The Seven Bridges of Koenigsberg

The Seven Bridges of Königsberg is a historical math problem that stumped people for quite a while before being solved by Leonhard Euler in 1736. Is there a path that will enable you to cross each of the seven bridges in town one and only one time each? You don’t have to end at the same point you started, but that’d be nice and we shall call it a Eulerian circuit. But just a simple Eulerian path would be plenty! This question led to the creation of the mathematical field of graph theory because it wasn’t just the answer that was important – it was also the proof.

Now you can follow in Euler’s footsteps on your own Playdate, with a slightly modified name to (I’m assuming) get around having to use an umlaut in the Pulp font. Try crossing the bridges over and over, unlocking additional lore with each failure. There must be a way, right? Euler could figure it out, and he predated the United States.

It’s a simple game, mechanically, and not too deep. You move a cursor around the screen, trying to cross the bridges without repeating, restarting over and over, getting additional historical facts along the way. The frustration is the point. You could make your own graph, if you want! Re-discover an entire field of mathematics by yourself because a Playdate game frustrated you a bit. Nothing wrong with that.

The Pulp font in the game is a little too italicized, making it a bit hard to read. But besides that, it’s a neat concept and there is an actual end to the game. Mostly, it’s nice to play a game that makes me want to go research something I’d never known about before, especially since I used to be the top mathlete in Utah. Little puzzles like this are kind of the perfect reason for free games on Itch? Maybe they can’t justify a full Catalog release with a price tag, but to interactively teach you a little bit about something you’ve never known before, with a minimal time commitment? That’s pretty neat.

(Released December 23, 2024, on Itch.)