Stories from the House of Beef Gym is a free visual novel video game wherein you get to meet some of the most beefed-up people in the city. Developed by Wolfstar and Braford, this game plays out like a photography simulator, as you must take pictures and learn what’s important in this career. The game is more centered on adult content, however—most notably sexual themes—and is geared towards the furry fandom.

Your average VN

This game is basically just the updated version of Braford's House of Beef series. The whole premise is the same: you meet muscular anthropomorphic animals who are regulars at the House of Beef Gym. You play as Julian, a shy introverted photographer who finally decides to step out of his comfort zone when he’s offered a job to assist in a project the local gym’s planning. 

Gameplay-wise, the controls are pretty easy. It has the common format of a visual novel, with a dialogue box on the bottom of the screen and 8 options below it: Back, History, Skip, Auto, Save, QSave, Load, and Prefs. Unfortunately, you can’t go back to the main menu with any of these if you have to but they’re still handy options. You’ll eventually come across some scenes wherein you have choices to make.

Sometimes, you can explore all choices by exhausting them all. Other times, you can only make one choice. Just like a dating sim, some choices will affect your relationship with the characters, but it will be a long while before the romance actually starts in this game. The dialogue here can be corny but it’s the graphics that really make this visual novel shine—the art and CGs meticulously crafted despite the delay.

For the love of art

Overall, while the game is still in constant development, Stories from the House of Beef Gym is a gorgeous game for furry fans looking for adult-rated stories. There’s not a lot of unique variations in gameplay here and much of the entertainment is in the art but it’s worth the long wait in-between updates. If you prefer the graphics side of a VN, then this is a recommended title to try out.