Hi. My name is Julián and I’m the main developer of Despelote – a snippet of life and adventures about childhood and soccer in Quito, Ecuador in 2001. Myself and the team are excited to stop by Xbox Wire today to announce that our game is coming to Xbox Series X|S in 2024. We can also announce that today Despelote will be part of Tribeca’s 2023 festival selection and the game will be published by Panic who helped out Untitled goose game And fire clock to the world.
While Despelote Since it’s primarily soccer, you won’t actually need to play a full game of soccer or understand the rules. Instead, our game focuses on the inherent fun of being a kid, just kicking a soccer ball with your friends on the go, talking about your school day… and maybe annoying your neighbors in the process.
The year is 2001 and Ecuador is about to qualify for the World Cup. Ecuador had never qualified for the World Cup before and as a country recovering from a massive financial crisis, the idea of qualifying has filled the community with hope and optimism. Get to know the people of Quito as you play soccer with your friends, and feel the energy of your community as you explore the area Despelote everything is about.
Together with my friend and artist Sebastián Valbuena, we set out to create a game that is not only visually distinctive, but also has a strong and specific sense of place. This is partly because Despelote is a semi-autobiographical game as I was growing up in Quito, Ecuador at the time so it was important to me that we get it right. You also play a little boy named Julian, but he’s not exactly a mirror to me!
In order to give players a true-to-life picture of Ecuador, we took photos and audio recordings while traveling to Quito, which are now used in-game for items such as building textures and conversations you’ll hear as you explore the streets. Sebastián also does an incredible job drawing our characters as well as the animals you will encounter during your time in Quito. The game is also fully voiced in Spanish, with localized subtitles of your choice.
That’s how it is Despelote: a bittersweet and at times dreamy semi-autobiographical tale of how football can impact a place and its culture. We hope you’ll stop by and visit Quito when it releases on Xbox in 2024. ¡Garcias, y cuidense!