Sometimes treasure really lies beneath the sea. I live and breathe (sometimes from an oxygen tank) indie games, so when I say Dave the Diver impressed me in ways I did not expect, you should believe every word of it – yes, technically it’s not an indie, but that’s for later. On the off chance that you don’t, here’s a stat for you: Dave the Diver has just surpassed 3 million units sold!
A debut game from developer Mintrocket, Dave the Diver is deceptively layered, more than the title might let on. At the heart of it is a group of friends who open a sushi bar near the Blue Hole, an ever-evolving aquatic environment.
Here is where we meet Dave, a scuba diver by day and a sushi restaurant manager by night. Upon diving into Dave the Diver, one’s expectations of a chill, relaxing experience are quickly met, and then taken a notch higher. Characters might be pixelated, but one thing they’re not is one (or, well, two) dimensional.
Like most “indie” games, Dave the Diver has received a wave of positive word-of-mouth since its PC debut in June, which was fueled by the Switch release in October. This might explain why developer Black Salt Games felt the need to collaborate with Mintrocket to release a Dredge x Dave the Diver crossover. The best part? This came as a free DLC for Dave the Diver!
Unfortunately, the game found itself at the center of a controversial decision after receiving a nomination for “Best Independent Game” at The Game Awards. The bone of contention was that developer Mintrocket is a sub-brand of Nexon, a major South Korean video game publisher. Whoops!
By definition, indie developers work independently of large studios and publishers, which makes Mintrocket anything but this. Many fans and gamers in general called into question the fairness of the nomination over potentially less well-supported “true” indie titles.
Geoff Keighley, the creative mastermind behind The Game Awards, did not do Mintrocket any favors. Stirring up a hornets’ nest, Keighley defended the decision to nominate Dave the Diver for this award, stating, “Independent can mean different things to different people and it’s sort of a broad term, right?”
Wrong!
I’ve had the whole indie debate with my colleagues, and from my understanding, Dave the Diver being classified as an indie game is sort of an insult to the genuine indie games and developers out there. Fortunately, at the end of the day, the true indie game in that category, Sea of Stars, emerged victorious.
Ultimately, Dave the Diver rose above controversy to win the “Sit Back and Relax” award in the user-voted Valve Steam Awards, an outcome I can fully support. Its ability to transport players into a serene, underwater world far from the surface-level chaos of everyday life is deserving of this accolade.
Dave the Diver is available to play on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
