Friday Night Funkin'

Friday Night Funkin' (also known as Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game) is an upcoming rhythm video game developed by Funkin' Crew Inc. and released on Newgrounds in 2020. The game is developed by a small group called The Funkin' Crew Inc., which consists primarily of Cameron "ninjamuffin99" Taylor, David "PhantomArcade" Brown, Isaac "Kawai Sprite" Garcia, and evilsk8r. The game is also open-source. It shares some gameplay features with Dance Dance Revolution, PaRappa the Rapper, and the "Dance Contest" minigame from Club Penguin, and borrows aesthetic influences from Flash games. The game has been credited with driving users back to Newgrounds, a site that rose in popularity in the early 2000s.

The game revolves around the player character, Boyfriend, who must defeat a variety of opponents in singing and rapping contests in order to continue dating his love interest, Girlfriend. Gameplay involves hitting notes with timed inputs while avoiding running out of health for the duration of the song.

The game was initially created for the Ludum Dare 47 game jam on October 5, 2020. An expanded demo was released on November 1, 2020, with updates continually released in the following months. A full version of the game backed by Kickstarter, titled Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game, is in development.

Gameplay
Friday Night Funkin' is a rhythm game in which the player controls a character called Boyfriend, who must defeat a series of opponents in order to continue dating his significant other, Girlfriend. The player must pass multiple levels, referred to as "Weeks" in-game, containing three songs each. Each week, the player faces a different opponent, though some deviate in structure from this via the inclusion of multiple opponents. During gameplay, the opponent will sing a pattern of notes represented as arrows, which the player must then mirror by using the arrow keys (Up, Down, Left, Right) or the W, A, S, and D keys on a computer. Some songs introduce more complicated patterns, with the player's pattern sometimes varying from the opponent's or both singers engaging in a duet.

For each week, the player has the option to select one of three difficulties: Easy, Normal, or Hard. As the difficulty increases, the speed of incoming arrows increases, and the patterns of arrows become more complex. The player's high score for each week on each difficulty is tracked and shown in the top corner of the week selection screen. The game contains two different modes of play: a story campaign in which songs are played linearly, and a "free play" mode which allows for free selection of any of the game's music tracks. Selected songs also have harder remixes under the "Erect" and "Nightmare" difficulties.

Development
In October 2020, video game programmer ninjamuffin99 began work on a game for the Ludum Dare 47 game jam. He asked artists evilsk8r and PhantomArcade to help him with the project, as both had experience in game development as well. A composer known as Kawai Sprite was also added to the team in order to create the songs featured in the game. The game was quickly assembled using a pre-made flash-to-haxe pipeline.

The prototype contained only a handful of music tracks and lacked menus. Despite its rudimentary design, the prototype received unexpected success, leading to many requests for a full game. In response, ninjamuffin99 stated that he had plans to expand the game.

The team would later update this demo on November 1, 2020, which added several additional menus and options as well as Week 2, a new level. Interest in the game increased, with it quickly growing in notoriety on Newgrounds as it had received significant attention via platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and Twitch.

Week 7 was released as a timed exclusive on Newgrounds. Due to the increase in traffic on Newgrounds, the site crashed. After Week 7, the developers shifted focus on the full game, titled Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game. Its soundtrack has been made available on Bandcamp and Spotify.

In May 2024, a new week, titled "Weekend 1" was released. This was the biggest major update the game had seen since April 2021, when Week 7 was released. It features characters from the Pico's School series: Pico, Nene, and Darnell.

Kickstarter
In April 2021, the developers announced plans to launch a Kickstarter project later in the month to turn the demo into a full game. On April 18, a Kickstarter project for the full version of the game was released under the name Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game and reached its goal of $60,000 within hours. The Kickstarter ultimately raised over $2 million. In February 2022, IGN reported that Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game was one of the most funded Kickstarter projects of 2021. The full game is planned to include a mobile version for Android and iOS, remixes of the songs intended to be more difficult to play, online multiplayer, and multiple new levels.

Reception
Friday Night Funkin '  gained notable popularity after its second demo update in November 2020. The game quickly became popular due to its catchy music, unique art style, and engaging gameplay, appealing to both casual gamers and rhythm game enthusiasts. Friday Night Funkin' also has an active modding community due to its open-source release, allowing for the implementation of fan-made content. As a result, the full game will receive mod support using the Polymod framework.