Dave the Diver’s director on the breakout indie hit of 2023

Whereas 2023 has produced a bumper crop of fantastic video games thus far, one explicit title rocketed to success seemingly out of nowhere: Dave the Diver, the charming fishing/life sim-RPG hybrid from Mintrocket. The sport launched on Steam from early entry on June 28 and have become one of many top-selling titles inside per week. Inside a month, it’d offered over a million items. Most lately, Nintendo revealed throughout its September Direct that it’s launching on the Change in October.

GamesBeat spoke with Dave the Diver’s director, Jaeho Hwang, concerning the sport’s growth and the way its creators have responded to its meteoric rise in recognition. In accordance with Hwang, the group responded to their viral success by ensuring the sport was nearly as good as attainable: “We started the early entry in October final 12 months, and through that point, we made quite a few enhancements due to open communication with the group. After launch, seeing an astonishing variety of customers like our sport made us notice how necessary and significant these enhancements have been.”

Provided that the Steam web page at the moment has a ranking of “Overwhelmingly Constructive” with over 50,000 opinions (on the time of writing), it’s secure to say that gamers appreciated Mintrocket’s efforts. Hwang says, “We averted many potential issues and had the prospect to arrange a whole lot of good content material. Now we’re engaged on new content material that we hope everybody who has given us a lot assist can take pleasure in.”

Coronary heart and attraction: Dave the Diver’s success

Hwang advised GamesBeat he wasn’t initially positive that the sport can be as interesting because it was, given its distinctive strategy to gameplay: “Personally, I had some considerations that the slower and extra deliberate tempo of Dave the Diver won’t attraction to some streamers, however in the course of the demo and early entry interval, I used to be pleasantly stunned to see so many streamers enjoying the sport voluntarily.”

These streamers, says Hwang, grew to become a part of the post-release viral success: “We maintained good relationships with many streamers, and we ended up even making a few of them into NPCs within the sport. Because of streamers who live-streamed our sport even earlier than the complete launch and people who live-streamed after, this enthusiastic assist has made our sport go viral.”

Dave the Diver’s core gameplay is a mishmash of oceanic exploration RPG and restaurant administration sim. Balancing the 2 elements was a course of that concerned suggestions from early entry customers, whereas additionally discovering area to inform the sport’s story. Hwang notes that customers significantly like hero Dave, who experiences his personal development over the course of the sport.

Hwang says he’s all the time liked retro-pixel video games, and that he wished to make a sport with such an artwork fashion set within the ocean. “The ocean we envisioned was a mysterious dungeon crammed with distinctive creatures. After I watch deep-sea documentaries, there are moments when the information of the sheer existence of those actual creatures within the deep sea provides me goosebumps greater than any made-up fantasy creature ever may. The imaginative and prescient of a sport that might seize these creatures, however in an arcade gameplay fashion, is how Dave the Diver started.”

In the meanwhile, Mintrocket is at the moment rolling out fixes and high quality of life updates for Dave the Diver. Hwang lately advised Dualshockers that the group plans to roll out extra content material to beef up the second half of the sport, to bolster an in any other case story-focused part. “There are extra tales from our distinctive characters to inform.”