Hello neighbour, goodbye neighbour.

Hype crash , neighbor left

2016 year, hello neighbor alpha was release and it gather a lot of attention. It gather A LOT of attention. It has a lot of hype for an indie game as it was developed by dynamic pixel and publish by tiny build. The game release alpha and beta for the whole year, until it is it was then release in 8 december 2017, and well, my expectation fell apart, and i think majority has agree with it. Only 6 star in steam  review, a mixed review, Its not exactly a good game.

Today, we gonna examine what makes the hype, what did game do good to receive it, and what did the game do bad that it falls apart. Let get started by examine how did it get release, and how did it garner hype.

Testing purpose

The game was release with alpha and beta, it came in numerous alpha version and beta version. Anyone can purchase it and play it early as a test on how the game will come out. It was used to test the feature of the game, to test the game itself and report any bugs and any issue of the game. At least that was the plan.It start to garner thousands of gamer around, hyping for the game, looking forward for the next version. Many youtuber has play it to jump onto the hype train and it just getting bigger and bigger. The game look fantastic and even there were so many bugs, it was just a testing phase, to test the engine and the physic. To test the AI. It promise intelligence AI, one that will keep track of you coming in and out from the house. The test build looks pretty promising.
But it fall fell when it started gaining hype for the wrong reason.

Story must stay!

The game start to garner hype, and start to make some theory. Matpat posted a theory of hello neighbor, and other people start researching. While it is not big, it is something people start to hype, and thus it start to shift. The game still posting testing version, but include a lot more vague clues around it, people start to guess the plot. and well, dynamic pixel start shifted into focusing created good story. And well, it did, but it also sacrifice a lot of things, and broke, 1 promise, the premise of the game.

AI worse than stormtrooper

"Sneak into your neighbor's house to find out what he's hiding in his basement while playing against an advanced, self learning AI." This is what is quoted into the game website, and the main premise of the game. However, when the game is release, the game is not played as intended it to be. The game is a success, selling quite a number of copies, but the game is disappointing as you mom can be when they find out you watch anime or something. The game is a buggy mess, most of the glitches are not fixed, its exploitable, the enemy itself is not polish, and the advanced AI? Does not seem like any advanced at all. The enemy can be as stupid as it can be already. The puzzle itself is hilarious stupid. It makes zero sense, it become something that you want to get out as fast as possible and not to deal with the stupid nonsense. The AI we see in the first couple of alpha, it rarely be seen here. Getting caught by the enemy, is nothing more than a shortcut so we dont have to run. The game does not punish you for getting caught, or atleasy feel like it nothing. It all a mess.


Hello neighbor is quite interesting. From the game premise to the actual released game, it seems quite far off then its original goal. It a shame, because this is truly a game i was looking forward, a game that could give something unique, but instead it become nothing more than a weird puzzle platformer that makes absolutely nonsense. The story is good, i love the story of the game, but if the game itself is no that great, its better off being made as a book, instead of a game, and give the reader to read.