Friday Night Funkin'
― Newgrounds description
Friday Night Funkin' is a rhythm game developed in HaxeFlixel by The Funkin' Crew Inc., whose founding members are ninjamuffin99, Kawai Sprite, PhantomArcade 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 features multiple weeks where the player is confronted with various opponents with 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
― 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 must press the P or Enter key.
The player must press the - and + keys to decrease or increase the game volume respectively, and 0 to mute the game.
The player must press the R key at any time during a song to instantly trigger a Game Over.
During the Game Over screen, the player must press the Enter key, Z key or spacebar to restart the track. They must also press the escape or backspace key to quit.
Most controls can be changed via the Options.
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 causes some health to be lost, and letting go early cancels the note's streak.
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 but misses a note, the counter does not reset. However, if the player misses a note, but does not press the key for it, the counter will reset.[note 1]
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 | -10 | Allowing a note to pass by the marker by not pressing the key. |
Ghost Miss3 | N/A | -10 | Pressing a key when there are no arrows at all. |
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, but it lowers score.
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. The only character besides Boyfriend who has miss animations that play upon failing to hit a note is Pico.[note 2]
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 a separate section and track meant to teach the player the basics of playing Friday Night Funkin', although it was originally part of (and takes place during) 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 first week 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 second week 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 third week of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponent is the identically named character Pico, and it is set at the Newgrounds Office Building. The tracks for this level are Pico, Philly Nice and Blammed.
Week 4
Week 4, titled Mommy Must Murder, is the fourth week of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponent is Mommy Mearest, and it is set at The Limousine. The tracks for this level are Satin Panties, High and M.I.L.F.
Week 5
Week 5, titled Red Snow, is the fifth week of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponents are Daddy Dearest, Mommy Mearest and Monster, and it is set at The Mall. The tracks for this level are Cocoa, Eggnog and Winter Horrorland.
Week 6
Week 6, titled Hating Simulator ft. moawling, is the sixth week 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 seventh week of Friday Night Funkin'. Its opponent is the character of the same name, Tankman, and it is set at the Restricted Military Zone. The tracks for this level are Ugh, Guns and Stress.
WeekEnd 1
WeekEnd 1, titled Due Debts, is the first weekend (and the eighth level) of Friday Night Funkin' and the final level of the Newgrounds demo. Its opponent is Darnell, and it is set at the Philly Streets. 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Newgrounds Medals
Name and Image | Points | Description | How to Obtain |
---|---|---|---|
Friday Night Funker | 5 | Start the game | Start the game |
SPOOKY TIME | 10 | Beat Week 1 in Story mode and unlock Week 2 | Complete all the Week 1 songs in Story Mode |
Just like the game | 25 | Funk on a Friday (real time) | Start the game on a Friday |
NOTE: After the release of the 0.3.0 update, these medals no longer register on Newgrounds accounts.
Development
On the 2nd of October, 2020, programmer ninjamuffin99 found out that the yearly game jam event Ludum Dare 47 was about to begin in a few hours. Having decided to participate in it, he contacted 3 Newgrounds artists to help him create his submission for Ludum Dare 47, who are Kawai Sprite, PhantomArcade, and evilsk8r. Of all these people, evilsk8r was the only one whom ninjamuffin99 had never interacted with, although he was more than willing to work with him.[2] He had already decided that his game would be a rhythm game, and unlike with his previous Ludum Dare entries, he did not care much for the game jam's theme, loosely coming up with the idea that music is adjacent to looping. With a 72-hour weekend and the team assembled, they set off to create the very first build of Friday Night Funkin', which would come to be known as the Ludum Dare prototype.
PhantomArcade and evilsk8r, both of whom were tasked by ninjamuffin99 to create concept designs for the game's characters, cooperated to create the first 3 characters appearing in the game (Boyfriend, Girlfriend, and Daddy Dearest), as well as the area where the game would take place, a stage. Having imagined that the game would be about a father challenging his daughter's boyfriend to gain his approval, ninjamuffin99 asked the two to create initial designs of characters in a "boyfriend and dad scenario". Early concept art of Boyfriend depicted him as being mostly the same as his current one, except he had magenta hair instead of cyan and blue shoelaces instead of white.[3] An early depiction of Girlfriend depicted her as being the same as her current design, except without the speakers she is known for sitting on. Daddy Dearest was shown with a briefcase next to him, possibly implying that the idea of Daddy Dearest being a former rockstar had not yet been conceived at the time. As such, he may have originally been intended to be a businessman of some sort.
