Twenty little kiddos
Short and kinda weirdos
Put them in a row
They can tell you how

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The holidays must be a time of slowed activities for most companies in the game industry, but for us, it was a time to ramp up the production efforts on the latest Secret Neighbor’s patch. Because your excitement is our top priority.

Looking back, it was a wonderful year we spent together. We released two alphas, one beta, and the Secret Neighbor v1.0 along with 8 patches. Needless to say, your help along the way was crucial. We took into consideration each and every one of your reviews. For many reasons, we do not always quickly apply what we acknowledge from your feedback. But rest assured, we're not forgetting anything, and this article goes on to our New Year’s resolutions. Or should I say the roadmap for the upcoming year? And since this list is based on your demands I’ll start with the most important ones. Here we go.

1. The fight against cheating. We know how frustrating it is to see someone cheating in your game and ruining all the fun. We want you to know that we've tried various approaches to prevent the cheaters’ activity, and some solutions seem to be effective enough in combating the cheaters. The majority of these changes are scheduled for Q1, 2020.
   
   
2. More content from creators to players. Since Secret Neighbor’s release, many of you have expressed their concern with regard to the lack of content. Considering this we pushed for the development of level/mod editor. This awesome tool will allow you to create your own levels and mods. Every one of you will be able to create unique new content and share it with the players around the world. So, the level/mod editor is #2 on our priority list, and the first iteration is scheduled for Q1, 2020. Besides this, new classes, items, abilities, and outfits are on the way.
   
   
3. Better communication between players ==> better gameplay. Many of you expressed dissatisfaction with how comms work in Secret Neighbor. We assume the lack of simple communication tools for supporting and cheering up your teammates generates unnecessary tension in “Quick game”. We're pleased to announce the new emoji system, which is designed to help players show mutual kindness and sympathy for the sake of peace and fun.
   
   Also, good communication can generate tonnes of unforgettable moments shared with your teammates. We believe the new ping system will facilitate the exchange of information between players, such as keys/doors location, locks color, Neighbor’s location, etc.
   
   For the advanced players who used to spend a bunch of hours playing custom games together with friends, we’ll introduce some good tools for building small communities and picking the best players based on their rating and region. The rating system will allow you to uprate good mates and downrate the impolite or useless players. The dynamic nature of this rating will prompt the new players to achieve good karma and play in a “good league” which is a billion times better than playing with haters and trolls. ETA: Q1 - Q2, 2020.
   
   
4. Quality of life improvements. We believe that the sky's the limit and we’ve put together a long list of very important things we’re going to implement in 2020. Here are just a few of them: controller support, more advanced settings for Custom game, better tutorial part, new fun modes/events, etc. ETA: Q1 - Q3, 2020.
   
   
5. More progression for competitive players. We’ll be introducing various tracked statistics, which will allow players to compete against each other as well as against their own personal best results. With the new progression system, you will be able to translate your gameplay and communication skills into numbers. You can share these metrics with your mates, family members, and random people for the sake of swag. ETA: Q1 - Q2, 2020.
   
   
6. There is never enough optimization. This year we optimized the game a bunch, but still looking forward to providing each and every one of you with the best FPS and graphics possible. ETA: Q1 - Q4, 2020.
   
   
7. New platforms. All I can say is that our schedule for 2020 is closely connected to some new platforms ;)

As I said at the beginning, it was a great year for all of us but next year looks even more exciting to me. Thank you for being such an amazing community and see you in 2020!

Hey everyone,

Our hard-working development team delivered a patch that fixes most of the Christmas Update issues just in time!

Merry Christmas!


v.1.0.7.5

• Added individual sounds for each class being grabbed by a Neighbor
  
• Fixed a bug where a Neighbor could enter a cupboard with a kid
  
• Fixed the position of a kid in the hands of a Neighbor (for a spectator’s perspective)
  
• Crickets have finally taken a break for the winter
  
• Reduced volume and distance of the Neighbor transformation sound
  
• Pause menu no longer indicates which players were caught by the Neighbor
  
• Fixed a bug where a Neighbor would drop a kid when another player left the game
  
• Fixed a glitch that occurred when switching between item shop and custom game mode

Have fun!

The Holidays are upon us, home invaders!

You didn’t think we’d leave you without a little present, did you?

It’s high time we ditched those pumpkins for something more season-appropriate. In this update, look out for both gameplay and visual Christmas related changes.

Here are the full patch notes:

Environment:

• Added Christmas decorations!
  
