Developer Acceleration Program Spotlight: Julian Cordero & Sebastián Valbuena

The ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program, launched in 2023, marches forth with the mission to empower underrepresented creators with the resources and information needed to bring their creativity, innovation, and originality to Xbox. The Developer Acceleration program seeks to support developers who are led by those from Black, Indigenous, Latino or LGBTQIA+ communities, women, developers with disabilities, developers from emerging markets or teams with unique perspectives, and several other communities by removing longstanding barriers to entry for creators and normalizing diverse storylines and characters in gaming.

Since the program was announced, dozens of games have been released on Xbox to both critical acclaim and commercial success. With that in mind, we believe it is only fitting that we spotlight some of the creators behind these titles in a new recurring series on Microsoft Game Dev blog.

This week, we’re highlighting Julian Cordero & Sebastián Valbuena, developers of the Developer Acceleration Program title despelote. We had the chance to chat with Julian, the game’s lead designer and developer, about his experience with the program and how DAP helped them successfully develop despelote.

Tell us about your studio.

I was always a big fan of Sebastián Valbuena's work cause his brother Camilo was a close friend of mine in high school. And when I was first thinking up despelote I thought he would be the perfect fit to give the game a wonderful visual and music identity, even though he had never made videogames before. I convinced him to work on it with me for a year or two, but somehow six years have gone by! Over the years we added sound design help from Ian Berman and game producing help from Gabe Cuzzillo (although he's more of the game's therapist to be honest).

What can you tell us about despelote?

The soccer culture in Ecuador is huge and I used to play so much of it, but when I moved to NYC I stopped playing and engaging with it as much. When I realized this, I started to think about what the role of soccer had been on my life and I realized I wanted to make a game to explore this idea. I had always played big triple A sports games like FIFA but I realized that soccer didn't represent the kind of soccer I actually grew up playing, which took place in neighborhoods and parks not in big stadiums in front of millions of people. despelote grew from that idea, turning into a short narrative game about being a kid in Ecuador and kicking a ball around with your friends.

What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an independent studio?

At the start of the project things were moving very fast and people were connecting with the prototypes in a way that was very encouraging and exciting, and I think it made us feel like we could be very ambitious with it without really knowing what we were signing up for. We were lucky that people believed enough in the game to fund it at various points in development, but figuring out how to turn our ideas into a final packaged game took much longer than we expected. Plus, working on a project for so long (over 6 years) can lead to burn out that is complicated to manage when there are deadlines coming up.

How did you learn about or connect with the Developer Acceleration Program?

We were part of the NYU GameCenter's Incubator program were we met with a bunch of advisors from the industry, including Sarah Conde who was at ID@Xbox at the time. She was a big fan of the game and told us about the DAP, which we were able to submit to and receive the grant.

How has the Developer Acceleration Program impacted your game’s development?

It came at a crucial time where money for development had run out and we had to take other freelance jobs to pay the bills. The grant allowed us to return to full time development and prepare our publisher pitch vertical slice demo, which was ultimately successful, and we were able to make the game in the best possible way. None of that would have happened without DAP, who believed in us when we needed it the most!

What accomplishments are you most proud of as an independent studio?

Well we still have a couple months before the game releases and there is much to do yet, but finishing the project and releasing will be a huge achievement for us. It has not been easy and it has been a long marathon development process. We feel very honored to have received many recognitions for it already, including 4 nominations for the upcoming IGF festival. But nothing will make us feel prouder than seeing the game out there, all grown up living alone in the world.

Any hints on what’s up next for you?

Once we finish development, we will take a nice break and hopefully a nice vacation and travel a bit. I live in NYC but miss Ecuador dearly (you might be able to tell from playing the game) so I really want to spend some time there with family and friends. And maybe start prototyping something new along the way.

Why do you feel that programs like DAP are important to the health of the game industry?

The most forward-thinking art always comes from the fringes in the industry, and programs that give stability to that kind of work are very beneficial to making sure that work gets more widely spread around and more people get to see it. This pushes the medium forward, otherwise it becomes stagnant and redundant. I hope to play games made by people in all parts of the world, not just the global north. I want to see stories that take place in all kinds of different cultures around the world, it greatly enrichens my life.