The Steam version does indeed require the Steam client in order to run the game so as of right now there is no DRM-free version of the game available. So unfortunately if you want it DRM-free you will need to wait for the itch.io/Game Jolt release. We have started working on it so it isn't all that far away but we don't have an exact date to provide yet. Once we have one, we will be sure to post about it!