Panic, a game publishing group responsible for Untitled Goose Game and Nour: Play With Your Food, has announced a first-person adventure game involving everybody’s favourite sport: football.

The publisher has announced despelote, a first-person football game about people and the rural life in an Ecuadorian town, made by developers Julian Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena.

“We’ve been pretty quiet since launching Untitled Goose Game and announcing Nour: Play With Your Food, but we’ve been actively taking pitches these past few years. We were really taken with despelote when it came our way—a deeply transportive love letter to a particular time and place, told in such a wry, charming way that it manages to feel universal at the same time. We’re so proud to be able to help bring it to the world. (And we have a bunch more game announcements coming later this year—this is just the start!)”

It’s rather refreshing to have a football game that isn’t (a) a football sim and (b) a football management sim. And from the look of the trailer below, it’s going to be a bigger narrative ride than anything. despelote will be out in 2024 for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.

“despelote is a soccer game about people. Get immersed in the streets and parks of Quito through the eyes and ears of eight year old Julián. Dribble, pass and shoot your soccer ball around town, and see what happens when you kick it someone’s way. Feel the city change as Ecuador comes closer than ever to qualifying for the World Cup.”