Posted November 08, 2023 by John P. Healy
I started working on a game today for the Games Now! Autumn 2023 Jam. It's been a while since I did a jam and I was worried about time so hopefully I can make something small and fun. In this DevLog I'll try to cover what the game is, why I'm making it and what I hope to achieve.
What is Caid?
According to Wikipedia "Caid (Irish pronunciation: [kadʲ]) (meaning "stuffed ball") is a collective name used in reference to various ancient and traditional Irish mob football games" [1]. I've always enjoyed Gaelic Football and my son plays every week so I thought it would be cool to make a game about it but not to take it too seriously. A version of Caid was played as a cross-country game where two opposing villages would essentially play capture the flag with a pig bladder. The whole village would be involved and there were few rules.
For my game, I want to take the essence of Caid- two teams of opposing villagers and one ball then leave it up to players to decide on the rules of the game: What do they want to do with the ball? How do they win? What is fair play in a game with no rules? I'm reminded of the book The Ignorant Schoolmaster [2] and I wonder how a game can encourage players to learn it without handholding. I don't know if this will be fun, it's more a sandbox than a game but I'm curious to explore!
Why?
Work so far
To do
References:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caid_(sport)
[2] Ranciere, J. (1991) The Ignorant Schoolmaster. Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.