the story in a Suspenseful tone, draws every scene in Bare stickman and narrates it.
- Creators1,000,000+ and counting
- Views generatedOver 5 billion
- MonetizationCopyright safe
A raft and a ruined city, both Bare stickman, drawn and animated in Clippie.
How to make a stickman survival story. Four steps.
- 1
Choose a scenario with a clock
Water runs out, the tide rises, the cold sets in. A resource that drops gives the whole story a countdown.
- 2
List the problems in order
Three or four, each harder than the last, and each caused by the fix for the one before it.
- 3
Generate with a tense tone
Use Suspenseful or Thriller, and write in the second person: “You have one flare left.” Then edit the ending until it feels earned.
- 4
Draw, narrate and animate
Open Bare stickman. Pick a Dramatic delivery and animate the opening and the moment things go wrong.
Scenarios that work. And what each one runs out of.
| Scenario | The clock | Second problem | Writer theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adrift at sea | Fresh water | Sun and salt, then a storm | Nature |
| Plane down in the Arctic | Body heat | Fuel for the fire, then a polar bear | Nature |
| Lost in a cave system | Torch batteries | Rising water | Nature |
| Zombie outbreak in a tower block | Food on your floor | The neighbours who want it | Any |
| City-wide blackout | Phone battery | Other people, as shops empty | Any |
| Stranded on a space station | Oxygen | A repair only you can do | Space |
Use these as starting points, and swap in a place you can describe well. For zombies and monsters, tell the writer their head colour, and Bare stickman will draw it.
Writing a survival story that holds. One scenario, start to finish.
Make the viewer work it out with you
The pull of a survival story is the question “what would I do?” Show the problem, give the viewer a beat to think, and only then show what the character tries. A plan that fails is more interesting than one that works, so let the obvious answer go wrong at least once.
Second person helps. “You” makes every choice the viewer’s. Keep the sentences short when things are tense, and let them run longer when the character has a moment to breathe.
One complete story or a series?
A single story ends: the character gets out, or does not. That suits a 5 to 10 minute video, or a one-minute Short with a twist, and it needs no back catalogue to make sense. If you would rather build a day-by-day series with cliffhangers, the Beanie Survives page breaks down that format.
Get the real-world details right
Survival fans notice mistakes. If your story says a person can drink seawater, or light a fire with wet wood, the comments will tell you. Check the science behind any trick the story depends on. And since a viewer might one day face the same thing, do not present a story as safety advice: it is a story.
More to read. Series, horror and hooks.
FormatVideos like Beanie SurvivesEpisodic stickman survival series, counted in days.
StoryStickman horror storiesSlow dread, an eerie narrator and something in the window.
How-toViral stickman videosHooks, cliffhangers and numbered parts that keep people watching.
ToolStickman story generatorTurn one line into a script, with 12 tones and 13 themes to steer it.
Why stick figures suit survival. And what Clippie adds.
Small against the world
Bare stickman puts a thin figure in a detailed world, and the contrast does the rest.
Suspenseful writing
The tone uses short sentences and holds back key details until the right moment.
A dramatic narrator
The Dramatic delivery suits high stakes, and [whispers] suits the quiet moments.
Weather overlays
Rain and snow overlays for 16:9 add atmosphere across a whole story.
Keep your survivor
Save Stick guy or your own figure as a character, and they stay the same in each scene.
Both frames
The same look works in 16:9 for full stories and 9:16 for Shorts.
Frequently asked questions.
What are stickman survival stories?
Narrated videos where a stick figure tries to stay alive in a dangerous scenario, such as being lost at sea or trapped in an outbreak, often told in the second person so the viewer feels they are the one deciding.
Which stickman look should I use for survival stories?
Bare stickman. It draws plain figures in detailed, muted worlds, and that contrast suits the genre. Its figures wear nothing, so survival gear is better shown beside them, such as a pack on the ground, a raft or a torch in hand.
How long should a survival story be?
A complete story fits 5 to 10 minutes on YouTube, or about a minute as a Short with one twist. The AI writer covers both.
Can the AI come up with the scenario?
It can draft a whole story from something as short as a place and a problem, but specific ideas work better. Name what runs out first, and what the character is carrying.
Is this different from videos like Beanie Survives?
Yes. That page breaks down one channel’s long-running, day-counted series. This one is about writing any survival scenario as a story that ends in a single video.
