Dave the Diver

Dave the Diver is a 2023 video game developed and published by Mintrocket. The game combines both action-adventure and management gameplay styles as players explore deep sea environments to gather ingredients for a sushi restaurant. It was released for macOS and Windows in June 2023 following an early access release in October 2022. A Nintendo Switch version was released in October 2023. A version for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 was released in April 2024.

Dave the Diver was acclaimed by critics for its gameplay loop.

Gameplay
Dave the Diver, in which players control the eponymous Dave, is a game with a pixel art aesthetic that is divided into two main gameplay styles; diving into the sea during the day and running a sushi restaurant in the evening. Twice per in-game day, with the option to dive again during the evening unlocked later on in the game, players dive into the Blue Hole in search of fish, sealife and various other materials.

Dave is equipped with a harpoon gun for attacking and reeling in fish, and can use various guns, melee weapons, harpoon attachments and items that can be found during each diving session. Dave has a limited supply of oxygen which further decreases if he is attacked by aggressive sealife and other obstacles. If he runs out of oxygen before he can return to the surface, the diving session will end prematurely and only one resource that was found can be taken back. Players can use gold earned throughout the game to improve Dave's equipment in various ways, such as increasing his weight and oxygen capacity or allowing him to dive deeper. Players can also unlock additional means for catching sealife as the game progresses, such as fishing nets and drones.

At the end of each in-game day, Dave helps sushi chef Bancho run the restaurant, using fish gathered from diving sessions to craft sushi and other menu items. Players must then serve these dishes to customers while serving drinks, cleaning tables and topping up wasabi. Performing well will earn players gold and increase the restaurant's representation, unlocking new recipes, upgrades and cosmetics. Occasionally, special customers and VIP guests will appear, requiring the player to gather specific ingredients to create their desired dish.

Clearing these requests unlocks additional features, such as staff to assist in the restaurant and a farm to grow rice and vegetables. The game features multiple side characters who offer side-quests and upgrades, events that appear during the in-game calendar, and various unlockable minigames. To advance further, players will face multiple bosses, each with special powers, weaknesses, and ingredient drops. Players will need to solve puzzles to unlock new areas that contain different fish, which are valued at a higher price.

Plot
The game follows Dave, a diver who is approached by his friend Cobra into starting up a sushi restaurant venture with the skilled chef Bancho. Setting up location at the Blue Hole, a spot said to contain fish from all over the world, Dave is tasked with fishing for ingredients during the day, and helping Bancho with the restaurant at night. During his escapades, Dave comes across a race of sea people which leads him to the mystery behind the random earthquakes that have been occurring.

Development
Dave the Diver was initially announced as a mobile game in 2018 by Nexon Mobile subsidiaries NeoPle and Studio 42 in collaboration with National Geographic to "bring awareness to all the beauty the ocean has and how it's slowly fading away," before being reannounced in May 2022 as the first game by Nexon subsidiary Mintrocket. The game's director Jaeho Hwang based the initial concept on a real-life restaurant on Jeju Island, whose owner dives for ingredients during the day and serves them during the evening. The development team's own diving experiences served as inspiration, along with games such as Torneko's Great Adventure, Abzu and Metal Gear Solid.

Mintrocket found it challenging to balance the game's various mechanics so no particular gameplay element becomes repetitive, which they resolved through trial and error during early access. The game entered early access in October 2022 was officially released for macOS and Windows on June 28, 2023. An update in August improved accessibility support, allowing people to bypass quick-time events, among other quality-of-life improvements. A port for Nintendo Switch was released on October 26, 2023 and ports for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were released on April 16, 2024.

Free downloadable content based on Black Salt Games' Dredge video game was released on December 15, 2023. The DLC adds a fog weather event in which the player can dredge for valuable items and catch unique types of fish. A second batch of free DLC featuring crossover content from the Godzilla franchise was released on May 23, 2024. The DLC adds missions that, when completed, can unlock new recipes and decorations. Further content updates are planned to be released in the future.

A physical "Anniversary Edition" featuring crossover content from Guilty Gear Strive was published by Arc System Works for Nintendo Switch on June 28, 2024.

Reception
Dave the Diver received "universal acclaim" based on 44 critic reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Praising the game's complexity, yet calling it "utterly relaxing", PC Gamer's reviewer said it already made his shortlist for game of the year as of June 2023. Destructoid called the gameplay "engaging", and said the story was "silly, yet endearing". IGN labeled it as an editors' choice and said it is "wholesome, wonderfully complex, and delightfully hard to put down". Eurogamer said it was "wholesome, harmonious, and completely unwilling to settle", calling it one of the most generous games in years.

Game Informer praised it for being able to handle being both an exploration experience and management sim and said it was a "unique and memorable vacation away from expectations". Polygon said its myriad minigames comes together unexpectedly well, anchored by well-made cutscenes. Cutscenes were further praised by players for its style and humour. VideoGamer.com said "there's always something to do" without it ever seeming like busy work, which they called "refreshingly different" from the games as a service model. GamesRadar+ called it "a smash-hit success story". Several major publications included it on their 'best games of 2023' rundowns, including ReadWrite, Game Rant, The Guardian and The Verge.

Sales
Two days after its release, Dave the Diver was the fifth best-selling product on Steam. It had sold over one million copies within ten days of release, and three million copies by January 2024.

Indie label controversy
Although Dave the Diver 's developer Mintrocket is wholly owned by Nexon, several commentators and publications have referred to the game as an "indie game", and the game was nominated for the "Best Independent Game" categories at The Game Awards 2023 and Golden Joystick Awards 2023. Although it did not win either award, the game's nominations in these categories raised criticism over how its inclusion potentially prevented other indie games from being nominated, sparking a debate on how indie games should be defined.

Responding to the game's nomination, Geoff Keighley, organizer of The Game Awards, stated "independent can mean different things to different people and it's sort of a broad term, right?" Mintrocket have stated that they are not an independent studio, with Taehwan Kim, Vice President of Nexon's New Development Headquarters which oversees the Mintrocket brand, stating that Dave the Diver "may look like an indie, but that is not necessarily the case".

Manga adaptation
A manga adaptation illustrated by Shinnosuke Tsuchida began serialization in the September 2023 issue of Shogakukan's children's manga magazine Monthly CoroCoro Comic on August 12, 2023.