Friday Night Funkin'
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This page is about the base game. For the prototype, see Friday Night Funkin' (Ludum Dare Prototype). For the full game, see Friday Night Funkin' (Kickstarter Campaign).
“Gettin freaky on a Friday night y'all”
― Newgrounds description
― Newgrounds description
Friday Night Funkin' is a rhythm game developed in HaxeFlixel by The Funkin' Crew Inc., whose founding members are ninjamuffin99, PhantomArcade, Kawai Sprite and evilsk8r. The game was originally created for Ludum Dare 47, a game jam event with the theme being "Stuck in a loop".[1] The version of the game that would now be known as the Ludum Dare prototype was released on the 5th of October, 2020, the jam's last day for submissions. The current demo of the game was released to Newgrounds on the 1st of November, 2020. It can also be played on itch.io. On the itch.io page, it can also be downloaded for Windows, macOS and Linux devices for free or with an optional donation.
Friday Night Funkin' is drawn and animated in a manner that nostalgically encapsulates Newgrounds' Flash animations with an art style inspired by graffiti street art. The game takes place in multiple levels where the player is confronted with various opponents in multiple songs.
The full version of the game, dubbed Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game, is currently in development, having been successfully funded via an official Kickstarter campaign.
Premise and Gameplay
The player primarily takes on the role of Boyfriend, a wannabe rapper and college dropout, who is trying to date his beloved Girlfriend. However, her ex-rockstar father, Daddy Dearest, viciously disapproves of their relationship. He challenges Boyfriend to a sing-off for him to prove his worth. Even if Boyfriend succeeds, it won't be the last time he will hear from him, and he certainly won't be the only one to get in his way.
Controls
“It's basically like DDR, press arrow when arrow over other arrow. And uhhh don't die.”
― itch.io description on how to play the game
― itch.io description on how to play the game
Players must use the WASD and/or the arrow keys on their keyboard to play.
To pause the game, the player can press the P or Enter key.
The player can press the - and + keys to decrease or increase the game volume, respectively, and 0 to mute the game.
The player can press the R key at any time during a song to instantly trigger a Game Over.
During the Game Over screen, the player can press the Enter key, Z key or spacebar to restart the track. They can also press the escape or backspace key to quit.
Most controls can be changed via the Options menu.
Notes
Using the key bindings specified in-game—WASD/arrow keys by default—players must press the keys in correspondence to the colored arrows (the notes) shown on-screen when they overlap with their markers. The placement of the notes in the chart matches the vocals in the song, with the character performing a singing animation when a note is hit.
If an arrow appears with a streak below it (a hold note), the player must hold that key for as long as the streak goes. Holding it fully will rapidly restore a substantial amount of health and increase the player's score, while missing one or letting go early causes some health and score to be lost and counts as a miss.[note 1]
Health Bar
At the bottom of the screen is a health bar that is shared between the characters. The left side is red, representing the opponent(s), and the right is green, representing the player and how much health they have remaining. The bar will always be half full at the start of a song. Where the red and green meet are character icons, representing the opponent(s) and the player, on their respective side. For each note the player hits, they will restore a bit of health as the player character's icon will move a bit to the left. For each miss, the player will lose some health as the player character's icon will move a bit to the right. When the player gets low enough on health, the player character's icon will swap to their "danger" icon to warn the player that they are close to losing. On the other hand, when the player has the health bar mostly full, the opponent(s) will display their "danger" icon. Some characters do not have a "danger" icon, meaning their icon remains the same at all times.
Combo
Continuously hitting notes will eventually cause a streak counter to appear near the character on the stereo. This counter appears after the player hits 10 notes, and from then on it shows itself going up for every successful note the player hits without missing. If the player presses a key without hitting a note, the counter does not reset. However, if the player misses a note entirely, the counter will reset.[note 2] Supporting characters will react to the player's combo if it reaches certain thresholds or is broken after reaching 70.
The combo counter does not affect the score in any way and is mostly an aesthetic feature.
Score
Hitting notes will give the player points. The more accurate the hit is, the more points it gives, awarding a maximum of 500 points and a minimum of 9 points. Hitting and holding a hold note gives points for as long as the player continues holding the key. The points are added and tracked on a score counter below the health bar.
