Who are the Púcas?

Both founding members of Púca Púca Games have a great love for Japan and Japanese culture.  We were heavily inspired by Japanese mascot culture and decided we wanted to create a mascot of our own! 

During our research we found that Japanese mascots are usually based on local culture – food made or grown locally, local plants and animals, local mythology, and other things that constitute culture.  We decided to draw upon our own Irish culture to create our mascots.  

During our research we decided that the Púca (pronounced poo-ka) would make for the ideal mascot.  Considered to be bringers both of good or bad luck, they could help or hinder rural and marine communities.  Púcaí (the plural for Púca, pronounced poo-key) can have dark or white fur or hair. The creatures were said to be shape-changers, which could take the appearance of horses, goats, cats, dogs, or hares. They may also take a human form, and may take on various animal features, such as ears or a tail, whilst in their human form.

The ambiguity of their appearance due to their shapeshifting nature made designing a cute mascot a lot easier too!  We decided upon two Púcas, both with rabbit (or hare) ears, a donkey’s tail, and either goat horns or deer antlers.  These are all animals that can be found in Ireland.  We added crescent moons to their heads as a nod to Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon, and we coloured them pink.  We felt that the pink colour along with the moons also illustrated the magical aspects of the Púca.  

The duality of the Púca’s nature made us think, why not have two!?  A grumpy Púca (who experiences some bad luck) and a happy Púca (who always seems to be very fortunate).  You can see this theme consistently in all artwork featuring our Púcas!

 

So this is where the Púca Púca aspect of our name comes from, with games coming from the fact that we sell all sorts of games: trading card games, video games, board games, and table top role playing games!

Our mascots, our logo, and our website icons were all designed by a very talented artist and dear friend of ours.  You can find more of her art on her Twitter @PyraFire.