Rat Racefree browser game · made in Luxembourg
Rat Race: the T-Rex runner, worker edition
Rat Race is a small free game for the train or the gap between two meetings: a man, a woman or a rat in its ball runs to the office, and you jump over whatever the city throws at you. One city per level, 65 cities in all, each drawn with its real landmarks in retro pixel art.
It starts in Luxembourg, under the Pont Rouge and the Gëlle Fra, and goes on to Paris, London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Zurich, Dubai, New York or Tokyo. A special Frontalier level sends a cross-border commuter home to Arlon, Thionville, Trier, Metz or Nancy.
Every day there is also the Daily commute: the same 900 m course for everyone, from home to the office of the day (Kirchberg, La Défense, Canary Wharf…), three attempts, and a three-line strip to paste for your colleagues.
Free, no account, no ads. Works on phone and computer, and offline once it has loaded.
Why a game about the rat race
The rat race is the race nobody wins: the wheel, the maze, the commute that starts again every morning. In Luxembourg, where a large part of the workforce crosses a border every working day, the metaphor writes itself.
The game is a wink, not a lecture: two minutes of pixel art, a score to share, a city to unlock. It was built as a side project in September 2026 and lives on this site.
How to play
Three controls and nothing else to learn.
- Jump: tap anywhere on the screen, or press Space. Hold to jump higher.
- Duck: swipe down, press the down arrow, or hold the ⬇ zone at the bottom-left of a phone screen. Birds fly at head height.
- Collect the euros and catch each city's flag: with the flags of every city you cross, your score doubles.
- Choose your runner (man, woman, rat in its ball) and your difficulty: Easy ×0.7, Normal, Hard ×1.4, Extreme ×2 on the score.
- The sky follows your clock: night runs at night, dawn at dawn. Escape shows a fake spreadsheet if the boss walks by.
- Daily commute: one city per day, the same course for every player, 900 m to the office then overtime until you drop. Three attempts, a streak, and a spoiler-free result strip to share.
One city per level
Reach a city to unlock it, or buy it with the euros you collected. The level chooser lets you start from any city you have unlocked.
Tier 1: Luxembourg, Paris, London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Zurich, Dubai, Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, then the world cities: New York, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, Toronto, Chicago, Madrid, Amsterdam, Melbourne, San Francisco, Berlin, Boston.
Tier 2: the other NATO capitals, from Ottawa to Helsinki. Tier 3: the megacities, from Cairo and Lagos to Constantinople, with their food and animal clichés as obstacles.
Every city has its own landmarks drawn pixel by pixel, 201 in all, ten for Luxembourg alone: Pont Adolphe, Gëlle Fra, the cathedral, the Grand Ducal Palace, the Casemates, the Philharmonie, Mudam and the Dräi Eechelen, the Court of Justice, the Pont Rouge and Vianden castle.
The Frontalier level
A cross-border commuter leaves Luxembourg after work and runs home. Broken-down cars and stalled trains are platforms you run on; traffic-jam monsters and customs drones are not. The further the home, the harder the run, and your best time is kept.
| Home | Distance | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Arlon | 1,200 m | ★ |
| Thionville | 1,400 m | ★ |
| Trier | 1,800 m | ★ |
| Metz | 2,400 m | ★★ |
| Nancy | 3,600 m | ★★★ |
Screenshots
On your phone, on your computer
Open ratrace.sitraka.lu in any browser. On a phone, add it to your home screen (Share, then Add to Home Screen on iPhone; the install prompt on Android): it then opens full screen and works offline.
A zero-permission Chrome extension is packaged, with the game in a popup for the coffee break. It will be linked here once the store listing is public.
Privacy
There is no account and nothing to sign. Your progress, unlocked cities and best scores live in your browser only. The site counts visits with Vercel Web Analytics, which uses no cookies. Sharing your score is a text you paste yourself; nothing is posted for you.
ratrace.sitraka.lu/privacy.html ↗
Questions
- Is Rat Race free?
- Yes, entirely, with no ads and no in-app purchase. The euros in the game are only points.
- Does it work offline?
- Yes. Once the page has loaded once, the game is cached in your browser and starts without a connection, in the train tunnel included.
- Can I pick any city?
- Any city you have reached, or bought with your collected euros, can be picked from the level chooser. Luxembourg is always open.
- Why Constantinople and not Istanbul?
- The city keeps its historic name in the game, a choice of the author.
- Which languages?
- French, English, German and Luxembourgish, switchable on the start screen.
- How do I play on a phone?
- Tap anywhere to jump, hold the ⬇ zone bottom-left or swipe down to duck. Two thumbs work at the same time.
- What is the Daily commute?
- A single course per day, identical for everyone: 900 m from home to the office of the day, then an overtime stretch that gets faster until you drop. You get three attempts, your best one goes into a short result strip you can paste anywhere, and playing every day builds a streak. The direct link is ratrace.sitraka.lu/?daily.
Rat Race is a personal side project by Sitraka Forler. City landmarks are stylised in pixel art; no trademark or official logo is used.