Below is a table explaining the approximated point yield and timing window for each rating.
| Score Message | Image | Points | Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sick!!1 |
 |
354–500 | Hitting the note within 45ms of the note reaching the marker. |
| Good! |
 |
38–353 | Hitting the note slightly before or after (90ms) it reaches the marker. |
| Bad |
 |
10–38 | Hitting the note a little early or late (135ms) in relation to it reaching the marker. |
| Shit |
 |
9–10 | Hitting the note early or late (160ms) in relation to it reaching the marker. |
| Miss2 | N/A | -100 | Allowing a note to pass by the marker by not pressing the key. |
| Ghost Miss3 | N/A | -10 | Pressing a key without hitting a note. |
1 - Hitting the key perfectly is indicated by the note creating a splash effect. This was added in the Week 7 update.
2 - Letting a note pass causes no message to appear. Points will be deducted, the combo counter will be reset, and the player's health will be lowered. This type of miss is tracked in the Results screen.
3 - Hitting the key at the wrong time causes no message to appear either; however, a record-scratching sound can be heard, and the player character will stop producing vocals and turn bluish-purple in shock instead. Doing this will also lower the player's health, but the amount lost is less than if a note were to pass without even attempting to hit it. This type of miss is not tracked in the Results screen.
Chart Editor
Friday Night Funkin' has a chart editor that can be accessed from the debug menu or by using a custom keybind during a song. It allows players to rechart songs and to select and play as or face off against other characters, although this doesn't affect the music in any way. The player can playtest a chart by pressing "Enter" on their keyboard. Only Boyfriend and Pico have miss animations that play upon failing to hit a note.[note 3]
Story Mode
Story Mode is the main mode of Friday Night Funkin'. In this mode, the player can choose between 8 different levels (and the tutorial) and select between 3 different difficulties: Easy, Normal and Hard. The levels include 7 weeks, which are the main story and feature Boyfriend as the player character, and 1 weekend, in which the player character is Pico as such levels are his side story.
Levels
Levels are groups of tracks that the player must go through in succession. Each level has a different opponent/opponents and a different background (with the exception of the tutorial and the first week).
Tutorial
The Tutorial, titled Teaching Time, is the first level of Friday Night Funkin' meant to teach the player the basics of playing the game, although it was originally part of Week 1. Girlfriend takes the role of the opponent. It is set at the Main Stage.Week 1
Week 1, titled Daddy Dearest, is the second level of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponent is the character of the same name, Daddy Dearest, and it is set at the Main Stage. The tracks for this level are Bopeebo, Fresh and DadBattle.Week 2
Week 2, titled Spooky Month, is the third level of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponents are Skid, Pump and Monster, and it is set at the Spooky Mansion. The tracks for this level are Spookeez, South and Monster.Week 3
Week 3, titled Pico, is the fourth level of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponent is the identically named character Pico, and it is set in Philly (Train). The tracks for this level are Pico, Philly Nice and Blammed.Week 4
Week 4, titled Mommy Must Murder, is the fifth level of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponent is Mommy Mearest, and it is set at the Limo Ride. The tracks for this level are Satin Panties, High and M.I.L.F.Week 5
Week 5, titled Red Snow, is the sixth level of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponents are Daddy Dearest, Mommy Mearest and Monster, and it is set at the Christmas Mall. The tracks for this level are Cocoa, Eggnog and Winter Horrorland.Week 6
Week 6, titled Hating Simulator ft. moawling, is the seventh level of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponents are Senpai and Spirit, and it is set at the School. The tracks for this level are Senpai, Roses and Thorns.Week 7
Week 7, titled Tankman, is the eighth level of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponent is the character of the same name, Tankman, and it is set on the Tankman Battlefield. The tracks for this level are Ugh, Guns and Stress.WeekEnd 1
WeekEnd 1, titled Due Debts, is the ninth level of Friday Night Funkin' and the final level of the Newgrounds demo. Its opponent is Darnell, and it is set in Philly. The tracks for this level are Darnell, Lit Up, 2hot and Blazin'.
