Couple open new gaming shop in Derry city centre just weeks after baby's birth

Natasha and Ciaran have always dreamed about opening a gaming shop and they knew Derry was the perfect location. Ciaran is from Derry and Natasha, who is originally from Lurgan, came here for university and immediately fell in love with the place. The couple first set about opening a shop in March 2020 but, as they were looking to find the perfect premises, the world went into lockdown.

Natasha said: “I used to work as a biologist and Ciaran was a software developer and one night when we were out on a coffee date, he asked me what my dream shop would be. I started describing it and we were adding more ideas and eventually, we ended up describing this shop. A few days later, I was washing the dishes and Ciaran was like ‘why don’t we just go for it?’ I thought it was mad but eventually a wee joke becomes an idea and an idea becomes a plan and then a plan becomes actions and before you know it you're launching a website.”

When the couple met, Ciaran had a large collection of retro video games. He decided he would rather curate than collect and that was what pushed the couple to set about opening a shop to do so.

“But then lockdown happened and that made us pivot to launching a website,” Ciaran said. “Like everyone else, we had this abundance of time on our hands. The website took off and we learned so much about working in the industry with suppliers and customers.”

“We wanted to be a one-stop shop for your geeky hobbies,” added Natasha. “We got signed up with suppliers, which was very new to us, and we started getting trading car games (TCGs) and things but we got in at a really good time because there was a massive boom of TCGs during the pandemic and the suppliers were not taking on anyone new after that.”

"We were living in Belfast at the time and a new store opened up in Lisburn so we were helping them out with stock because they just weren't able to get it. That also gave us a bit of experience in seeing stock go on the shelves.”

Ciaran added: “It's taken four years to get to day one because, now that we have the shop, we have all that experience behind us with the website and all the lessons we've learned over the four years. So even though we've only been open a couple of days, we’ve been working on this since 2020. I'm really glad that we're finally here now and we're able to actually share it and meet the people we've been talking to for years.”

As the couple were preparing to open the shop, they launched a Discord channel (an online streaming platform) and were so overwhelmed with people joining that they were accused of spam. This presented a new challenge for the couple where they had to create organised evenings dedicated to each game to manage numbers but the pair are taking it all in their stride.

“Our goal is to bring everyone together and to help people find their people,” said Ciarán. “From my perspective, one of the biggest challenges is being someone who's taking charge of the space. There might be three or four small groups as a club or a group of friends who want to join other groups so organising things so they can play together has been challenging.”

“I think one of the challenges for me is probably overcoming some preconceived notions around gaming,” Natasha added. “When I was living in Belfast, anytime I went into any of these types of spaces, some of them were a bit darker and dingy and there's always a stereotype of the smelly nerd and they weren't always the most welcoming to women. Sometimes if parents were taking their child, they would literally pace up and down the street outside rather than sitting in the store because they just felt out of place. I think we were a bit worried about people feeling that here and that’s why we’ve made it bright. The walls of the shop are pink because we wanted to show that it is a family-friendly environment, it's for men and women and we wanted to be as inclusive as possible. We’re hoping to host Women in Gaming nights and LGBTQIA nights because there's nothing really around Derry for that either.”

Ciaran and Natasha welcomed baby Ennis just 15 weeks ago and, although it’s been challenging, Ciaran says it’s been incredibly rewarding too.

“I love being a business owner I love being a dad, especially when it’s someone as vocal and fun as Ennis. If we hadn't gone ahead and done it, then we might have talked ourselves out of it. It's great how much us being parents has influenced a lot of decisions that we've made here, too. When we were putting all the board games in the library, we made sure that there were some things here that were suitable for kids as well. We made sure to have baby changing, a highchair and kids drinks and things. The idea is that this is a space that anybody can play games, even parents coming in and playing games with their kids.”

The couple say the tendency for Derry people to support local and shop local is something that heavily influenced their decision to open here and they are ‘proud’ to be joining the local businesses scene.

Ciarán and Natasha have big plans for the future of the shop, including book nights and painting evenings but, for now, they just want to welcome as many people in as possible, from beginners to seasoned players and to ‘help people find their people’.

Púca Púca games is located on Great James’ Street and can also be found at www.pucapucagames.co.uk. For more information on opening hours and games available, find them on Facebook.