For parents and teachers

What Brainlag is

Brainlag is a free website for students aged 13 to 18: study tools (a focus timer, flashcards, notes, planners and more), short study guides, and browser games for breaks. Brainlag Code, on code.brainlag.space, teaches programming.

It is made and run by one person. It is not linked to any school, exam board or games company. There are no ads on Brainlag pages.

How breaks work

The focus timer runs 25 minutes of study, then offers a 5-minute break with a short game. A countdown shows on the game page and links back to the timer when the break is over.

Points, streaks and the unlockable site colours come only from finished study: completed focus sessions, reviewed flashcards, finished practice. Playing games earns nothing. (Until October 2026, games earned points too. We removed that.)

On school devices

Everything runs in the browser, including on Chromebooks. Nothing is installed. Each game page says whether it needs a keyboard or works on phones and tablets. Whether a school network allows the site is up to the school.

Where the games come from

Brainlag has 106 games. Understudy (Early Access Demo) was made by Brainlag. The others were made by other developers; Brainlag hosts copies of them on its own server, and many are well-known titles. Game names and trademarks belong to their owners. If you own the rights to a game and want it removed, email us and we will take it down.

Content labels

Every game has a content label, shown on its page. Games with a mature theme also carry a short marker on their card, for example "Horror".

How we review a game: we read its title, category and description, write or check its guide, load it in a test browser, look at screenshots of its menus and first moments, and record which outside services it connects to. When that is not enough to be sure, the game is marked "not reviewed yet" instead of guessing.

Labels are our own judgement, not an official age rating such as PEGI or ESRB. Games change over time. If a label looks wrong, tell us.

What each label means

• Horrormarker on cards

  A frightening setting with jump scares or threatening characters.

  5 games
• Gunsmarker on cards

  Shooting people or creatures with guns is the main activity, even in a cartoon style.

  8 games
• Violencemarker on cards

  Killing or injuring characters is the main activity, or blood and injury are shown.

  3 games
• Mature themesmarker on cards

  Crime, drugs, alcohol, sexual references or similar themes.

  2 games
• Gambling-stylemarker on cards

  Rewards that depend on chance and can be bought or played for, such as spins, loot boxes or a casino.

  2 games
• Online playersmarker on cards

  You may be matched with real people over the internet.

  4 games
• Chatmarker on cards

  Text or voice chat with people you do not know.

  1 games
• Third-party trackersmarker on cards

  The game itself loads advertising or analytics from another company, such as an ad network, Google Analytics or a game portal's ad kit. Game-engine services (for example Unity) are listed on the game page but not labelled.

  24 games
• Cartoon violencegame page only

  Slapstick or fantasy fighting with no blood (knocking characters over, stomping enemies).

  14 games
• Crude languagegame page only

  Crude language or rude humour.

  0 games

Hiding mature games

The Games page has a switch: "Hide mature themes". It hides every game with a marker and every game not reviewed yet. The setting is remembered on that browser.

Teachers can share a link that turns it on: https://brainlag.space/en/games?hide=mature

Chat, online play and other services

Brainlag has no chat, comments or public profiles. Oddword, the party word game, uses a room code; the names players type are visible only to people in the same room.

Some games connect to the internet themselves. 4 let you play with other people online and are labelled "Online players". 51 load something from another service, such as the game engine's own servers, fonts, ads or analytics; each game page lists them. 24 of these load advertising or analytics and are labelled "Third-party trackers".

Accounts and data

No account is needed for anything. Work in the study tools is saved in the browser on that device.

An optional account (email and password) syncs that work between devices and can be deleted from the account page at any time. Brainlag counts visits with its own analytics, without cookies and without storing IP addresses. The privacy page has the details.

Contact

Questions, a label that looks wrong, a game that should not be here, or a takedown request: [email protected]