How to play Bright Spark
Bright Spark is a free game that teaches electronics in your browser: build real circuits on a bench, from lighting your first bulb to switches, LEDs, Ohm’s law, motors, transistors and a burglar alarm, and watch the current flow as you build.
- Each level is a bench: a board of copper dots with a few parts on it and a goal. Read the two or three sentences on its card, then build.
- Drag from dot to dot to lay a wire. Drag back over a wire to take it up, or tap it to remove it.
- Drag parts out of the tray onto the bench, and drag one off the bench to give it back. Tap a switch to flip it, hold a button down, and tap any part to read its volts and amps on the multimeter.
- The circuit runs live the whole time: a bulb lights the moment its loop closes, and every line of the goal ticks itself as you build. When they all pass, the bench is put through its checks before the stars.
- Three stars: it works, nothing burnt on the way, and no more wires than the bench needs. Push an LED too hard and it burns out with a pop, which costs the middle star until you clear the bench and start again.
- Twenty-five benches in five chapters: the loop, many paths, volts and LEDs, making things move, and smart circuits.
Controls
- Touch and mouse
- Drag from dot to dot for a wire, drag a part from the tray, tap a switch or a part, hold a button.
- Keyboard
- Esc for the menu.
Questions
Is Bright Spark real electronics?
Yes. Nothing is scripted: the circuit is solved again every time it changes, with real part values, so whatever you build behaves the way it would on a real bench, including the wrong things.
Do I need to know anything about electronics first?
No. The first bench is lighting one bulb with one battery, and each bench teaches one idea and leans on the ones before. A new part is shown next to its circuit symbol when you first meet it.
Can I see the circuit as a schematic?
Yes. “Draw parts as symbols” in the menu switches every part to its circuit symbol, so the same bench is also a circuit diagram.
Is my progress saved?
Yes, in your browser on the device you play on: your stars, the bench you are building on each level, and your settings. In a group from the home page, every star you win goes on the group’s table.