Despelote: How a Kickabout in Quito Won a BAFTA
An Ecuadorian developer turned his childhood summer of 2001, when his country chased its first World Cup, into a first-person game about kicking a ball around the neighbourhood. It just won BAFTA's Game Beyond Entertainment award.
In 2001, all of Ecuador was holding its breath. The national team was chasing a place at the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, something the country had never achieved, and in Quito every street, bus and corner shop seemed to be talking about football. Eight-year-old Julián Cordero was there, ball at his feet.
Two decades later, that summer became Despelote, a first-person game by Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena, published by Panic. It came out on 1 May 2025, and at the BAFTA Games Awards on 17 April 2026 it won Game Beyond Entertainment. It was also nominated for Debut Game.
A game about football that isn't a football game
You play young Julián, wandering Quito with a ball. There are no matches to win and no objectives to tick off. Instead, you kick and pass the ball to interact with the city: bounce it off a wall, roll it to a stranger, chip it toward a group of kids. Locals react, conversations drift past, and the whole neighbourhood hums with World Cup fever.
The game is autobiographical and tells its story through atmosphere rather than plot. A few flash-forwards show Julián as a teenager, adding a bittersweet layer. Critics fell for it: one called it possibly the best game ever made about childhood, another described it as personal and universal at once. A few reviewers found the kicking controls finicky and the game short, a fair criticism of a deliberately small piece.
Made in New York, set in Quito
Cordero studied in New York, and the game's producer is Gabe Cuzzillo, the designer of Ape Out and co-creator of Baby Steps, who was also Cordero's professor at New York University (read about Baby Steps). When Cordero's first idea, a game about football as a "universal language", was not working, Cuzzillo suggested building the game around the place instead, using documentary-style sound and visuals.
Valbuena composed the music and co-developed the game; Cordero also handled the programming. The game was built in Unity.
BAFTA 2026: small studios, big night
Despelote's win came on a night when small and mid-sized studios shared the stage with blockbusters such as Ghost of Yōtei, which won Music and Technical Achievement. Here is how other major awards fell at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall:
- Best Game and Debut Game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Game Design: Blue Prince
- Animation and Audio Achievement: Dispatch
- Multiplayer: Arc Raiders
- Narrative: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- British Game: Atomfall
- Game Beyond Entertainment: Despelote
Why it matters
Latin American stories rarely reach the biggest stages in games. Despelote did it without spectacle: no stadiums, no superstar players, just a child, a ball and a city. In our view, its BAFTA is a reminder that "beyond entertainment" does not have to mean heavy. Sometimes it means capturing a feeling so precisely that people who have never been to Quito recognise their own childhood in it.
Where to play
Despelote is out on PC (Steam), Mac, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. The Mac version followed in September 2025, and the Switch version rolled out from December 2025, reaching every region by January 2026. It takes an evening to finish, ideally with a football match on in the background.