Freeplay
Freeplay is the second mode of Friday Night Funkin'. Players are allowed to freely pick and play any of the songs from all the levels on any of the 3 regular difficulties, as well as the ERECT remixes on their 2 difficulties, ERECT and Nightmare, and view their personal best scores for each individual track.
Player scores from Story Mode will be transferred to Freeplay if the score is greater. However, achieving better scores in Freeplay does not affect level scores from Story Mode.
Easter Eggs
Newgrounds Logo
In the intro sequence, the Newgrounds logo appears after the message "In association with Newgrounds". There is a 3 in 10 chance that the logo is animated, and a 1 in 100 chance that the logo is replaced with a rendition of the classic Newgrounds logo used in 1999–2000.
Friday Nigth Funkin'
If the intro message is "trending--only on x", the "Night" in the following "Friday Night Funkin" text will be misspelled as "Nigth" as a reference to when the game is trending on Twitter with a misspelled hashtag.[2]
Multi-Colored Title Screen
Holding down the left or right key during the title screen will cause Girlfriend and the game's logo to change colors.
Secret Title Screen
Pressing "left, right, left, right, up, down, up, down" on the keyboard while on the title screen triggers a special theme to play while Girlfriend and the game's logo change colors to the beat.
Flying Game Window
Pressing Y on the title screen while the game is being played in windowed mode will cause the game window to fly in a figure-8 pattern. Prior to version 0.3.3, pressing Y again would cause the effect to stack, and too many presses would cause the game window to spasm in an unpredictable movement.
Old Boyfriend Icons
During any song in any level, pressing the 9 key will cause Boyfriend's character icons to switch between the old ones he had prior to the Week 4 update and his current ones.
Bouncing Loading Screen
Pressing the spacebar, the Enter key or the Z key during the loading screen in web versions will cause it to bounce.
Gitaroo Man
The Gitaroo Man Easter egg changes the regular pause menu or Game Over screen to one reminiscent of Gitaroo Man's Game Over screen. It has a 1 in 1,000 chance of occurring randomly during normal gameplay. Upon pausing or losing, the screen will abruptly go dark before the special screen appears. The artwork of Boyfriend's head on this screen was created by Wandaboy.
Boyfriend Fakeout Death
A special Game Over animation has a 1 in 4096 chance of occurring randomly if the player loses at any song while playing as Boyfriend. Upon losing, an animation will play where Boyfriend expects to blue ball, doesn't, and has a quick moment of relief before getting blue balled unexpectedly.
You can now play as Pico
Beating WeekEnd 1 in Story Mode with no prior save data causes a pop-up to appear that says "You can now play as Pico" after exiting the Results screen. This pop-up and the accompanying message are a reference to Super Mario Galaxy, where a message appears upon getting all 120 stars and beating Bowser, notifying the player that they can now play as Luigi.
Newgrounds Medals
Full article: Friday Night Funkin'/Newgrounds Medals
Just like many games on Newgrounds, Friday Night Funkin' has a set of medals that players can achieve after completing certain tasks; once they have been achieved, the player will receive a certain amount of points that will register on their Newgrounds account. These medals were added on the 31st of March, 2025. There are 20 medals in total, with one of them being secret.
Prior to this date, there was a set of 5 different medals, 2 of them being secret, though after the WeekEnd 1 update released, they no longer registered on Newgrounds accounts. Additionally, the purpose of those 2 secret medals remains unknown, and after the aforementioned update, they were removed.
Development
Full article: Friday Night Funkin'/Development
Friday Night Funkin' was initially concieved for the Ludum Dare 47 game jam that ran from the 2nd to the 5th of October, 2020. After programmer ninjamuffin99 found out that the event was going to start in a few hours, he managed to recruit a few people that could help him make his submission for Ludum Dare 47: evilsk8r and PhantomArcade for the artwork and animations, and Kawai Sprite for the music. With a 72-hour weekend and the team assembled, they managed to create the first version of the game, which would become known as the Ludum Dare prototype, released on the 5th of October, the last day of Ludum Dare 47.
After the game jam concluded, ninjamuffin99 and the rest of the crew had plans to continue working on the game. An updated version was uploaded to Newgrounds and itch.io on the 1st of November, 2020, with several differences from its Ludum Dare predecessor; this version would become known as the Newgrounds demo. From that moment, the team continued to update the game, creating new content and receiving help from other people for certain elements.
