At GDC Festival of Gaming 2026, Despelote creator Julián Cordero discussed how improvisation and personal memory shaped the game's neorealist aesthetic. Inspired by the idea that kicking a football is a universal language, Cordero initially avoided NPC dialogue entirely. After encouragement from producer Gabe Cuzzillo, he introduced fully improvised voice recordings from friends and family chatting about soccer, politics, and daily life. This approach led to unexpected but authentic moments — such as kids teasing the player about a girlfriend — that then required new game assets to match. Cordero also cited game designer Robert Yang's blog post on video game neorealism as a key influence, framing realism as documentation rather than photorealism, allowing personal memories of 2001 Ecuador to be embedded organically into the game.
