Play Soccer While you Explore a Community in Despelote

Hey. My name is Julián, and I’m the lead developer of Despelote – aslice-of-life adventure about childhood and soccer in Quito, Ecuador in the year 2001. S by 2024.|S in 2024. We’re also able to announce today that Despelote will be part of Tribeca’s 2023 Festival Selection and that the game will be published by Panic, who helped bring  Goose GameThe following are some examples of how to get started: FirewatchTo the World

You can also contact us by clicking here. Despelote is very much a game about soccer, you won’t really find yourself playing a full soccer match or even needing to understand the rules. Instead,our game focuses on the inherent fun of being a kid, just kicking around a soccer ball with your friends while you’re out and about, talking about your day at school… and maybe annoying your neighbors in the process.

It’s the year 2001, and Ecuador is on the verge of qualifying for the World Cup. Ecuador has never been to the World Cup, but the prospect of qualification was a source of hope for the country, which is still recovering from its financial crisis. You can learn about Quito’s people while playing soccer and exploring the city with friends. DespeloteWhat is it all about?

Together with my friend and artist Sebastián Valbuena we set out to make a game that is not only visually distinctive, but also one that communicates a strong and specific sense of place. It’s partly because Despelote is a semi-autobiographical game, as I grew up in Quito, Ecuador around this time, so it was important to me that we get it right. You also play as a young boy named Julian, but he’s not directly a one-for-one mirror of me!

To give players a true picture of Ecuador, we took photos and recorded audio during trips to Quito that are now used in the game for items such as building textures and conversations you’ll hear as you explore the streets. Sebastián is also doing an incredible job of hand drawing our characters, as well as the animals you’ll run into during your time in Quito. This game has been voiced entirely in Spanish. You can also choose to have subtitles in your preferred language.

So that’s Despelote: a bittersweet and sometimes dreamy semi-autobiographical tale about how soccer can impact a place and its culture. Visit Quito in 2024 when the game is available on Xbox. ¡Garcias, y cuidense!