Friday Night Funkin’ is the name of a music game developed by several developers: ninjamuffin99, PhantomArcade, evilsk8r, and KawaiSprite. The game was released at the beginning of October 2020 on Newgrounds and became super popular by gamers from all over the world in just a few months. Friday Night Funkin’ is a rhythm game very similar to Dance Dance Revolution, except that it can be played directly on your computer from the comfort of your own home.
The game was originally created for Ludum Dare 47, an online competition in which programmers create a game from scratch over a weekend that follows a certain theme. Its prototype was officially released on October 5, 2020, the last day to submit entries for the game. It was later re-released on Newground on November 1, 2020.
Friday Night Funkin’ is a rhythm game, which main plot is a musical battle, where you can win using a simple repeat: press the same arrow keys as your enemy, but don’t be late, as the main thing you gotta do is to catch the rhythm.
Friday Night Funkin’ has gained an extensive fandom consisting mostly of teenagers, which is not surprising. The bright cartoon design and catchy music have always attracted the attention of young players. And as befits any casual game, the player does not need to memorize anything for a long time. Here you have the arrows and click on time, getting under the rhythm of the song.
This game has two unique features that set it apart from other Newgrounds games. First, there are updates and support for the game. They come out relatively often. And the second is its open-source code. And it is the latter point that made the game insanely popular, because thanks to him, anyone can create mods for the game. Due to the simplicity of the code the game has grown a huge amount of custom content, which can be listed ad infinitum.
The plot of the game is pretty simple: a rapper boy falls in love with a girl, but the girl’s father is not happy with it. So all graphics in the game are bright and intense, with a lot of graffiti, massive letters, and bold lines. The logo is the same.
The Friday Night Funkin’ badge is composed of two levels with stylized text. The upper line features a bright fuchsia “Friday Night” inscription with each of the enlarged and emboldened graffiti-style letters outlined in black, and the bottom line is taken by the white “Funkin’” in the same typeface, but with a larger size of the letters. The whole logotype is outlined in thick purple contour with some splashes pattern in five spots. The splashes of the background are balanced by the dripping contours of the white letters in the bottom level of the logo. This bright and friendly badge was created by Jeff Bandelin in 2020, before the launch of the game.
The logo of the online game is based on a custom graffiti typeface, with the confident and mostly straight contours of the letters, and pretty sharp angles. The letters of both lines and large and bold, and glued to each other, without leaving any negative space. All the small gaps are filled with plain black, the color of the letters’ outline, which created a sense of wholeness and unity.
As for the color palette, the Friday Night Funkin’ badge is based on the combination of four colors: two main — white and fuchsia pink, and two additional ones — black and purple, which are used for accenting and outlining. The palette looks fresh and young, evoking a sense of passion (for music) and loyalty (for love).