A multiplayer arcade shooter for your Tailscale network.
Disclaimer: This project is a personal toy created with generative AI assistance.
Scale Invaders is a browser-based arcade game where every player on your tailnet gets a ship and competes in a shared game world. Players are randomly assigned to the defender or invader team and can switch sides on death. Enemies advance in waves, shields provide cover, and bonus critters fly across the field for extra points.
The game server uses tsnet to run entirely inside your tailnet — it never listens on the public internet. When a player connects, the server calls WhoIs to look up their Tailscale identity and uses it as their in-game name. No logins, no accounts, no configuration: if you're on the tailnet, you can play.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| ← → | Move left / right |
| ↑ ↓ | Move up / down (invader team only) |
| Space | Fire |
| ↺ Restart button | Reset the game |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
b / B |
Swap between defender and invader team |
m |
Advance music to next wave track |
Shift+M |
Reset music back to wave 1 track |
Shift+W |
Skip to the next wave immediately |
Shift+C |
Toggle CRT screen effect |
- Go 1.21 or later
- A Tailscale auth key (create one here)
If go version returns a not-found error, install Go from the official site:
- All platforms: download an installer from go.dev/dl and follow the instructions for your OS.
- macOS (Homebrew):
brew install go - Linux (apt):
sudo apt install golang-go(may lag behind latest; prefer the tarball from go.dev/dl if you need 1.21+) - Windows: use the
.msiinstaller from go.dev/dl; the installer adds Go to your PATH automatically.
After installation, open a new terminal and confirm with go version.
git clone <this-repo>
cd invaders
go mod download
go build -o invaders .The static/index.html frontend is embedded into the binary at build time, so the single invaders executable is all you need to distribute or deploy.
TS_AUTHKEY=<your-authkey> ./invadersOn first run without an auth key the server prints a login URL — authenticate in a browser, then re-run. Once started, open http://invaders (MagicDNS) or http://<machine-ip> from any device on your tailnet to play.