• Added the fireplace effect
  
• Added snow to the scene
  
• Minor changes in the house layout
  
• Added blizzard sounds. added footstep sounds for the snow

Gameplay:

• Players can make snowballs (requires snow which can be found outside and on the roof)
  
• Players now freeze while outside, which slows them down by 20%. The effect stops once the affected player gets inside the house
  
• Added the ability to transform into a snowman's head for Clown Neighbor.
  
• Refactored matchmaking to improve multiplayer experience

UI:

• Added shop scene. All menu scenery modified for the Christmas theme.

Customization:

• Added new outfits:
  
  • Neighbor Santa set
    
  • Clown Snowman set
    
  • Leader Postman set
    
  • Detective Deer set
    
  • Inventor Frozen set
    
  • Bagger Elf set
    
  • Scout Winter set
    
  • Bagger Polar set
    
  • Brave Nutcracker Set
    
  • Brave Elf Set
    
  • Scout Skater set

We hope you have fun with the new update and wish you a wonderful holiday season!

More updates to come next year!

Hello Neighbors!

While you're enjoying Secret Neighbor, you might be wondering why a 40% coupon dropped in your inbox for Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek.

This is because we just launched the prequel to the original Hello Neighbor game on Steam! And since you own Secret Neighbor, the coupon was triggered.

The game follows events leading up to the original Hello Neighbor and fill gaps in the story.

While events of Secret Neighbor take place between Acts 1 and 2 of Hello Neighbor, the events of Hide and Seek take place directly before Act 1.

Enjoy the game:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/960420/Hello_Neighbor_Hide_and_Seek/

Hey everyone!

In this update, we bring you some bug fixes and frequently requested matchmaking changes related to the Custom Game mode.

Here's the full list of changes:

• Bug fixes
  
• Fixes for bug fixes
  
• Added the "Random Players" option for Custom Game lobbies, enabling which allows random players to join the lobby
  
• Added the "Join Random Game" button to the Custom Game window

The current game version is 1.0.6b, please restart your Steam client if you didn't get the update automatically.

Have fun!

Hey everyone! Update 5 is live!

This time around we're tweaking the balance, most notably — buffing the Inventor. Here are the full patch notes:

v. 1.0.5b

• Fixed randomized item drop after the Neighbor’s death
  
• Leader’s Inspiration cooldown reduced to 20 seconds
  
• Increased blind duration from Confusion to 1.5 seconds
  
• A match no longer ends if the Neighbor leaves the game. Instead, a message that the Neighbor has left appears, and the players may either finish the match or leave
  
• Added a sound effect and highlighting for when a player mouses over a gear
  
• Key card doors can now be blocked
  
• Added a new type of saucepan: the flashlight saucepan. Durability: 2 hits
  
• Inventor can now craft the flashlight saucepan for 2 gears and the repair hammer for 1 gear

While part of our team was working on the gameplay side of things, others have been tackling much-requested features such as control remapping and further performance optimizations. Stay tuned, more updates to come soon!

Good news everyone, we fully changed the game again!

We noticed some players trolling quick games by killing off random team mates for no reason. So now knocked players in quick games will no longer die off if not helped, they will simply get back up.

Changelog:

• Kids now get up after being knocked down instead of dying
  
• Custom game mode allows to revert the aforementioned knock change
  
• Fixed a bug where a Neighbor could interact with objects through walls while disguised as a pumpkin
  
• Fixed a bug where a Neighbor could clip into the floor after taking damage while disguised as a pumpkin
  
• Collider for knocked kids is now smaller (used the be same size as for a kid that is standing)
  
• Help marker now disappears as intended after a knocked players leaves a match
  
• Neighbor’s metal gates are now in randomized positions (opened/closed) at the beginning of a match
  
• Added an option to inverse the mouse
  
• Kids can no longer be spotted with the radar while they’re hiding in a closet

We are working very hard on upcoming performance optimizations and control remapping. Stay tuned, the next patch is expected early next week!

Happy Friday! I hope you've all had a great fun night of Trick or Treating. While we're finalizing the results of the Pumpkin Carving Contest (check our discord for details), we've rolled out Patch 3.

• Fixed several bugs causing freezes on Quick Game loading screen
  
• State of mute is now applied to the entire session
  
• Fixed a bug where mute would disappear after a match
  
• Fixed a UI bug where you could mute an already muted player after they re-enter the lobby
  
• Removed sound distortions in voice chat on maximum volume
  
• Fixed help icon disappearing after a player leaves.
  
• Improved voice chat stability after disconnects
  
• Changed the relation of the voice chat volume to distance from exponential to linear

This patch is a series of ongoing improvements to the game. We are working on optimizing the game's performance alongside a series of updates in the coming weeks.