Hello Neighbor's creator is making a Home Alone-esque game that looks a lot like Hello Neighbor

I'm kind of fascinated by what happened to Hello Neighbor. The original, a stealth horror game against a creepy AI that learned your likely movements, was hugely popular in alpha in 2016. The series was acquired by TinyBuild in 2020, and since then there has been a heroic number of spin-offs. There's one set in an amusement park, a multiplayer game called Secret Neighbor in which one small child is actually a large adult man in disguise, a direct sequel called Hello Neighbor 2, and a VR game called Search And Rescue. I think everyone got a bit of Neighbor fatigue there, lads.

This might include the original creator Nikita Kolesnikov, as (still under the auspices of TinyBuild) he's made a new thing. Currently on Steam for playtesting, the project currently known as RBO isn't falling far from the home invasion tree, as players will either be a home-owning Protector - a McCallister, if you will - or an Intruder, or Wet Bandit.

These aren't the official terms, but if the community wants to adopt them then please, go ahead. The game is gunning for direct comparisons in any case, because the Steam page says the protector "is Home Alone" with capital letters and everything. In practice, I don't know how many people will be on each side, but the idea is to steal loot from each other without getting caught. McCallisters and Wet Bandits have different options open to them - traps, hiding in cardboard boxes, that kind of thing. The very short trailer on the Steam page shows that you can kind of set double-bluff traps - jamming a door somewhere you know a Wet Bandit is likely to flee too, and then waiting to surprise them, that kind of thing.

The playtest has been going a little while though. Yesterday the devs posted an update listing all the things that have changed so far, including balance fixes like "the rifle can now only be picked up in the Protector's start room," and "lawnmowers are now slower, have shorter sight, and take longer to recover from stun." We can see there are some asynchronous elements - for example, a McCallister can hear sound highlights, and starts with powerful "pre-crafted clothes".

Currently, and this may change, it looks a lot like Hello Neighbor. The same bright colours, the same slightly Looney Tunes angles on the house and scale of items, and of course you are breaking into a property. Or, I guess, trying to stop people breaking in. Currently the character models are placeholder blocky stick people, so it could change quite a lot as it goes along. You can apply to join the playtest on Steam now, but no release window is forthcoming. Also, who knows what RBO stands for?