Despelote

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.

After realizing that the game was not working in that format, Cordero's New York University Professor Gabe Cuzzillo, the designer of Ape Out, suggested that Cordero bring the "place" of Quito to the front of the game, using documentary audio and visual design in addition to the gameplay.

Despelote received positive marks from critics. Eurogamer's Chris Tapsell called the game something "personal and universal all at once" and praised how the developers handled the experience of childhood memories. Polygon's Oli Welsh felt that Despelote felt "fully realized" and said that it might "be the best game ever about childhood." The Guardian's Keith Stuart compared the game favorably to "the great works of independent game design", such as The Unfinished Swan, Gravity Bone, and Virginia.

Stuart also called the game "fascinating, formally daring stuff." Rock Paper Shotgun's Graham Smith praised the game generally as a football fan, commenting "In a medium often dominated by genre pastiche and YA fiction tropes, what a treat it is to have a video game that feels true."