Kawai Sprite, on the other hand, was asked by ninjamuffin99 to compose the music for the game. According to ninjamuffin99, he wanted it to go in an old-school direction, specifically noting PaRappa the Rapper and Gitaroo Man as examples of what he was looking for in the music that was to be added.[4] Additionally, voices were unanimously decided to follow in the style of Vib-Ribbon, leading to the "boops and beeps" vocal style the game is known for. During the course of the game's creation, Kawai Sprite created the start screen theme, Bopeebo and Fresh, as well as providing the voices for Boyfriend and Daddy Dearest.
The prototype version of Friday Night Funkin' was released on the 5th of October, 2020, the last day of Ludum Dare 47.[5] After the game jam concluded and the unexpected viral popularity of Friday Night Funkin', ninjamuffin99 and the rest of the crew had plans to continue updating the game, although not full-time.[citation needed] An updated version of the game was uploaded to Newgrounds and itch.io on the 1st of November, 2020, with several differences from its Ludum Dare predecessor. Additionally, the first two songs of the game were included in a level that would eventually be named "Week 1", along with 2 new tracks named Tutorial and Dadbattle.
The development of Week 2 began not long after the release of Week 1. It was meant to be a Halloween update. For this week, PhantomArcade contacted popular YouTube animator and comedian Sr Pelo to request the addition of his Spooky Month characters Skid and Pump in Friday Night Funkin'.[6] Sr Pelo happily accepted the request and provided the individual voices for both Skid and Pump for Kawai Sprite to use for Week 2's first 2 tracks: Spookeez and South, the latter of which was inspired by American hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia and was originally named "Spooky Down South".[7] In addition, PhantomArcade collaborated with Newgrounds animator Bassetfilms to create the week's secondary opponent, Monster, as well as his eponymous song.[8] Monster and his song, however, ended up getting scrapped because ninjamuffin99 had troubles charting the song due to the tempo changes, leaving Week 2 a track short.[9]
On the 16th of November, 2020, a teaser trailer for the Friday Night Funkin' demo was released on the YouTube channel of Newgrounds to promote the game to a wider audience.[10] At the of the video, potential upcoming playable characters were teased, including:
- Pico, from the Pico series and original Newgrounds mascot, created by Tom Fulp.
- Tankman, from the TANKMEN series and current mascot of the Newgrounds logo, created by JohnnyUtah.
- Cassette Girl, a character that was featured in artwork on the Newgrounds art portal, created by SoftDon.[note 3]
- Hank J. Wimbleton, from the Madness Combat series, created by Krinkels.
These characters were originally intended for a pack set to be released around Christmas of 2020 as playable reskins of Boyfriend in Freeplay.[11] However, the crew later decided to take a different direction.[12]
On the 1st of December, 2020, Reddit user ChaoticGamerCG posted a fan chart for the song Monster[13] and ninjamuffin asked permission to have the .json file so that he could implement it on a future update, to which ChaoticGamerCG agreed.[14]. The chart ended up getting added in the game files, but not officially. It could only be accessable via the Debug menu, and there wasn't a way to change the difficulty or save scores. Additionally, the original charting was rough, as there wasn't an option to change song BPMs at the time. The song would not end up being added officially in the game until the 18th of April, 2021.
Around November, the crew started to work on the character Mommy Mearest, Girlfriend's pop star mother. However they needed more time to finish developing her, so they started working on a level for Pico instead, which ended up becoming Week 3, making Pico an opponent.[15] Week 3 was released on the 11th of December, 2020. The location for Week 3 is the Newgrounds Office rooftop, inspired by the fact that the Pico series takes place in Philadelphia, which is near the Newgrounds Office.[16]. For the music, Kawai Sprite took inspiration from "ENDLESS HANDBAG", commonly known as the Newgrounds theme song[17], and the "Pico's School" soundtrack.[18]
On the 30th of November, Kawai Sprite posted a sneak peek of an old version of the song High, the second song of Week 4, featuring Mommy Mearest.[19][20] On the 18th of December, 2020, ninjamuffin99 posted a sneak peek of the first song, Satin Panties.[21] Week 4 ended up getting released on the 27th of December, 2020. For her character design, PhantomArcade followed some requests by other artists: Mommy Mearest's garter belt straps were suggested by Spazkid, while her lips were made more "bimbofied" by moawling.[22]. Additionally, Spazkid ended up giving additional animation help for Week 4.[23][24] For the music, Kawai Sprite wanted to try a specific music genre[25] , and one of the inspirations for the genre were the Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step"[26] and Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up"; the former also partially inspired the character of the Henchmen[27] and the latter inspired the third song M.I.L.F.[28] Additionally, Mommy Mearest's vocals were provided by voice actor Monica Franco, also known online as l0litsmonica[29], who is also known for voicing Vaggie in the pilot of the animated series Hazbin Hotel. The Week 4 update also updated the game's HUD, adding icons for every character that appeared on the health bar, all drawn by evilsk8r.
