Introduction

Developer: ChronicLogic
Pontifex official page: ChronicLogic

The last time I recall playing a game that could fit on a floppy disk, was back on my 486. The game - Stunts. This was back when the term "multiplayer" took on an entirely different meaning. With Stunts, there were no head to head matches; it was simply a race to get the lowest time. No need for low pings or lagless gameplay, our biggest concern was making sure to turn off the turbo button to let the game run at a decent speed. For a game that was around one megabyte, our joy per kilobyte ratio was through the roof.

Why the nostalgia you ask? Recently we came across a game that is roughly the same size as Stunts and, to steal a quote - "it really whips the llama's ass." What on earth is Pontifex, and why is it oddly reminiscent of Vectrex? Think back about a year, and you might recall a freeware game called Bridge Builder. When that demo first caught our eye, most of the Gamers.com and FiringSquad office proceeded to click little lines into place hoping to make the bridge gods happy. Something so simple captured us utterly and completely. For quite a few of us, gone were the explosion-ridden fragfests, replaced with the calm soothing click of beams being put into place. This was truly something to have stumbled upon.

Nice and simple

Oh the stresses!

A little modding?

The Dieties

In an era where gaming gods take nearly half a decade to get a game to the shelf, the original Bridge Builder took a scant two months to produce. Only one conclusion can be drawn from this. Alex Austin, the developer of Pontifex, has attained l33t dietydom, landing somewhere above a gaming god, and considerably higher than script kiddie.

Bridge Builder was originally intended to be a standalone game, but the developer (note the lack of a plural) didn't feel as though it was complete enough for people to fork out cash for. Then came a little snag. The name "Bridge Builder" was already taken by some other company. Instead of fighting a legal battle he was sure to lose with no money, Alex simply changed the name to avoid any problems.

Cable bridge

A simple design

Good stress results

Following the events of a stunning economy that was conducive to layoffs and upper management types that could rape a company blind, Alex and a buddy named Ben Nichols decided to pair up and see if they could beat a path for themselves in this crazy world. With nothing but the keyboards on their backs, the two cranked out everything necessary to market the game in a scant few months. Since the two couldn't use "Bridge Builder" as the name of the game, they settled on "Pontifex", which translates out to "bridge-maker". Take that Bridge Builder people!