How TroubleMaker Shenzhen turned a 48-year-old arcade classic into a maker-themed WordPress plugin… And why we think your space needs one.
Remember the first time you played Space Invaders? The relentless pew-pew-pew of the cannon, the creeping dread as the alien formation descended, the desperate scramble for the last bunker?
We do too. So we rebuilt it. With a laser-cutter head as cannon. With alien robot invaders. With protective glasses as bunkers. And with multimeters, oscilloscopes, hacksaws, saws, and soldering irons as bonus targets.
Welcome to MakerSpace Invaders 
The Maker Twist
This isn't a lazy reskin. We started from scratch. Pixel by pixel, wave by wave, using Pi Coding Agent with Kimi Code as our engine.
Every sprite was drawn in true pixel art: four sizes of alien robots, a 90×32px laser-cutter head cannon, 90×30px protective glasses bunkers with 992 destructible blocks each, and five maker tools as bonus targets.
The game even behaves differently depending on which wave you're fighting:
- Waves 1–2: Classic synchronized movement. Predictable. Deceptively calm.
- Wave 3: Alternating directions. Rows 1 and 3 go right while rows 2 and 4 go left. Chaos begins.
- Wave 4: Different speeds per row. The big bots lumber while the small ones sprint.
- Wave 5+: Combined madness. Different speeds plus alternating directions.
And the bombs? Standard thin red lines for beginners. Zigzagging heavy bombs with 8px blast radius for the brave.
Why a WordPress Plugin?
Because makerspaces run on WordPress. Because your community website shouldn't just list your 3D printer policies… It should host a leaderboard. Because we want every hackerspace and enthusiast to have this.
The plugin is lightweight (1.3MB, 30 files), self-contained (no external font CDNs, no external audio files), and admin-friendly.
You control guest scores, edit the leaderboard, and manage player profiles from your WordPress dashboard. Server-side storage means the leaderboard persists across browsers and sessions.
It will be submitted to WordPress.org shortly. Until then, it's available by contacting Henk of TroubleMaker.
Privacy-First by Design
We built this with zero tracking. MakerSpace Invaders does not use cookies and doesn't share any data with third parties. Game data such as player names and scores is stored locally on our WordPress server. The game uses browser localStorage only to cache leaderboard data and player preferences on the user's device. No Google Fonts. No external analytics. No data brokers. Just you, the game, and your high score.
Play It. Break It. Tell Us How to Fix It.
The game is live right now at https://troublemakershenzhen.com/space-invaders/. No download needed, Just hit Space and start shooting.
We need your help before WordPress.org submission:
- Play it. Can you beat CAPTAIN's high score record?
- Break it. Find a bug? The bunkers not crumbling right? Let us know.
- Improve it. Want a new tool as a bonus target? A different wave behavior? We're listening.
Drop your feedback to info@troublemakershenzhen.com or find me on LinkedIn. High score screenshots earn extra respect.
