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Pre-Alpha is the only public Pre-Alpha version of Hello Neighbor.
Plot
The player is awake in their house after dark. Across the street they can see a red glow coming from the distant house's open basement door. Intrigued, the player walks over to the mysterious house. Upon attempting to enter the basement, the Neighbor appears behind the player and catches them.
Gameplay
You wake up in your house. You can find a television amongst all your belongings by your car. Take it and put it somewhere outside the Neighbor's house where he can't see you through the windows. When the television is turned on, the Neighbor will come out to investigate the sound. A glitch will make the Neighbor become stuck inside of the television. Once the Neighbor becomes stuck, you will have the whole house to yourself. Using the ultraviolet lamp, you will find the code: 4785 which can be used to unlock the combination lock. You will either need a hammer that can be found in the boiler room or garage, or a crowbar which is in a wardrobe behind the Neighbor's house. Use the hammer or crowbar to remove the wooden board. Lastly, you will find a copper key near the television in the living room. Take it and use it on the copper lock. Open the door to find yourself disappointed.
Alternatively, Pre-Alpha can be completed without the need of glitching the Neighbor and getting him stuck.
Ending
There is no true ending in Pre-Alpha, as unlocking the basement door and accessing it reveals it's just an empty room under the stairs.
Trivia
- It was confirmed by Nikita Kolesnikov that Pre Alpha was not originally planned to be released publicly.
- Although it was released publicly in 2016, Pre-Alpha was created by Dynamic Pixels in partnership with Kickstarter in October 2015.
- Pre-Alpha was the first piece of Hello Neighbor media released publicly.
- Pre-Alpha was publicly released on October 5, 2016, and tinyBulid sent links of the version to YouTubers.
- Pre-Alpha's 10 minute gameplay video was recorded in 2015 and first posted on Dynamic Pixels' YouTube channel. It was then reposted on tinyBuild's channel on October 5, 2016, the day of Pre-Alpha's public release.
- Some light bulbs have different colors (green, red and orange).
- The player can hide small objects like the hammer, light bulbs, alarm clocks, apples and tomatoes by pressing 'Tab'. This is also shown in the Prototype.
- Holding 'Tab' brings up the inventory.
- The player can lean left or right by pressing "Z" or "C" in order to look around corners. This feature was removed in Alpha 1.
- There is a giant version of the Neighbor that appears only during the nightmare in which the player is trapped in their house. The giant Neighbor looks in through the bedroom window and then attempts to grab the player, first by reaching through the front door and then by smashing the window.
- The Neighbor has two idle modes: Idle and "Advanced" Idle. Idle is when the Neighbor watches television, guarding the copper key/lockpick. However, this is not the only thing he does. When the television is turned off, the Neighbor will do other activities usually including: doing exercises in the sitting room, opening the fridge in the kitchen, making toast in the toaster, sitting on the chair in the storage room, or sitting at the kitchen table. After doing these activities, the Neighbor will just go back to the living room to watch television. Advanced Idle only happens after the nightmare or after the player unlocks the basement door. In Advanced Idle, the Neighbor mops the floor, works on his car, waters his flowers, sleeps, and rarely watches television.
- The Neighbor can be distracted by throwing objects, which will lure him to that location, or by ringing the doorbell or breaking a window.
- During a chase, the Neighbor will throw bear traps at the player, and tomatoes, which will tint the player's screen red and obscure their vision.
- At the back end of the Neighbor's house is a strange room with upside down furniture on the ceiling. A small upside down door is also present in the room, but it can never be opened.
- Pre-Alpha seemingly tests an early version of house variations. Following the nightmare, the layout of the Neighbor's house will change, including the repositioning of furniture and objects.
- As well as this, if the player is caught enough times, piles of objects may appear in areas of the Neighbor's house with the intent of slowing or stopping the player.
- The only known appearance of the player in Pre-Alpha was their shadow as seen during gameplay. Its internal name is "player_shadow.uasset" and appears to be a early version of the Neighbor's model, but with a different head. Notably, it is not textured, as the model is never seen besides the shadow. This player model is also used in the Prototype.
- When triggered, the security cameras make a 1kHz tone instead of a buzz like in Alpha 1 and onwards.
- The televisions and radios have the same sound, a fast talking Spanish announcer advertising a bank.
- After unlocking the basement door, a bright green light will activate on one of the balconies on the roof. The game designer (Nikita Kolesnikov) confirmed in the FAQ livestream that this was testing blueprints.
- Both Pre-Alpha and the Prototype share the same project files, and because of this share many similarities and features.
- Outside the playable area is a house on the top of a hill which is on fire.