WeekEnd 1: Due Debts

Spoiler Alert

This article contains spoilers!
You should move to another page if you don't want to have your experience spoiled. Please proceed with caution.

WeekEnd 1, titled Due Debts, is the eighth level and first WeekEnd in Friday Night Funkin'. It was released on the 30^th of April, 2024.

Overview

Opponent

Pico faces off against Darnell, his and Nene's trigger-happy pyromaniac friend.

Location

WeekEnd 1 takes place in the "Philly Streets."^[1] This location is set near a gloomy city in the Philadelphia area during a storm with rain and smog. Silhouettes of skyscrapers can be seen in the background skyline, in front of which is a highway on a bridge with a dead end that has no barrier and lampposts along the highway that are lit. There is a construction site nearby to the right. On the ground below, there is a traffic light with horizontally arranged signals, with cars passing by. There are brick walls to the left with graffiti on them that has the word "Newgrounds" in white paint, along with wired fencing on top. The sidewalk in front has a green tint, and there are sheets of cardboard and torn newspapers on the curb, with a storm drain situated between these.

Unique Effects

Darnell and Nene have various special animations. Nene and Darnell laugh at Pico during the beginning cutscene of Darnell after Darnell kicks a spray can at him that Pico shoots. Darnell kicks graffiti cans at Pico during 2hot. Nene has an animation for when Pico is low on health. Darnell and Pico have a fist fight during Blazin'.

Tracks

Cutscene Tracks

Trivia

When the update first released, a large number of players were running into an at the time unknown error that only read "Null Object Reference", which would cause the game to crash. This bug would usually occur when completing Darnell, though there were reports of the bug happening on other songs and sections of the game as well. This error quickly became a meme in the community and even caused it to trend on Twitter for a short while.
- The cause of this bug appeared to be because, ironically, the crash handler made for the game was crashing.^[2]^[3]
The update adding WeekEnd 1 was delayed multiple times. It was originally supposed to be released in Q1 2022,^[4] but the release date was changed to the 30^th of April, 2022,^[5] due to more time being needed.^[6] It was later delayed again in order to further refine the production of the update, with no new release date being given.^[7]
- Due to these delays, WeekEnd 1 is currently the holder of the longest time between levels, releasing 3 years and 12 days after Week 7 on the 18^th of April, 2021.
WeekEnd 1 was leaked ahead of its official release due to a link to an early test build of its update being accidentally left in the GitHub repository for Friday Night Funkin'.^[8]^[9] Lead animator and artist PhantomArcade confirmed the leaks were real via a Tweet^[10] and a Twitch live stream titled "FNF work, it leaked, no point in hidin it".^[11] The download (which was on Newgrounds) was only accessible to Newgrounds supporters.^{[citation needed]} It was later made private when the leak was discovered.
This is the second level to change the player character's appearance between songs, the first being Week 7.
This is the fourth level to have a guest character as an opponent. The first was Week 2, the second was Week 3, and the third was Week 7. This is also the first level to have guest characters in each of the main roles.
WeekEnd 1 continues after the events of Week 7.^[6]
The scene in the first cutscene where Darnell is spray painting may be a reference to artwork done by MindChamber for the Pico stickers on the now-defunct Newgrounds store.^[12]
PhantomArcade originally wanted WeekEnd 1 to be very off-kilter and weird, but ninjamuffin99 mentioned that a break from weirdness was needed and that the game could use something "cool." This is why Darnell became the opponent of this level, as PhantomArcade then thought of a cool character and suggested Darnell. Once PhantomArcade had decided on the opponent and drafted a scenario, development moved forward as evilsk8r helped to refine the character and stage design, Kawai Sprite composed songs that fit the art and mood of the story and interactions, and PhantomArcade requested new gameplay elements that he drafted and sent to ninjamuffin99, who worked on the math and code to bring the concepts to life.^[13]^[14]
Originally, WeekEnd 1 was internally called Week 8.^[15]
This is the first level to have one of its tracks hidden from its track listing in Story Mode before the level's completion.
The player must complete WeekEnd 1 in Story Mode to unlock its tracks in Freeplay.
This is the fourth level where something is moving along in the background. The first were the subway trains during Week 3, the second were the passing cars in Week 4, and the third was Steve in Week 7.
- The cars in the background actually adhere to the traffic lights. When the light is green, they'll drive as normal, and when it turns red, they'll stop at the light and resume driving when it turns green again.
Pico's final blow in Blazin' is a reference to Pico's Unloaded, where he defeats the last of the Überkids in a very similar manner.
The rain that falls during this stage isn't just a simple overlay, but actually a true shader. If the player looks closely, they can see refractions in the rain. This effect was coded by a pixel artist and programmer named saharan.^[16]^[17]
- The rain intensifies as the level goes on, starting from a light drizzle in Darnell to full rain and thunder and lightning in Blazin'.
- There are sound effects for the raindrops in the game files, but they go unused.
Originally, A-Bot was supposed to have an arm that would move Darnell around like a standee whenever it was his turn. This was scrapped because PhantomArcade felt that it was too complex and that WeekEnd 1 was already getting to be "too much" in terms of art assets.^[18]
The fist fight between Pico and Darnell during the last cutscene of WeekEnd 1 is based on the final fight between Simon and Anti-Spiral in the second Gurren Lagann movie: Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars.^[19]
- The handshake between Pico and Darnell in the cutscene also references the handshake between Ryu and Cyclops during the intro to X-Men vs. Street Fighter.
The level was originally going to have reflective rain puddles underneath Darnell and Pico; they were removed due to performance issues. However, PhantomArcade has stated they could potentially be added back in if the team managed to get the puddles working without the game's performance suffering.^[20]
Darnell has some unused voice lines, as shown in a Newgrounds submission^[21] by PhantomArcade. Some of the unused voice lines include unused laughs as well as multiple "tch" sounds.
- One of the "tch" sounds presumably gave way to Darnell's iconic "chud" sound. The audio reveals that this was supposed to be Darnell getting pissed.

Gallery

Load video
Local File
Local File might collect personal data.

The cutscene before Darnell.
Load video
Local File
Local File might collect personal data.

The cutscene after 2hot.
Load video
Local File
Local File might collect personal data.

The cutscene after Blazin'.
The foreground.
The city in the foreground.
The car sprite sheet.
The traffic light sprite sheet.
The map for the traffic light.
The contstruction building.
The skyline.
The skybox.
The smog.
The highway.
The map for the highway lights.
The highway lights.
The street blur used during Blazin'.
The lightning sprite sheet.
Leaked background for the level, an early version.^[22]
Ditto, but with a concept sprite for Darnell and no fog.^[23]
The leaked background, but without the sky.
Ditto, but the foreground.
Ditto, but the highway.
Ditto, but the car and stoplight.
An interpretation of the background for the level drawn by Red Minus; PhantomArcade would use this interpretation as the basis for the final version.^[23]
Ditto, but in black and white.
Accidentally leaked spin sprite of Darnell for the song Blazin'.
Pico's gun modeled in Shapr3D to aid in the creation of special animations,^[24] likely for this level.
Pico failing to shoot a paint can thrown by Darnell in the song 2hot.
The old Story Mode text for the level.
The full version of the "Target" picture that Nene angrily ripped in half during the last cutscene of WeekEnd 1.