How Color War works
Color War started as our YouTube Short “Pick a color. Only ONE survives”: four colors, thousands of balls and one survivor. This page turns that battle into a picker you can play with your own names.
- The arena is a circle on a grid of 120 × 120 cells, cut into one slice per player.
- Balls run on their own color. A ball that hits a cell of another color, or a grey one, takes it and bounces back.
- Taking a cell can split a ball in two. Bigger colors split a little more often, but no color can get far ahead of the others in ball count, so a small color can still fight back.
- A ball dies when the cell under it is taken.
- Items pop up around the arena. The first ball to touch one claims it for its color: a nuke takes a circle of land, a swarm adds a burst of balls and a laser takes a cross through the whole arena.
- Every few seconds the color with the least land is out. Its land turns grey and is up for grabs. With two colors left, the final decides the winner by land.
| Players | Someone is out at | Final ends at |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | straight to the final | 15 s |
| 3 | 7.5 s | 15 s |
| 4 | 6.5 s, 11.5 s | 17 s |
| 5 | 6 s, 10.5 s, 15 s | 20.5 s |
| 6 | 6 s, 10 s, 14 s, 18 s | 23.5 s |
| 7 | every 4 s from 5.5 s | 27 s |
| 8 | every 3.75 s from 5.5 s | 29.75 s |
The four-player schedule is the one from the Short. The countdown above the arena always tells you how long until the next color goes, and the bars show who is closest to the edge.
Why it is fair
- Equal slices. The arena is cut into pie slices with exactly the same number of cells, starting from a random angle. The Short split a square into four quarters, which is only fair for four players; a circle works for any number.
- Equal start. Every color starts with the same number of balls, scattered at random inside its own slice.
- A fresh random seed for every game. The seed comes from your browser’s cryptographic random number generator. Nobody picks the result, and neither the colors nor the order of the names give anyone an edge. We ran 2,800 test games (400 for each player count from 2 to 8) and every position’s win rate stayed within 4 percentage points of an equal share. With four players, for example, the four positions won 23.0%, 26.3%, 24.3% and 26.5% of the games.
- Replayable. The whole battle follows from the seed, the number of players and the ball scale. Replay this game runs it again move for move, and Share link sends it to others, so the group can check the result on their own phones.
- Names do not matter. A name is just a label on a color. Changing a name never changes the battle.
Ideas for using it
- Who pays. Last place buys the coffee, or the winner treats everyone. The ranking shows who went out first.
- Who goes first. Board games, presentations, karaoke: use the full ranking as the order.
- Team picks. Play once with everyone and split the ranking snake-style: 1st, 4th and 5th against 2nd, 3rd and 6th.
- Chores and turns. Dishes, the front seat, who walks the dog tonight.
- Small giveaways and dares. One winner from a handful of friends, or a forfeit for last place.
- Just betting on a color. Like the Short: everyone picks a color before Start, no switching once it begins.
Color War FAQ
- Is Color War really random?
- Yes. Every game starts from a fresh random seed from your browser, and each color gets a slice of exactly the same size and the same number of balls. The order you type the names in does not help or hurt anyone.
- Can I replay the same game?
- Yes. Replay this game runs the same seed again, so you get the same battle and the same ranking. Share link puts the player count, the names, the ball scale and the seed in the address, and anyone who opens it can watch the same battle.
- How long does a game take?
- About 15 seconds with two or three players, 17 seconds with four and about 30 seconds with eight. The last second of the final plays in slow motion, which adds a moment.
- What do Small, Medium and Large change?
- How many balls can be on the field at once: about 1,500, 4,500 or 12,000. More balls look busier and the land changes hands faster. The rules and the fairness are the same at every scale. Large can be slow on older phones.
- Are the names sent anywhere?
- No. The battle runs in your browser and the names stay on your device. They only leave it if you share a link, because the names are part of that address. Our analytics counts the number of players, the ball scale and the game length, never names.
- What happens if two colors are tied?
- The game compares exact cell counts, not the rounded percentages on screen, so true ties are rare. If two colors do have exactly the same number of cells, the seed breaks the tie at random.
Made from our Short: watch it on YouTube and find more short experiments on the EasyTest channel. More games: play hub · hearing age test · color test · reaction time test · click speed test