How Unity and Early Access helped make Dave the Diver one of 2023's biggest indie hits

gamesindustry.biz:

One of this year's breakout indie hits has been Dave The Diver.

Developed by MINTROCKET, The game challenges players to collect fish to supply a sushi restaurant, which involves collecting resources, crafting new items, fighting giant underwater creatures, perform quests for people and managing a restaurant. It's certainly different.

"I got the idea from a Japanese-style pub on the Jeju Island seaside that only opens at night," explains Jaeho Hwang, who is the director on Dave the Diver at developer MINTROCKET.

"I got the idea from a Japanese-style pub on the Jeju Island"

"The owner of the pub dives in the morning to catch fish and serves them to customers at night. I also read a manga called 'Blue Hole', with a story about a blue hole connected to an ancient world. I thought it was a really cool concept and wanted to create a game about this mysterious giant hole in the sea."

The game has been a true indie hit. It boasts a Metacritic score of 89, with 100% of critics recommending the game on OpenCritic. It has achieved an 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating from over 45,000 players on Steam. And within ten days the game had sold one million units worldwide, making it one of the top 20 new releases on Steam in June.

"I think we came up with pretty unique concept and added a lot of lighthearted humor to it," Hwang says of the game's success.

"I think people liked the quirky characters too. Also, most of the things in the game are pretty intuitive, like you pick up a fish and immediately know that it’s going to be a certain sushi. I guess that’s why the game attracted casual players and has managed to keep them diving."

Of course, with so many different challenges and elements to the game, the biggest challenge that