On the 18th of April, 2021, with the release of the Newgrounds-exclusive Week 7 update, a trailer was released for a Kickstarter campaign to fund the full version of the game. The campaing ran for a month, earning over $2,000,000 in total. There would a 3-year gap until the release of the long-awaited WeekEnd 1 update, which brought major changes to the game, and at that point, The Funkin' Crew Inc. had expanded with new people working on the game. Additionally, future updates from that point would be categorized as "destinations" and "pit stops".
Open Source
Friday Night Funkin' is an open-source game. Anyone can download the source code, assets, game data and art project files on GitHub; this enables easy access to and modification of all of the game's files. Thanks to this, the game has developed a strong modding community, with many fan-created mods for the game being created and shared through mod-sharing websites. The team behind the game has openly expressed their support and praise for the mods that have been created, with the base game even having Polymod support.
Reception
Friday Night Funkin' received positive reviews by many fans and players alike for having a great premise, wonderful music, an interesting story, and creative art design. Many people also credit the game as an instant classic that has managed to revive Newgrounds and bring it back into the public mainstream, on top of creating an entire community around the game itself. Some of the songs have gone on to be listed as major song companies' best hits, like M.I.L.F and Stress. It has become one of the most popular Newgrounds games of the modern day, being the most played on the platform as of June 2024,[3] and it continues to be updated as time passes. The game has gained a large modding community due to the easily accessible files and the game being open-source. This has caused more people to be drawn to the game, creating multiple mods. Fans have shared their dismay about the preset controls not being customizable, along with other features that they feel should be added, but this was all fixed with the release of the Week 7 update.
Trivia
- The name Friday Night Funkin' refers to funk, the music genre of Bopeebo and Fresh, which were the only tracks in the Ludum Dare prototype. Starting with the release of the Newgrounds demo, the game would feature other genres as well.
- The title originated from an innuendo, as confirmed in a Reddit AMA by PhantomArcade.[4] It was also based on 4chan threads asking what users were doing on a Friday night.[5]
- The colors of the note arrows and their directions were designed after the buttons of a PlayStation controller.[6]
- Every week happens on a Friday, as confirmed by ninjamuffin99 on Reddit, hence the name of the game.[7]
- According to ninjamuffin99, Friday Night Funkin' takes place in the Philadelphia area.[8]
- Every current and future character has been confirmed to exist within the same reality.[9] ninjamuffin99 describes this as being similar to the Subspace Emissary from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- Upon Week 7's release, the Newgrounds website crashed due to many people rushing to play the week. However, many YouTubers beat it before it crashed, though some still had trouble accessing the game without encountering the "This submission has been temporarily disabled" message.
- 3 days after its release, Newgrounds, along with the game, were fixed. However, some players were having problems with loading the game up, but that was also fixed.
- On the 18th of April, 2021 (around 6:00pm EST), when Week 7 finally released, the developers released a Kickstarter to help plan the full version of the game and its release on multiple platforms. The campaign ended on the 18th of May, 2021, at 5:31pm EDT.
- Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game is planned to include cutscenes for every level to expand the lore, new songs and characters, local and online co-op multiplayer, online leaderboards, an epilogue story filled with its own levels and songs, a new difficulty mode, better mod support, creator mode, more mechanics and more. The game is estimated to have a retail price of between $20 and $30.[10]
- The campaign had already reached beyond the $60,000 pledge goal within hours of its announcement and over $1,000,000 within a span of 3 days. By the time the campaign ended, it amassed $2,247,641 from 58,561 backers.
- Plans for an official PlayStation 1 port, a Pico's School remake and Pico 2 release, and even an anime-themed level with a highly produced sakuga by a big-name company were set on the table.
- A "Nightmare A.U." was also planned with a $10,000,000 goal, with the premise being that certain characters would appear from a dark universe to wreak havoc. People thought that this was just a joke by the developers, but PhantomArcade confirmed it to be real in a Tweet.[11]
- Plans for an official PlayStation 1 port, a Pico's School remake and Pico 2 release, and even an anime-themed level with a highly produced sakuga by a big-name company were set on the table.
