Despelote

Despelote is a first-person adventure video game and that released on 1 May 2025. It is slice-of-life set in Quito during Ecuador's qualification for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where the player is able to explore and play with a soccer ball in the city. The game is autobiographical and from the perspective of an eight year old Julián Cordero, one of the developers. Despelote is a first-person narrative exploration game, mostly set in Quito in 2001. Players wander the city as an eight year old Julián Cordero, the designer of the game, and interact with locals, observe street life, and use a soccer ball to engage with the environment. The ball can be kicked, passed, and used to trigger small vignettes and conversations that reveal the community's mood during Ecuador's 2002 World Cup qualifying run. The game emphasizes ambient storytelling, with unscripted-feeling encounters rather than traditional objectives or puzzles. It incorporates flash-forward moments, with the player controlling Cordero as a teenager, as well. Julián Cordero initially conceived of a game about the "universal language" of football, inspired by his childhood in Ecuador and his time in New York City. Cordero wanted the game to avoid the look of high budget sport games like FIFA, which did not represent the soccer that he grew up with.