Why our 404 page has a game in it
A missing page is a dead end. Ours has a tiny pixel-art shooter, and it still puts the way out first.
Everyone lands on a missing page sooner or later: an old link, a typo, a page that moved. Most 404 pages apologise and point home. Ours does that too, and then offers something to do while you're there.
404 Invaders
It's a tiny pixel-art shooter in the site's own palette. The ship fires by itself, so the only thing to learn is moving: drag with a finger, use the mouse or press the arrow keys. Before you start, the game plays itself quietly behind the start screen, so it's obvious what it is without reading any instructions.
The sprites are drawn from short strings of letters, one letter per pixel and one colour per letter, so the whole game is a single small script with no images to download.
The way out comes first
A game on an error page is only charming if it never gets in the way. The headline says what happened, the first two buttons are Back home and Say hello, and the game sits to one side for anyone who wants it.
Nothing leaves your device
The game remembers your best score in your own browser's storage. It's never sent to us, it isn't a cookie, and clearing your browser's data for the site removes it. It's also written into our privacy policy, because a policy should cover even the small things.