- The campaign had already reached beyond the $60,000 pledge goal within hours of its announcement and over $1,000,000 within a span of 3 days. By the time the campaign ended, it amassed $2,247,641 from 58,561 backers.
- Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game is planned to include cutscenes for every level to expand the lore, new songs and characters, local and online co-op multiplayer, online leaderboards, an epilogue story filled with its own levels and songs, a new difficulty mode, better mod support, creator mode, more mechanics and more. The game is estimated to have a retail price of between $20 and $30.[10]
- The development of Friday Night Funkin' started exactly 5 years after ninjamuffin99 made his Newgrounds account.[12]
- In a Twitter AMA, ninjamuffin99 revealed that if DLC were to be made for the game if they have the motivation for it, then it would come in free updates.[13]
- During a Twitter Space, it was revealed that prior to Week 7's release, a Nintendo 3DS port of Friday Night Funkin' was planned for development but was canned due to the system's discontinuation.[14]
- StreetPass was planned for this port, but it's unknown what it would have done.
- One of the game's core inspirations is the 1981 anime adaptation of the manga Urusei Yatsura, which revolves around a horny protagonist and his similarly-horny otherworldly girlfriend going on countless adventures which range from emotional to outright ridiculous.[15]
- Given this description, this is presumably what gave way to the creation of Boyfriend and Girlfriend.
- Friday Night Funkin' is loosely based on "true-ish" events that occurred when PhantomArcade was 19–20.[16]
- When PhantomArcade was 19 years old, his partner's father told him to turn off the Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth music that he was listening to because it was "fruity". The father then played AC/DC music on a guitar.[17] PhantomArcade described this as "a story about the unique dynamics within relationships that inspired the game, and why [Boyfriend and Girlfriend] are that age".[18]
- The transition screen introduced in the WeekEnd 1 update that plays when the player beats or quits a song/level was directly inspired by the boss level transition from No More Heroes.[19]
Gallery
The Friday Night Funkin' logo.
Ditto, but animated.
The application icon for Friday Night Funkin', featuring Boyfriend.
The small application icon for Friday Night Funkin', featuring Boyfriend in pixel art style.
Sprite for the preloading screen on the web versions of Friday Night Funkin', featuring Boyfriend and Girlfriend
The Friday Night Funkin' start screen, featuring Girlfriend.
The main menu screen.
The Friday Night Funkin' loading screen in the web version, including Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Daddy Dearest and Mommy Mearest.
Boyfriend sticker 1.
Boyfriend sticker 2.
Boyfriend sticker 3.
Girlfriend sticker 1.
Girlfriend sticker 2.
Girlfriend sticker 3.
Daddy Dearest sticker 1.
Daddy Dearest sticker 2.
Daddy Dearest sticker 3.
Monster sticker 1.
Monster sticker 2.
Monster sticker 3.
Pico sticker 1.
Pico sticker 2.
Pico sticker 3.
Mommy Mearest sticker 1.
Mommy Mearest sticker 2.
Mommy Mearest sticker 3.
Pico sticker 1.
Pico sticker 2.
Pico sticker 3.
Daddy Dearest sticker 1.
Daddy Dearest sticker 2.
Daddy Dearest sticker 3.
Darnell sticker 1.
Darnell sticker 2.
Darnell sticker 3.
Nene sticker 1.
Nene sticker 2.
Nene sticker 3.
Cassandra sticker 1.
Cassandra sticker 2.
Cassandra sticker 3.
Alucard sticker 1.
Alucard sticker 2.
Hanzo sticker 1.
Hanzo sticker 2.
Cyclops sticker 1.
Cyclops sticker 2.
Misc sticker 1.
Misc sticker 2.
Misc sticker 3.
Misc sticker 4.
Misc sticker 5.
Notes
- ↑ The miss attributed to letting go of a hold note early does not deduct the note hit or impact the player's rank. With this, it is possible to obtain a Perfect rank with misses.
- ↑ Before the WeekEnd 1 update, this behavior was reversed, meaning the combo would be broken if a player pressed a key without a note, but would remain unaffected by a note being missed.
- ↑ Tankman also has unused miss animations, but they don't appear in the current build of the game and only exist in the Week 7 Flash files.