Member-only story
How Friday Night Funkin’ Provides the Freshest New Take on Dance Dance Revolution
Proving once again that a nostalgic premise, love for the fans, and an original thematic upgrade is a recipe for indie game success
If you are a fan of nostalgic-feeling games reminiscent of the late 90s Flash game boom, then you may have already heard of Friday Night Funkin’. The small indie game has gained a modest audience since November 2020, due in part to being a fun, free game. But to fully understand how Friday Night Funkin’ gets its gameplay and execution just right, we have to take a trip back in time to the year 1998.
The Dynamite Rave of ‘98
Back in 1998 when Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) was first released, games that required physical exertion with full-body controls were in their infancy. Games like Ring Fit Adventure and Wii Fit have popularity due in part to DDR’s influence on the gaming market.
Just about every millennial gamer has their own memories of Dance Dance Revolution. If rhythm-based games are not your thing, there is still a large chance that you have at least seen one of the bright flashing DDR machines at your local arcade or Dave & Busters, pumping out booming dance music and nigh-impossible arrow step instructions.
And if rhythm games are your thing, then you fell in love with the game at a young age, spending all your quarters trying to get a perfect score on your favorite song, eventually buying yourself a PlayStation DDR game and the flimsy mat-controller that comes with it.
Open-Source Future of DDR
But that was not enough for many DDR enthusiasts. With the desire to dance to any song in their music library, and master even more difficult song packs, gamers gravitated to Stepmania, an open-source DDR app released in 2001 for PC that lets players build their own DDR games.
Stepmania had its heyday in the early 2000s, releasing regular updates and receiving song pack releases from its most…
