Dave the Diver
| Dave the Diver | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Mintrocket |
| Publisher(s) | Mintrocket |
| Engine | Unity[1] |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Dave the Diver is an adventure video game developed by Mintrocket. Players control Dave, a hard-working diver, as he collects fish, solves quests, and manages a sushi restaurant. It has elements of management, action-adventure, and role-playing video games. It was released in June 2023 for macOS and Windows, and a Switch version is set to release later in 2023.[2]
Gameplay
Players control Dave, a deep sea diver who is talked into managing a sushi restaurant and supplying it with the fish they need. He fishes at a spot called the Blue Hole whose geography and fauna change daily. Players can collect resources to upgrade or craft new items for Dave to use, such as diving gear and weapons to use in boss fights against giant underwater creatures.[3] Dave's air supply is decreased faster as he becomes overburdened, and he becomes more susceptible to predators, such as sharks. Being defeated in combat causes Dave to drop all his cargo except one item as he is rescued.[4]
Dave is also asked by others to perform various favors for them involving exploration, research, or finding rare items. As players retrieve items lost at sea, they can use Dave's contacts in his cell phone to find buyers. Dave can go diving twice a day, during morning and afternoon.[3] After afternoons, he manages the sushi restaurant. Players can unlock new recipes to cook, attract influential customers, renovate the restaurant and add new decorations, hire new employees, and more.[3] An in-game app called "Cooksta" keeps track of the restaurant's popularity and rating and can unlock further upgrades. The graphical style uses pixel art.[5]
Development
Dave the Diver is the first game from indie developer Mintrocket, a subsidiary of Nexon.[6] It entered early access in October 2022, and Mintrocket released it for Windows and macOS on June 28, 2023.[7]
Reception
Dave the Diver received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[8]
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.[3] IGN labeled it as an editors' choice and said it is "wholesome, wonderfully complex, and delightfully hard to put down".[4] Polygon said its myriad minigames comes together unexpectedly well, anchored by well-made cutscenes.[9] Cutscenes were further praised by players for its style and humour.[10] 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.[11] GamesRadar called it "a smash-hit success story".
Two days after its release, it was the fifth best-selling product on Steam worldwide,[12] and within ten days, had sold over one million copies.[6]
References
- ^ Saver, Michael (December 27, 2022). "Made with Unity: 2022 in review". Unity Technologies. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
- ^ Faulkner, Jason (June 30, 2023). "Dave the Diver PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox Release Date: Is It Coming to Consoles?". GameRevolution. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Livingston, Christopher (June 29, 2023). "After only 3 hours this fishing and restaurant management RPG has rocketed to the top of my GOTY shortlist". PC Gamer. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
- ^ a b Northrup, Travis (June 26, 2023). "Dave The Diver Review". IGN. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
- ^ Gerblick, Jordan (December 2, 2022). "Have you tried… building a sushi empire in pixel art heaven with Dave the Diver?". GamesRadar. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
- ^ a b Ngan, Liv (July 11, 2023). "Indie RPG and sushi restaurant sim Dave the Diver reaches 1m sales". Eurogamer. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
- ^ "Dave the Diver". Gematsu. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
- ^ "Dave the Diver". Metacritic. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
- ^ Parkin, Jeffrey (June 29, 2023). "Management sim Dave the Diver shouldn't work as well as it does". Polygon. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
- ^ Ngan, Liv (July 4, 2023). "Dave the Diver players can't get over how extra its cutscenes are". GamesRadar+. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
- ^ Borthwick, Ben (July 5, 2023). "Dave the Diver is the most charming game of 2023, and a must play". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
- ^ Cryer, Hirun (June 30, 2023). "Dave the Diver, a chill RPG about fishing and sushi, is one of 2023's biggest Steam success stories". GamesRadar. Retrieved July 6, 2023.