Are you a gamer? Do you like free things? Of course you do!

We here at the Tech Deck are just like you: poor gamers looking for cheap entertainment. And nothing's cheaper than cost-free gaming. Each week, we'll bring you a title (or two or three) you can legally play at home without plopping down a single dollar. If you see games you think we should be featuring on the blog, email us at kiph@spokesman.com.

The younger set has been redefining horror in video games for years, with titles like "Five Nights at Freddy's" and the expanding popularity of streaming services like Twitch combining to make frightfests not only fun to play, but to watch. One of the latest entries into this genre is "Hello Neighbor," a cartoonish take on the "Rear Window" conceit in which the player is tasked with breaking into a creepy neighbor's house and finding your way to the basement. If you're caught, it's game over, and you're returned to your house across the street to try again.

The pre-alpha version of the game is available for direct download from developer Dynamic Pixels and publisher tinyBuild. Click the link below to try it out now, just in time for the Halloween holiday!

Hello Neighbor is published by tinyBuild, a firm based in Bothell, Washington, that has begun to collect a stable of indie titles that also includes Graveyard Keeper, a Stardew Valley clone that was featured in SWX's first Twitch stream. Dynamic Pixels has developed several add-ons for the main Hello Neighbor experience, which launched in full in December 2017.

The stealth horror genre frequently adopts a much more gruesome and graphic visual style than Hello Neighbor, which also provides audible clues when the mustachioed malefactor Mr. Peterson is drawing closer. 2013's Outlast adopted the first-person style that has become a signature of these types of games, and Alien: Isolation followed suit a couple of years later. If you're into the indie titles that follow the formula, you'll want to check out Slender Man: The Seven Pages, also a great title for this time of year.

What's your favorite horror game? Do you like stealth, or prefer a more straightforward approach to action in your digital entertainment? Let us know in the comments below, and check back next week for another free game!