Hello Neighbor

Hello Neighbor is a survival horror stealth game developed by Dynamic Pixels and published by tinyBuild. The aim of the game is for the player to successfully sneak into the basement of their neighbor's house to uncover a secret. The game's artificial intelligence (AI) modifies the neighbor's behavior based on the player's past actions, such as setting traps along paths the player followed in a previous attempt.

History
The game was released as an alpha build on Dynamic Pixels' website in 2015. It was later approved for sale as an early access game by the Steam Greenlight program and a Kickstarter campaign was launched to fund further development. The studio then signed a deal with tinyBuild to publish the game. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One on 8 December 2017 with mixed reviews. Critics admonished its gameplay, control scheme, and technical performance; however, some praised the story aspects and art style.

A timed Microsoft exclusive, Hello Neighbor was later ported to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and mobile devices. The mobile versions of the game are only supported on a limited number of devices and come with a free trial that allows the player to play through Act 1, with the option to unlock the remaining two Acts with an in-game purchase of $14.99.

Gameplay
In Hello Neighbor, the player finds themselves moving into a new house across the street from a mysterious neighbor who is behaving in a paranoid manner and seems to be keeping a secret in his basement. The player's task is to break into the neighbor's home and solve a series of puzzles in order to gather the items needed to unlock and access his basement. As the player explores the neighbor's house, they must not be spotted by the mysterious neighbor, or they will be chased down, and if the player is not quick enough to hide or escape, will be captured. If the player is caught, they will be sent back to their own house and will have to break in again.

The player has four inventory spaces, and items of the same kind cannot be stacked together in the same inventory space.

Act 1
A young boy is playing in the street when he hears a scream from his neighbor's house. The boy goes to investigate and witnesses the neighbor apparently locking somebody in his basement. The boy then sneaks into the neighbor's house, finds the key to the basement, and enters. He finds that the neighbor has converted his basement into a makeshift underground dungeon, but finds no sign of any prisoner. The boy then runs into the neighbor and is captured.

Act 2
The boy wakes up, finding himself locked in the neighbor's basement dungeon. He manages to escape his cell and reach the surface, only to find that the neighbor has erected a massive fence around his property to prevent escape. The boy is forced to solve a number of puzzles in order to find a way to escape the neighbor's property. Once he crosses the fence, the boy flees back to his home, though the neighbor does not give chase.

Throughout both Acts 1 and 2, if the boy is caught by the neighbor before he can finish his objectives, he will have vivid nightmares about the neighbor's past. In these nightmares, it is revealed that the neighbor used to have a family consisting of a wife, son, and daughter. However, the wife was apparently killed in a car crash while the son killed the daughter. The neighbor then hid the son to prevent him from getting hurt.

Act 3
The boy, now a grown adult, wakes up in his apartment. He is evicted from his apartment, so he decides to return to his old family home. He finds his old home in disrepair while the neighbor's home is also nothing but a pile of ruins. While inspecting the ruins, the man is haunted by a dark shadow-like creature and he returns to his home where he falls asleep. The man is quickly awoken by a child's scream, and he discovers the neighbor's house is back, but now larger, more complex, and more surreal than before. The man navigates the house and has surreal experiences, such as battling a giant version of the neighbor and protecting his younger self from a giant shadow. Eventually, the man finds the exit and wakes up to find that the neighbor's house is still a ruin.

It is implied throughout the events of the game that most of Act 3 was a nightmare occurring in the man's head, and his escape from the house signifies himself finally coming to terms with his kidnapping as a boy at the hands of the neighbor.

Development
The first pre-alpha version of the game was released in September 2016. The Alpha 1 version of Hello Neighbor was released on October 26, 2016. Alpha 2 was released on November 22, 2016. Alpha 3 was released on December 22, 2016. Alpha 4 was released on May 4, 2017.

The game went into the beta phase on July 25, 2017. For Halloween 2017, a promotional mod was released including multiple elements from the indie game Bendy and the Ink Machine. The mod includes a black and yellow background, ink, music from the game and multiple appearances of Bendy. The game was originally set for full release August 29, 2017, but was delayed until December 8, 2017.

Add-on
On June 10, 2018, tinyBuild announced the first add-on to Hello Neighbor, called "Secret Neighbor". Secret Neighbor is a multiplayer horror game that takes place between Act 1 and Act 2 of Hello Neighbor. The game follows a group of friends trying to free their friend from the Neighbor's basement. However, one of the friends is a Neighbor in disguise. The game is scheduled to be released sometime in 2018.

A prequel, Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek, was announced in August 2018 with a planned release in December 2018. Hide and Seek deals with the events of the Neighbor's family that caused him to become recluse.

Reception
The game was mostly negative. Metacritic give it "genially unfavorable reviews" and gave a score of 42 out of 100, 39 out of 100, and 38 out of 100 for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.