Four of us, from Sligo, Ireland
We want to do this for a living. Old Irish stories, a gun you point at the screen, and a trip to Bangkok to show people what we've got.
The games
We built both for the Arkade Gaming Gun. You point a real gun at the screen and the shot goes where you aimed it. That sounds simple until you try to make it feel good.
Playable in Bangkok
Arcade rail shooter · Rio de Janeiro
"In cold blood."
You fight up the Morro da Aurora, a hillside in Rio, from cover to cover. Slow time right down, mark up to six targets, and watch every shot land at once. Mind the snipers on the rooftops. It's the loud one of our two.
On the shelf
Siege horror · The swamp, under the eclipse
"Black heart."
A night in a swamp shack, a folk surgeon at work on your daughter, and things outside that want in. We built the first piece of it: carry Inés across the marsh and keep La Novia off her. Then we put it on the shelf to chase a new horror idea for the gun. It won't be in Bangkok, but it isn't dead either.
The Púca
I · The Irish Wolfhound
Co-founder · Tech lead
Loyalty
The hound runs with the pack and never leaves anyone behind. Ryan is in third year of games development at ATU Sligo and looks after the tech: the code, the guns and the bit that has to work when someone sits down to play. The game he loved as a kid: LEGO Batman: The Videogame. Or Super Mario Bros. 2. He can't decide.
II · The Boar
Co-founder · Game programmer and playtester
Courage
The boar charges where the rest of us hesitate. Oisin goes at the hard problems head first, and doesn't let go until the shots hit and the scares land. He writes the game code and plays every build. His game: Call of Duty: Black Ops zombies.
III · The Fox
Co-founder · Head of game design
Cunning
The fox wins with wit, not size. Oisin is the one who spots the clever way round a problem, and the sly twist that makes a game stick in your head. He heads up the design. His game: Ratchet & Clank.
IV · The Black Horse
3D and 2D artist
Vision
The black horse is the púca's oldest shape: it carries you off into the night and brings you back changed. Alex makes the worlds and creatures you see in our games, in 3D and 2D.
Who is the Púca?
In Irish folklore the púca is a shapeshifter. It walks the roads at night as a black horse, a goat, a hare, a hound. It can bring ruin or good fortune, and you never know which until it is too late. On Samhain the farmers leave the last of the harvest for it, just in case.
We took the name because we're a bit shapeshifty ourselves: one studio, four of us, and a different game every time.
Our story
Púca Games comes from Sligo, in the north-west of Ireland. It's a county of old stories: Queen Maeve's cairn on Knocknarea, the passage tombs of Carrowmore, and the flat-topped mountain on the horizon of this page, Benbulben, which Yeats asked to be buried under.
We met in college, studying games development at ATU Sligo. There are four of us: Ryan, the two Oisins, and Alex O'Donnell, our 3D and 2D artist. We're not a big studio, and most of us have day jobs that have nothing to do with games. We do this around them, because we want it to be our real job one day.
So Gamescom Asia means a lot to us. We only got talking to the Arkade Gaming Gun people a few days before the show, so we gave up our reading week to build these two prototypes, all day, every day. They're short because we had to make them fast. We're bringing them to the other side of the world, and we'd love them to end up on that gun. Come and say hello, and tell us honestly how we did.
News
Our rail shooter is playable at Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show, 29 October to 1 November. Pick up the gun, climb the Morro, and tell us what you think. We'll be the ones hovering nervously.
A black sun over the swamp, a drowned bride who only moves when you're not looking, and a girl called Inés who needs you. We've parked it for now to chase a new horror idea for the gun, so it won't be in Bangkok. It'll be back.
Púca Games has a home on the web, just in time for Samhain. Devlogs, show dates and first looks will go here. Bear with us, it's early days.
Press, publishers, other developers, or someone who wants to tell us what scared them: drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you, and we reply fast.
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