About Orbaris

Forty years
in the making.

What started as a hand-drawn grid game passed around a high school classroom in the mid-1980s has become a real-time multiplayer strategy game built for players everywhere. The concept never changed. The world finally caught up.

Play for Free How to Play
At a Glance
Game type Strategy · Battle Royale
Max players 20
Game modes 4
AI difficulty levels 5
Content rating E for Everyone
Platform Web · Mobile
Free to play. No downloads.
Just open play.orbaris.com and go.
Origin Story

From paper grids
to global lobbies.

Mid-1980s · High School
The paper game
The idea was born not on a screen, but on paper: hand-drawn grids passed across desks during high school. The core insight was simple but ahead of its time: connect-four didn't have to be a two-player game. With a shared board and enough players, it became something entirely different: a battle of survival, positioning, and reading the room. The last player standing won. The concept was immediate and the competition was real.
Decades of refinement
The concept lives on
The paper version never disappeared. It just waited. Over the years the original elimination format held up under scrutiny. Every rule that worked on paper still worked in theory on a screen. The challenge was always context: the technology, the platforms, and the audience needed to exist at the same time. The game was patient.
The digital era
What only a screen can do
The move to digital didn't just replicate the paper game. It expanded it. Two mechanics that could never exist on paper became the most distinctive parts of Orbaris. The evolving board (a grid that changes state between rounds) turns a static game into a dynamic one. Tag Team (human and AI partners competing together) only makes sense in a world where AI opponents are fast, fair, and available at any difficulty. These aren't features bolted onto a concept. They are the concept, finally expressed in the right medium.
Today
Orbaris
Real-time. Global. Free to play. Up to 20 players, four game modes, five AI difficulty levels, and a leaderboard that tracks every move you make. The game that started on paper is now available to anyone with a browser. The competition is exactly what it always was: the last player connecting four wins.
“
The concept never changed. What started as a hand-drawn grid in a high school classroom is the same game you play today. We just finally have the tools to share it with everyone.
Tier1 Interactive, on the origins of Orbaris
What Makes Orbaris Different

Simple rules.
Real depth.

Connect four to score. Last player standing wins the prize pool. The rules fit in a sentence. The strategy takes much longer to master.

⚔️
Battle Royale Format
Up to 20 players compete on a shared board. Every connect-four eliminates an opponent and earns points. The board shrinks as players fall. Survival demands both offence and awareness. You can't ignore what everyone else is doing.
🤖
Tag Team with AI
Every human player partners with an AI bot. Teams are always evenly matched. Every human in a session faces the same AI difficulty. It's a format that only works in the digital world, and it creates a dynamic unlike anything else in the genre.
🌐
Real-Time, Any Device
No downloads. No installs. Play in a browser on any device. Real-time game state is synchronised between all players with automatic host migration. If a connection drops, the game continues without restarting.
📊
Transparent Competition
Every player has a publicly visible Quality Score that reflects how they earned their ranking, not just that they did. Bot difficulty, opponent mix, and game history are all on the leaderboard. The record speaks for itself.
🎮
Free & Fair
Orbaris is free to play with full access to every game mode and competitive feature. Premium removes advertising only. It provides zero competitive advantage. The leaderboard is level for everyone.
🏷️
Rated E for Everyone
Game content is appropriate for all ages. No violence, no mature themes, no objectionable content. Just strategy, competition, and the satisfaction of a well-placed disc. Account registration requires age 13+ for data privacy compliance only.
Game Modes

Four ways to play.

From head-to-head classics to 20-player battle royales: every mode uses the same grid and the same win condition. The format changes everything.

Mode 01
Classic
The original 1v1 format on a 7×6 grid. Challenge a friend via join code, play hot-seat on the same device, or test your skills against AI at five difficulty levels and three play styles.
👤 1v1
Mode 02
Elimination
The original paper concept, finally digital. Up to 20 players compete on a shared board. Score connect-fours to eliminate opponents and build a points lead. The last player surviving wins the prize pool.
👥 3–20 players
Mode 03
Tag Team
A digital-only concept: each human player partners with an AI bot. All bots in a session share the same difficulty level, keeping every team evenly matched. Requires a persistent Tag Team name set in your profile.
🤖 Human + AI pairs
Mode 04
Private Games
Host a private session with a 6-character join code and invite exactly who you want. Fill remaining slots with AI opponents at your chosen difficulty. Results count toward your public stats.
🔒 Invite only
The Studio

Tier1 Interactive

The app development brand of Tier1 Options GL Inc. Business, games, lifestyle, and productivity applications.

Tier1 Interactive is the app development brand of Tier1 Options GL Inc, a Canadian company. The brand was built to bring well-considered digital products to market across multiple categories: business, games, lifestyle, and productivity applications.

Orbaris is Tier1 Interactive's first public release and the project the brand launched with, but it represents one part of a broader mandate. Future releases span business, games, lifestyle, and productivity apps, each built with the same underlying principle: products that work the way they should, without artificial complexity or unnecessary barriers for the people using them.

The decision to lead with a game was deliberate. Games are demanding: they require real-time infrastructure, competitive fairness, and an experience that has to hold up under pressure from real users. Orbaris was the right first project because it set the bar high from day one.

🏢
Company Tier1 Options GL Inc
🎮
App development brand Tier1 Interactive
🇨🇦
Based in Canada
🌐
Website orbaris.com · play.orbaris.com
✉️
Contact [email protected]
Ready to play?
Free to play at play.orbaris.com. No download, no install, no catch. Questions? [email protected]
Play Now → How to Play