Pelota - Mesoamerican Ballgame
Two-on-two on a stone court, hips, knees and forearms only, against the Lords of Xibalba: a free browser game based on the Mesoamerican ballgame. The developer says the code was written with Claude.
Links go to the official store or developer page. Last verified Nov 6, 2026.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- View demo on BrowserBrowserDemo · Alpha; the developer calls it the free browser demoFree
Runs in a desktop or mobile browser. No download.
Browser (no download) · Mobile · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Pelota - Mesoamerican Ballgame
Pelota is a free 3D sports game for the browser based on the Mesoamerican ballgame. It is two-on-two on a stone court: you strike the ball with hips, knees and forearms, never hands or feet, and score by sending it into the other team's endzone or through a stone ring for two points; two bounces on your side lose the point, a team may touch the ball three times in a row, and the first to 11 wins. Sprinting and power hits use stamina, and every strike bruises the body part used, making later strikes less accurate. On desktop it is more simulation-like, with manual movement and mouse aiming or an Xbox or PlayStation controller; it opens with a short lesson from your injured older brother before a village and a match against the Lords of Xibalba, offers a male or female protagonist, and lets you team up with a friend on the same screen or online through an invite link. On phones it is a separate arcade mode with automatic running and swipe controls. It is playable in English and Spanish. The developer, posting as u/Wide-Bobcat-3723, says it is inspired by the historical ballgame rather than a scholarly reconstruction, and that it was built with heavy AI assistance: the code was written with Claude, characters and props were generated with Meshy and animated with Mixamo, and the music was made with Suno. The developer calls the current version a free browser demo and says the full story is being developed separately for a desktop release.
How it was built
Partially verifiedIn the launch post on r/threejs (2 Oct 2026, UTC) the developer writes: “I built it with heavy AI assistance. The code was written with Claude; characters and props were generated with Meshy and animated with Mixamo; music was made with Suno.” The post does not say which Claude product or model was used or how much of the code was written by hand.
The code was written with Claude, per the developer; characters and props were generated with Meshy and animated with Mixamo, and the music was made with Suno. Built with three.js. The developer says they started posting almost as soon as building began and rushed out a rough pre-alpha, and that three weeks of building, testing and feedback, including from players in Mexico, then improved the movement, animations, controls and overall feel.
- Engine / framework
- Three.js
- Languages
- JavaScript
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Initial build time
- Not disclosed
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“The code was written with Claude; characters and props were generated with Meshy and animated with Mixamo; music was made with Suno.”- Pelota: a Mesoamerican ballgame in Three.js (r/threejs launch post)
- Pelota update: Xbox/PlayStation controls and local + online co-op (r/threejs)
- Can you score a point and knock over the Birdman in Pelota? (r/threejs)
Verification notes: AI use from the developer's launch post on r/threejs by u/Wide-Bobcat-3723 (2 Oct 2026, 01:03 UTC), read from the Arctic Shift Reddit archive on 6 Nov 2026 together with the two later posts (8 Oct 2026, 20:47 UTC, and 27 Oct 2026, 09:41 UTC); all three link pelota.io. The post opens with “heavy AI assistance” and then says the code was written with Claude; no share is given, so the evidence is medium and no AI code share is recorded. The rules, settings and the Language · Idioma switch come from the game page, read on 6 Nov 2026; a crawl of the game's scripts found no calls to AI services. The Lords of Xibalba come from Maya mythology, so no third-party IP notice applies; the update post's comparison with FIFA / EA FC controls is the developer's own. The launch post had a score of 150 on Arctic Shift (observed; not a metric). Team size is not stated. The game was not played.
Development history
Released as a free browser game, announced on r/threejs (01:03 UTC).
DeveloperReddit (u/Wide-Bobcat-3723)Update post: Xbox and PlayStation controller support and same-screen and online co-op; the alpha has an opening lesson and male and female protagonists, in English and Spanish.
DeveloperReddit (u/Wide-Bobcat-3723)Update post: the desktop demo has a tutorial and a demo match, phones get an arcade version, and the full story is being developed for a desktop release.
DeveloperReddit (u/Wide-Bobcat-3723)
Game performance
Each figure measures something different — concurrent players, owners, downloads and sales are never interchangeable and are never added together. Labels show where each number comes from.
Browser (official site)
Free in the browser with no install or sign-up. Desktop has the opening tutorial and a demo match with controller support; phones get a quicker arcade version with automatic movement and swipe controls.
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: Concurrent players (site), Monthly revenue, Gross revenue.
Sales & revenue (all platforms)
Browser game — there are no downloads to count.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pelota: a Mesoamerican ballgame in Three.js — desktop simulation-style play and mobile arcade mode (r/threejs) Reddit (u/Wide-Bobcat-3723) | Social post | Oct 2, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Pelota update: I added Xbox/PlayStation controls and local + online co-op to my Three.js Mesoamerican ballgame (r/threejs) Reddit (u/Wide-Bobcat-3723) | Social post | Oct 8, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Can you score a point and knock over the Birdman in Pelota: A Mesoamerican ballgame? (r/threejs) Reddit (u/Wide-Bobcat-3723) | Social post | Oct 27, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Pelota - Mesoamerican Ballgame pelota.io | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
