
If you were a fan of Dave The Diver on Nintendo Switch, then you might want to buckle up for more games from the IP in the future.
As reported by VGC, CEO of Mintrocket Jaeho Hwang has stated his intention to expand the Dave the Diver IP into multiple spin-off titles. This decision came from the newly-established 'independence' of Mintrocket from its once-parent company Nexon.
According to Hwang, being independent means that a focus on game development over pitching ideas to another entity is enabled, meaning that Hwang can now look to expand Dave the Diver as he sees fit.
"I want to expand the Dave the Diver IP itself. I think that’s every director’s dream, since we have a relatable character. But actually, we didn’t go really deep into the personal stories in Dave the Diver, because we wanted to keep the game very casual.
"So as a director, besides the story DLC that we’re working on right now, I also want to make separate games about each character to show how they met, what they did before coming to the Blue Hole. In that sense, the games’ genres can be different. Maybe one day, if we start to make a Dave’s backstory game, we could make Dave [another profession]. He’s always been a diver, so we really haven’t thought about how we should move with Dave.”
It's should come as no surprise that more Dave the Diver entries will likely be in the works given the game's positive critical reception and sales upwards of 4 million copies. In our own review, we stated that "it's one of the few games to come out this year that rivals Mario Wonder's all-out density and charm while doing something almost completely new", slapping a score of 9/10 onto the end.
We're excited to see what happens with the Dave the Diver IP in the months and years to come.
What kind of games would you like to see Mintrocket focus on? Let us know your thoughts with a comment down below.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 36
Dave the Diver….. You’ve been down too long in the midnight sea….
I am there Day 1 for the next project. I loved Dave the Diver. It’s currently the game I’ve played the most personally in 2024 and I still go back to it sometimes just to kick back and relax.
Dave the Diver was an absolute blast. If whatever comes next is anywhere near as fun then count me in.
Does Minrocket's independence make Dave an indie game now? Is it like the reverse of what happened with Minecraft? I'm so confused.
Should finally play Dave the Diver myself first and foremost when I can but still, looking forward to more related games if they end up making them and have my fingers crossed they'll be just as great!
Dave the driver.
Dave the flyer.
Dave the supplier.
Dave the pet cemetery cleaning guy.
Dave the survivor
And evenutally, Dave The Shark Jumper
@kfflscnt “Dave the supplier” 🤣🤣
I didn't get why everybody loved Dave The Diver. The setting and the atmosphere were awesome, the characters too, but there was nothing really interesting about the gameplay. Both the diving and the restaurant management / serving gameplay was mediocre.
@datamonkey it is actually just death stranding in 2d.
Just don't call them Indie games
Haven't played this game, but reading the quote, the guy sounds just like Kamiya when he was saying he wanted every single character out of Bayonetta to have their own game with its own gameplay ... well, we've all seen what Bayonetta Origins came to be. I do wish them all the best and much success though. Ideas are one thing, the final product is something else ...
@gergelyv
This is how I felt about it. I really liked the atmosphere and the characters, and I enjoyed the early exploration, but it soon became boring and repetitive for me. I would love to see them flesh out the exploration and survival aspects of it. Just enough to make every dive feel like a thrilling miniature adventure.
Re a sequel, perhaps I’m hoping for a more ”Dave the Survivor” vibe, as @kfflscnt mentioned. 😂
Loved Dave the diver, can't wait to see what this studio can do now they've gone indie.
@ThatOneSneak @Tarpii They haven't gone indie. NintendoLife misinterpreted the source article - they're just their own subsidiary of Nexon Korea now instead of being an internal team with their own name.
I remember hearing about the game when it first came out but it was just a headline title I scrolled past. Apparently it's a bigger deal than I thought?
No kidding, even their crossover event in Nikke was basically a meaty minigame version of DtD itself (complete with touchscreen control woes but I guess that's me yelling at clouds again😏).
I wanted to like this, but it just wasnt for me. I love the kingdom series and after several hundred hours of those games, thought this might pull me away as my casual gaming fix. Nope, even just picked up the Olympus expansion the other day, probably play it this weekend.
@Mattock1987 I had to make a NL account to heart this comment.
...Gimme Bancho game, now.
Played the demo and it was fun. Never actually bought the game, I liked the diving part but the restaurant part wasn't for me. Oh well
Nice I can't wait for Dave to guide me through every obstacle and talk over everything because I literally can't enjoy games if I have to put any brainpower into it.
