[[File:PreAlphaHouse.png|thumb|200px| It was released quietly in September 2016, not gaining much attention at first. You would've needed a hammer and a key in this version. This version of the game was never released and only used for the trailer. Doors locked without padlocks have not appeared in any versions after the prototype. One of the outside doors was shown to have a lock on it, which the player needed to click in order to unlock the door. The basement was probably unfinished and/or not a playable section, and was instead replaced with a cutscene where the protagonist removes the first board with the hammer, only for the Neighbor to grab them from behind and bury them alive. It appeared that there was no puzzle in this version because the key was on a table and the hammer was in a room full of boxes. The basement in this version was locked with boards, and a padlock.
It was seen in the Hello Neighbor Announcement Trailer, and some images on the official page showed it to have three floors but there was no way to access any other floors, as it was unfinished.
In this build not much was known of what the house exactly looked like.