The Space Invaders Generator creates little digital beasties in the classic arcade game's distinctive style, complete with crawly pixel appendages. There's a set of customization tools (color, size, generation seed, animation, a mysterious thickness curve) and an explanation from creator Stanko.
I first generate a vector polygon for the body. Then I take the lowest side point of the polygon and extend a zig-zag line from it. I "inflate" that line to create a tentacle. Horns are made in a similar way. Since they're symmetrical, I only generate one side and mirror it.
Next, I rasterize the vector shapes onto a pixel grid. Finally, I slap a pair of pre-made eyes on top – and voilà, we've got ourselves an invader!
I wrote an interactive blog post on how it works, I hope you'll check it out!
Or you can just hit "R" to randomize. There's even a gallery of the most recent creations. All that's missing is an implementation of the game itself to blow them out the skies in. I got the above, which is just perfect as my suppervillain name is The Mauve Skull.