On the 25th of December, 2020, Kawai Sprite ended up releasing the album Friday Night Funkin' OST, Vol. 1, which also featured two then upcoming tracks, Cocoa and Eggnog, as a teaser for the then upcoming Week 5, meant to be a Christmas update. However, the level ended up getting delayed due to time constraints, and would end up being released the 20th of January, 2021.
Version History
Version | Release Date | Notes | Official Description |
---|---|---|---|
0.1.0 | 5th of October, 2020 | Version 0.1.0 was the first version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This version of the game has several notable differences, and many features were not yet implemented. More information can be found on the Friday Night Funkin' (Ludum Dare Prototype) page. | Added
|
0.2.0 | 1st of November, 2020 | Version 0.2.0 was the second version of Friday Night Funkin' to be released. This version of the game introduced many new features, which include intro messages that appear once the game is loaded, a new title card featuring Girlfriend, a new main theme known as Gettin' Freaky, and a main menu with three different options: Story Mode, where the player selects and plays through different weeks that combine the scores of each track together into a final score, Freeplay, where the player can freely select which songs to play, and Donate, which takes the player to the game's itch.io page. Options, which allows the player to change the settings of the game, had not yet been implemented. A chart editor (originally called the debug menu) was also added that allows the player to modify song charts and other properties. 2 new tracks, both of which were absent from the Ludum Dare prototype, named Tutorial and Dadbattle, were added to Week 1. Additionally, Week 2 was added featuring the characters Skid and Pump from Sr Pelo's Spooky Month series. The new tracks featured in this week are Spookeez and South. A third track, named Monster and featuring the character of the same name, was added, but went unused and could only be accessed through the debug menu. Uniquely, it didn't have any way to change its difficulty or save its score. It was always meant to be the 3rd track of Week 2[30] but was scrapped at the time due to difficulty charting it.[31] | Added
|
0.2.1 | 6th of November, 2020 | Version 0.2.1 was the third version of Friday Night Funkin' released. Among the several new features added in this version are scores and the possibility to change the difficulty level in Freeplay, a few new intro messages, a new lightning effect in Week 2 causing Boyfriend and Girlfriend to briefly shudder in fear, and a leaderboard where players can save their scores. Dadbattle and Spookeez were recharted in easy mode to make it easier for players to beat. Tutorial was separated from Week 1 and included in its own week. | Added
Changed
Fixed |
0.2.1.1 | 6th of November, 2020 | Version 0.2.1.1 was the fourth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. The only change in this version was a bug involving Week 2 not unlocking properly being fixed. | Fixed
|
0.2.1.2 | 6th of November, 2020 | Version 0.2.1.2 was the fifth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. A bug in Story Mode where scores would not reset was fixed. | Fixed
|
0.2.2 | 20th of November, 2020 | Version 0.2.2 was the sixth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. In this version, instrumental previews and user interface sounds were added to Freeplay, a feature showing the player's score during a track was added, and a pause menu allowing the player to restart or resume a song and go back to the main menu was added, with its pause theme being titled Breakfast. | Added
Changed
Fixed
|
0.2.3 | 4th of December, 2020 | Version 0.2.3 was the seventh version of Friday Night Funkin' released. In this version, several other intro messages were added, and several bugs with the debug menu were fixed. This version's source code is not available for download on the GitHub repository, and is only listed in the changelog. | Added
Fixed
|
0.2.4 | 11th of December, 2020 | Version 0.2.4 was the eighth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This update added Week 3, featuring the character Pico from Pico's School. The tracks featured in this week are Pico, Philly Nice, and Blammed. | Added
Changed
Fixed
|
0.2.4.1 | 16th of December, 2020 | Version 0.2.4.1 was the ninth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This version goes uncredited in the game's changelog. It fixed music playing after pausing the game, the main menu theme not playing after exiting or finishing a song, and updated the game's README file. | Fixed
|
0.2.5 | 27th of December, 2020 | Version 0.2.5 was the tenth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This version added Week 4, featuring the character Mommy Mearest as its opponent. The new tracks featured in this week are Satin Panties, High and M.I.L.F. Along with the week, new health bar character icons and additions to the chart editor were also added. | Added
Changed
Fixed
|
0.2.6 | 20th of January, 2021 | Version 0.2.6 was the eleventh version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This update added Week 5, starring Daddy Dearest and Mommy Mearest as the primary opponents and Monster as the secondary opponent. The tracks featured in this week are Cocoa, Eggnog and Winter Horrorland. Improvements to the chart editor were also implemented. | Added
Changed
Removed
Fixed
|
