Helping Your Boyfriend

About Helping Your Boyfriend

Helping Your Boyfriend is a short horror visual novel by Zieelane, who wrote and programmed it, and Mousefishdog, who drew the characters and CGs, made for the Spooktober 8th Annual Visual Novel Jam and released on itch.io in September 2026. It opens with a question: if you had a handsome, rich, sweet doctor for a boyfriend but could not walk, would you feel lucky?

You play Adrian Winchester's partner. An illness in your legs has left you unable to walk, so you have moved in with him, and you only wake late at night, when he comes home from work. To keep you busy he brings you a strange job: taking apart old dolls, eyes, ears, arms and stuffing, which you do in a drag-and-drop mini-game. It becomes your nightly routine. Then one night you wake to a heavy weight on top of you and a strange man's shadow over the bed. He covers your mouth, holds a pill in front of your face and tells you to take it or die.

The game is pink and sparkly on purpose, and it changes. Between scenes of reading and choosing there are five mini-games and quick-time events played with the arrow keys and Space, and an update added a choice of difficulty. You can set your name, pronouns and body type, and the main characters are voiced. There are four endings, and a run takes about half an hour.

The makers warn that it is not for players who are easily disturbed, and list jumpscares, loud noises, flashing and disturbing images, blood and cartoon gore, violence, drug use and obsessive, toxic relationships. It is free to download, or pay what you want, for Windows, macOS and Android, in English or Thai. It suits players who liked Vacation Terminal or Rose-Colored Cover, where the person caring for you is the one to fear.

How to play Helping Your Boyfriend

1. Download the game from its itch.io page for Windows or macOS, or install the Android APK, paying what you like or nothing.
2. Read the content warnings on the page, then set your name, pronouns and body type at the start.
3. Click or press Enter to advance the story and pick your answers when choices appear.
4. Play the mini-games with the mouse, such as dragging doll parts into their slots.
5. Use the arrow keys and Space for quick-time events, and replay to reach all four endings.

Tips

• If the quick-time events are too fast, use the difficulty option the makers added in update 1.0.1.
• Save from the bell menu at the top before big choices, so you can go back for other endings.
• Look closely at what is around the room and on your own arm; small details matter.
• Turn the volume down a little if loud noises bother you; the makers warn of jumpscares.

Questions