"Oh my god! A cracked wall! How am I gonna get out of this one?"
"Wow! There are bombs coming from that area! I'd better watch out!"
"I wonder if I can use these bombs to break this wall!"
Dave the Shrimper
@PikaPhantom This was what I was going on
https://n.news.naver.com/article/015/0005032338
"Mint Rocket is a separate household
According to the IT industry on the 10th, Nexon decided to hold a meeting for its employees on the 11th regarding Mint Rocket’s independence. It has been reported that Nexon will support Mint Rocket by investing in an independent corporation that Mint Rocket developers will establish after leaving the company."
@Tarpii I see. Seems like some sites covered this as them becoming a subsidiary and others covered it as Mintrocket becoming independent with Nexon still investing in them. Strange.
@ThatOneSneak Dave the Diver was more of a AA game. And its likely gonna continue that way.
Also what @Tarpii said. It's probably important to note that Nexon Games, which MiniRocket is part of, usually work with more AA production values, since they mostly make live service games separate from Nexon Corp's own games like MapleStory
If anything, Nexon Games is a separate entity under the Nexon umbrella, as they use to be a different company called NAT Games before getting bought out before they released anything.
@Yalloo Hey, Bayonetta Origins was a fun game!
@nhSnork It's on you for using a phone instead of the Nikke PC client so there ya go. Even I don't play my mobile games on my phone anymore
@Samalik Hey! I'm actually glad that you think so. 😅 Being a big fan of the original Bayonetta games, I think people enjoying that spinoff can only be something positive for the franchise.
In my case, despite knowing it was nothing like the originals, it turned out to be quite a big disappointment.
It was a really good-looking game, and I can tell a lot of love went into making it ... but I can also see the lack of experience of the team that made it.
Pacing was horrible, the story was lame, music (despite the beautiful arrangements) was far from memorable, the map was a bad joke, combat was poor and frustrating ... And that's off the top of my head from what I recall playing the game last summer.
May I ask what you enjoyed so much about it that you're defending it?
The article wasn't actually related to it, but reading the quote, it just brought back Kamiya talking his non-sense and the disappointment I had. You can't just make a beautiful spinoff game out of a great franchise and expect it will be a fun game to play. Lots of good ideas, poor execution. In my opinion. So I hope for the Dave the Diver fans that it will be different, but it sounded like a lot of talk and nothing more.
Again, I'm happy you could enjoy it, and thanks for calling me out. 🙏🏻🧡
@Samalik indeed, but between straightforward Google Play availability in my region and the base gameplay's comparatively manageable touch controls, the phone's portability certainly outweighed that of a laptop back in my pre-Deck days of the core release. When it comes to PC versions of mobile freemiums, it's the more recent Atelier Resleriana I consider giving a shot (the latter's respective region lock not even allowing QooApp sideloads), but there's no telling if the thing won't have a similar lock of its own or a domain-typical allergy to Linux (a recurrent Steam Deck headache to the point where a recent BattlEye update even barred legit GTA V copies from using Online). Sure makes you saltier yet that Koeimo still won't release this entry on Switch as opposed to pretty much everything else Atelier they have in modern stock.
@nhSnork If it makes you feel better, there is a Resleriana spinoff that seems like it's gonna play like a more traditional game coming to switch
@Samalik I know, thanks! Good news for what it's worth indeed, although I do still hope to access the main thing sometime before its nigh-inevitable EoS. Time will tell.
@nhSnork #StopKillingGames
@Samalik yeah, freemiums are the one massive ozone hole of game preservation despite a few appreciable exceptions, and seeing some retail but equally server-crutched titles like The Crew share their fate is even sadder.
@Yalloo I treated it more like a puzzle game, if I recall correctly. the pacing and atmosphere made it feel pretty clear it wasn't gonna be as High Octane as a standard Bayo game.
If I recall correctly, Kamiya once said that A Link to the Past is one of his favorite games, so it feels pretty obvious he was putting his spin on it.
It was also pretty unique in that you control two characters at once, which is not a game design mechanic that gets used often.
@Samalik I absolutely loved A Link to the Past, and played through it several times. But I don't really see similarities between the two. The pacing of B.O. was the worst part, then the map achieved ruining it for me.
The two characters mechanics is what actually interested me in the first place, but I found it so poorly executed, and I just didn't have fun playing the game....
Nice to share your experience with me. And again, really happy to hear positive feedback about this game, despite me really not enjoying it.
Cheers!
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