0.2.7 | 2nd of February, 2021 | Version 0.2.7 was the twelfth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This update added Week 6, featuring the character Senpai as the primary opponent and Spirit as the secondary opponent. The tracks featured in this week are Senpai, Roses and Thorns. | Added
Changed
Fixed
|
0.2.7.1 | 14th of February, 2021 | Version 0.2.7.1 was the thirteenth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. Crashes involving Week 6's dialogue and several miscellaneous details were fixed. | Added
Changed
Fixed
|
0.2.8 | 18th of April, 2021 | Version 0.2.8 was the fourteenth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This update added Week 7, featuring Tankman from the TANKMEN series. The tracks featured in this week are Ugh, Guns and Stress. Among the many additions and changes to the game are options added to the main menu, allowing the player to play on downscroll, change keybinds and login to their Newgrounds account. The game's input system was also overhauled. | Added
Changed
Fixed
|
0.3.0 | 30th of April, 2024 | Version 0.3.0 was the fifteenth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This update added WeekEnd 1, featuring Darnell and Nene. The tracks featured in this week are Darnell, Lit Up, 2hot and Blazin'. It also added 12 ERECT remixes to Freeplay, marking the official implementation of the titular difficulty level and Nightmare difficulty. Among the many additions and changes to the game are options added to the main menu, reworks to the score systems, a new refactored chart editor, fixes for a lot of bugs across hundreds of PRs, etc. | Added
Changed
Fixed
|
0.3.1 | 1st of May, 2024 | Version 0.3.1 was the sixteenth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. Crashes involving platforms and bugs with web browsers from game input were fixed. | Changed
Fixed
|
0.3.2 | 3rd of May, 2024 | Version 0.3.2 was the seventeenth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This update added features to the Chart Editor, enabled ZIP file system support for Polymod, allowed for songs and story levels in the mod folders to display in Freeplay without any extra scripting, fixed many issues with the game and removed some unused .txt files in the assets/data folder.
|
Added
Changed
Fixed
Removed
|
0.3.3 | 14th of May, 2024 | Version 0.3.3 was the eighteenth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This update fixed multiple bugs and crashes. | Changed
Fixed
|
0.4.0 | 6th of June, 2024 | Version 0.4.0 was the nineteenth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This update added the ERECT remixes for Satin Panties and Eggnog, as well as more ranks on the Results screen. Additionally, several songs had their charts tweaked, and numerous bugs were fixed. | Added
Changed
Fixed
|
0.4.1 | 12th of June, 2024 | Version 0.4.1 was the twentieth version of Friday Night Funkin' released. This update added the ability to leave the game while in full-screen mode and changeable keybinds for the Freeplay menu. | Added
Changed
Fixed
|
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, and it's currently being 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.[32] It was also based on 4chan threads asking what users were doing on a Friday night.[33]
- The colors of the note arrows and their directions were designed after the buttons of a PlayStation controller.[34]
- Every week happens on a Friday, as confirmed by ninjamuffin99 on Reddit, hence the name of the game.[35]
- According to ninjamuffin99, Friday Night Funkin' takes place in the Philadelphia area.[36]
- Every current and future character has been confirmed to exist within the same reality.[37] 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.[38]
- 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.[39]
- 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.[38]
- The development of Friday Night Funkin' started exactly 5 years after ninjamuffin99 made his Newgrounds account.[40]
- 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.[41]
- 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.[42]
- 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.[43]
- 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.[44]
- 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. PhantomArcade described this as "a story about the unique dynamics within relationships that inspired the game, and why [Boyfriend and Girlfriend] are that age."[45]
- 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.[46]
Gallery
The application icon for Friday Night Funkin', featuring Boyfriend.
The Friday Night Funkin' start screen, featuring Girlfriend.
The Friday Night Funkin' loading screen in the web version, including Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Daddy Dearest and Mommy Mearest.
Notes
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Cassette Girl ended up getting scrapped on the 24th of August, 2023, after her creator was accused of sexual misconduct.
References
External Links
- Official website
- Friday Night Funkin' on itch.io
- Friday Night Funkin' on Newgrounds
- Friday Night Funkin's GitHub repository
- Friday Night Funkin' (Ludum Dare Prototype) on itch.io
- Friday Night Funkin' on Wikipedia
Characters | |
---|---|
Main Characters | |
Opponents | |
Others | |
Upcoming | |
Scrapped or Unused | |
Background Characters |
Galleries | |
---|---|
Main Characters | |
Opponents | |
Others | |
Upcoming | |
Scrapped or Unused |
Credits | |||
---|---|---|---|
Developers |
| ||
Contributors |
Music | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kawai Sprite |
| ||||||
Bassetfilms |