Friday Night Funkin'

Friday Night Funkin' is an upcoming rhythm video game developed by The Funkin' Crew Inc. and released on Newgrounds in 2020.^[6] The game is developed by a small group consisting primarily of Cameron "ninjamuffin99" Taylor, David "PhantomArcade" Brown, Isaac "Kawai Sprite" Garcia, and evilsk8r. The game is also open-source.^[a] 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.^{[7][not in body]} The game has been credited with driving users back to Newgrounds, a site that rose in popularity in the early 2000s.^{[8][9][6][not in body]}

Friday Night Funkin'
Developer(s)	The Funkin' Crew Inc.
Director(s)	PhantomArcade[1]
Designer(s)	PhantomArcade evilsk8r brekkist[2]
Programmer(s)	ninjamuffin99 EliteMasterEric[3] fabs
Artist(s)	PhantomArcade evilsk8r brekkist
Writer(s)	PhantomArcade
Composer(s)	Kawai Sprite[4] Saruky crisp[5]
Engine	HaxeFlixel (OpenFL, Haxe)
Platform(s)	Browser Windows macOS Linux iOS Android
Release	TBA
Genre(s)	Rhythm
Mode(s)	Single-player

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.^[10][11] There are currently nine levels in the game, alongside selected songs amongst the nine levels featuring more difficult remixes.

The game was initially created for the Ludum Dare 47 game jam on October 5, 2020.^[12] 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.^[13] On July 15, 2025, the game was released for iOS and Android.^{[‡ 1]}

Gameplay

Gameplay of the third "Week"

Friday Night Funkin' is a rhythm game in which the player controls a character called Boyfriend, who must defeat a series of opponents to continue dating his significant other, Girlfriend. The player must beat multiple levels, referred to as "Weeks" in-game, containing three songs each. Each week, the player faces a different opponent. During gameplay, the opponent will sing a pattern of notes represented as arrows, which the player must then mirror by using their set keybinds; by default the arrow keys (↑, ↓, ←, →), and optionally W, A, S, and D keys.

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.^[4][10] The game contains two different modes of play: a story campaign in which songs are played linearly, and a "freeplay" mode which allows for free selection of any of the game's music tracks.^[10] Selected songs also have harder remixes under the "Erect" and "Nightmare" difficulties.

Development

Cameron "ninjamuffin99" Taylor (left), Phantom Arcade (middle), and Isaac "Kawai Sprite" Garcia (right) in 2024

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.^[12] 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.

The seventh Week was released as a timed exclusive on Newgrounds.^[14] Due to the increase in traffic on Newgrounds, the site crashed.^[15] Following the release of Week 7, the developers shifted focus to the full game, titled Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game.^[16] Its soundtrack has been made available on Bandcamp and Spotify.^[17]

The ninth level, titled "WeekEnd 1", was released on April 30, 2024. This level featured characters from the Pico's School series, one of whom had already been prominently featured as an antagonist of an earlier Week.^{[‡ 2][18]} The update also featured the addition of "Erect" remixes, remixed versions of previously existing in-game songs with more challenging gameplay.^{[‡ 2]} The game received a UI overhaul as well.^{[‡ 2]}

The game received continual updates throughout the latter half of 2024 and into 2025, introducing several new remixes and gameplay modes.^{[‡ 3][19]}

iOS and Android versions of the game were released on July 15, 2025.^{[‡ 1]}

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.^[13] On April 18, a Kickstarter project for the full version of the game was released, and reached its goal of $60,000 within hours.^[20] The Kickstarter ultimately raised over $2 million.^[21][6] In February 2022, IGN reported that Friday Night Funkin': The Full Ass Game was one of the most funded Kickstarter projects of 2021.^[22] The full game was planned to include a mobile version for Android and iOS,^[23] remixes of the songs intended to be more difficult to play, online multiplayer, and multiple new levels.^[24]

Reception

Friday Night Funkin' has an active modding community due to its open-source release, allowing for the easy implementation of fan-made content.^[7][25][26] As a result, the full game received mod support using the Polymod framework.^[27][28][29]

Notes

1. Friday Night Funkin' is licensed under the Apache License 2.0, per the game's license file. The repository's readme file used to state, "IF YOU MAKE A MOD AND DISTRIBUTE A MODIFIED / RECOMPILED VERSION, YOU MUST OPEN SOURCE YOUR MOD AS WELL", implying a copyleft requirement. From May to August 2021, the license file simply stated "if u make mods, open source them, lol!"; the Apache License 2.0 was used prior to May. In a tweet, ninjamuffin99 stated that it gets "iffy" when non-code assets are used commercially. From January 2023 to April 2024, the license file simply read "SORTING OUT LICENSE STUFF!!! BRB LOL!". In May 2024, the license was changed back to the Apache License 2.0, with the assets under a separate, closed license.