Journal: Despelote
Updated: Jan 26
Game: Despelote
Time played: 5 hours + finished game
Game Journal 3
The game I chose to play for my third Game Journal was Despelote. It was my favorite game of 2025. I picked this game for a cultural reason rather than a gameplay or genre reason, unlike my previous journals. Specifically, the setting for the game is the country of Ecuador and soccer, fútbol. For me that is extremely important as someone with Ecuadorian roots and lover of Ecuadorian fútbol. Seeing a game about Latin culture is not something that you see often in the general gaming sphere, which makes this game truly special. But enough about that, what I want to talk about is the incredible design of this game, from it's gameplay to audio design.
Despelote is a first-person narrative sports game created by Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena. The game is set in Quito, Ecuador during their 2001 World Cup Qualifiers. The game is played from the childlike perspective of Julián during his childhood. We get to see glimpses of life in Ecuador and the value of fútbol that connected people.
Throughout the game Julián spends time with his family, his friends, and alone. He goes to his family's video rental store, his classroom, the local town square, parties with friends, and playing Tino Tini’s Soccer 99 (a game inside the game, which I'll talk about more later). The game’s story plays like an autobiography, with Julián sharing bits of his life and about the political climate of Ecuador and the Ecuadorian Fútbol.
Despelote almost creates it's own genre by combining narrative, sports, and autobiographies. I think from a design perspective this game is wonderfully done. First, I look at the artistic design choices from the spaces and how they are made to reflect Quito at the time. With older apartments and school buildings, the style reflects the Quito I knew when I lived there between 2002-2008. It lets me, someone experienced with the country, feel at home. It also lets people who might never have visited a Latin American country, know what it may look like.
The game’s visual style is very interesting since it uses a 3d scan that has a visual filter. This makes the style look like it was etched over with a pen to create the level. The important NPC’s and interactables are all simple black and white drawings. The differences seem to be that the background and unimportant characters are almost fuzzy, and the important ones are clear. This reflects the memory of a child, such as the friends you kick a fútbol ball around with, staying clear in your mind but the parking lot you played in being unmemorable.
Earlier I brought up Tino Tini’s Soccer 99. This is a small mini-game in the main game that Julián plays throughout the game. The designers did a fantastic job with Tino Tini’s Soccer 99 as a stand- alone mini game, with a top-down perspective and fun gameplay. You could play it hours separately from the main game, yet what made Tino’s stand out was how it integrated into the mind of young Julián.
Every once in a while throughout the game Julián would begin day dreaming. These day-dreams would combine fantasy, specifically Tino Tini’s Soccer 99, and reality. The world would change and transform but what would stay consistent is the fútbol ball and the controls.
What was incredible was that the passing, shooting, and dribbling controls that were in the mini-game are identical to the main game controls. This is so without skipping a beat, you (as Julián ) would be able to play around with a fútbol ball.
My favorite part of the game’s design occurs on the 6th of October 2001, section of the game. Julián’s mother is trying to talk to Julián while he is playing Tino Tini’s Soccer 99, instead of listening Julián keeps on playing and begins to tune her out. As he does, he becomes more and more integrated in the game. Finally, the match is over and we keep the same top down view. All the characters begin to walk out of the stadium and into the rest of the city.
Following them out of the stadium you see that it is Quito, the city that Julián has been running around the whole game. From a level design perspective it is the same level, just from a whole new top down perspective. It has the same city center, the park and houses, including Julián’s. Yet this new perspective makes you feel as if Tino Tini's Soccer 99 is just Julián’s life.
Another very unique choice, is to show the 3d scans taken by the team. These scans are of the real park by Julián’s practiced fútbol at. It is a park I personally have been to and it is incredible to see these 3d scans brought into this virtual world. The sketched art style brings these scans to reality and creates a wonderful level. As a level designer who likes to use real life locations as a reference point to base my spaces off of, I feel this technique of using scans might be something that I myself want to implement into a future project.
Despelote audio design is another fantastic mantle to hang it's achievements on, in a literal sense. I was in San Francisco where the IGF awards were being held when Despelote won Excellence in Audio. The reason I imagine it won was because of the way they created the wonderful sound design. They sent the sound Designer Ian Berman to Quito, to record the sounds of park. With these recorded sounds it must've been easier to create the immersive sounds and ambient noises that turn Despelote into such an impressive experience. The sound design makes the city of Quito in Despelote indistinguishable from the modern city now. The same praise goes to Sebastián Valbuena for the game's incredible sound track, which is linked below:
In the finale of the game Julián is all grown up and passing the ball around with his friends. As they pass around the ball they talk about old memories, (the same memories you just played through). Suddenly one of the coolest things I have ever experienced in a video game happens. Your perspective changes. Now you are the ball, being passed around between friends. You get kicked over the fence of the park and you end up going to different characters you have seen throughout the game. The ball is kicked all throughout the city and it does something narratively beautiful, the ball travels between them telling the story of the area but also of the way football connects every person across generations. It shows that what connects everyone is fútbol. Which is such a terrific way to wrap up the game narratively.
Truly believe this game is a must play. The fantastic gameplay and narrative tells a story about a culture and world that many are unfamiliar with. In the game Julián talks about the importance of the Ratas, ratones, rateros, a Ecuadorian movie made by Sebastián Cordero for the Venice film festival. It was the first time Ecuadorians saw a film from their country respected on a big stage. This is the same way I feel about the game Despelote, as a game designer with Ecuadorian roots.
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