The team behind Stick Run confirmed Otto’s death on October 21, describing him as the game’s creator, developer and a fellow member of the community. The team also acknowledged an earlier Twitch broadcast in which Otto appeared to harm himself and urged people not to circulate unverified information or footage from the incident.
Twitch subsequently removed the broadcast and associated material, according to reports. The incident quickly spread across social media, where longtime players began sharing memories of a game that became part of their childhood for more than a decade.
Otto created Stick Run when he was only 14 years old. The free-to-play running game first gained popularity on Facebook in 2010 before expanding to mobile platforms, eventually reaching tens of millions of players around the world.
Separately, police in Bavaria reported a fatal apartment fire in Breitbrunn am Chiemsee on the evening of October 20. Authorities said a 30-year-old resident was believed to have died in the fire and that investigators had found no initial indication of another person’s involvement. At the time of the police report, the victim had not yet been formally identified publicly.
The loss has left the Stick Run community mourning a developer whose work reached millions of players and remained recognizable years after its original release.
Rather than focusing on the disturbing footage circulating online, many fans are remembering Otto for the game he created as a teenager and the lasting place it earned in early social gaming culture.
