Dave the Diver Interview: Devs Talk About Multiplayer, Scrapped Content, And Big DLCs

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Dave the Diver is a critically acclaimed title developed and published by Mintrocket.
With Ichiban’s Holiday DLC on the horizon, the devs tell players to expect more collaborative content rather than a large DLC.
We interviewed the team at Mintrocket over email to get a deeper insight into their creative vision.

Dave the Diver made a splash when it launched, blending deep-sea exploration with sushi restaurant management in a way that works really well. Despite the game’s nature, Mintrocket has brought some unique and surprising limited-time collaborations with IPs like Godzilla and Like a Dragon. Alongside collaborations, the team is preparing a much bigger content update, with In the Jungle DLC coming in late 2025.

With so much at work, there is bound to be an ocean of inspiration, with some scrapped content and ideas that might one day be realized. To learn more about all of that and discuss the possibility of multiplayer support in the future, we spoke with Mintrocket about its upcoming plans.

Dave the Diver has collaborated with notable IPs, and I would love to know what other games you personally want to work with and why.

Mintrocket: As an avid gamer myself, there are many titles I would love to see crossover into our game. However, I think it’s important to choose titles that fit well within our universe and resonate with fans of the original game. For example, while a game like ‘The Witcher’ is fantastic, I wonder how Geralt would fit into our world.

Speaking of, how long has the Ichiban's Holiday DLC been in the works? What is the procedure for creating DLC content at Mintrocket?

Mintrocket: I’ve had the idea for it since earlier last year. We had the chance to present our DLC ideas to the director, Yokoyama-san, at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, and we received a positive response. After that we really got down to business working on the DLC. SEGA has been a great help in creating detailed aspects, including character development, and as a result, the project is coming together with high quality.
Usually, I’m the one who proposes crossover ideas, and after discussing them with the game designers, if we come to the conclusion that the ideas are promising, we proceed. There are times where other projects approach us with a proposal, and vice versa.

Will Ichiban’s Holiday be time-limited like the Godzilla DLC?

Mintrocket: Yes, unfortunately, that is the plan. Collaborations with major IPs are likely to come with time restrictions, and we really hope our users understand.

Unrelated, but what’s your favourite Yakuza game?

Mintrocket: All of them! I enjoyed the earlier, slightly more serious works, as well as the warmer scenes that appeared more frequently in Yakuza 4 to 6 as Kiryu aged. Personally, I was quite worried when I heard that the protagonist and genre would change starting with Like a Dragon 7, but as expected from an excellent studio, it turned out to be a really fun game.

The upcoming In the Jungle DLC will expand more on the world and character lore, but how big is it going to be exactly? Many players thought it would be the sequel, so how does it compare to the base game?

Mintrocket: It’s not exactly a sequel, but we’re thinking of it as something like Dave the Diver 1.5. As Dave the Diver was popular for its unique progression and charming characters, there’s a pressure to create a kind of freshness rather than simply carrying over what had worked before. Thankfully, through many discussions, interesting ideas are emerging, and I’m confident about the outcome.

Do you plan on releasing more updates like In the Jungle that focus on characters and their backstories in the future?

Mintrocket: Creating something on the scale of ‘In the Jungle’ would take a lot of time, so I think we’ll likely focus on smaller updates and collaboration content rather than such a large story DLC.

If there were to be a sequel, would you keep Dave as the protagonist or explore something new entirely?

Mintrocket: Since the title is ‘Dave the Diver’, we’d probably keep Dave as the main character. However, if the series continues like ‘The Witcher’ or the ‘Resident Evil’ franchise, we might get to see a new protagonist in the future.

Have there been any major mechanics or gameplay features that were considered but ultimately scrapped? Was it for a DLC or the base game?

Mintrocket: To capture a more “fish market” vibe, we initially planned to include seasonal fish and market prices, but ultimately decided to remove them to keep the game from getting too complex. We also received many questions from users about where Dave sleeps. We had originally considered adding a housing feature for Dave, but it was also cut due to limited resources. However, Dave’s house will be featured in the DLC.

Similar to the last question, do you have any unused character ideas or backstories that never made it into the final version?

Mintrocket: There was a mission where a soccer player in a slump came to the Blue Hole for training, but he kept kicking his ball into the sea, so Dave had to go retrieve it. This mission was actually the first NPC mission we ever created, but it was removed. The soccer player is still used as a “temporary NPC” for testing.

Despite the frequent updates and fun collaborations, many fans find the core gameplay experience repetitive after some time. Are there any major updates or content updates planned to enhance the game’s replayability?

Mintrocket: That’s a good question. Our core gameplay inherently involves repetitive elements, so we’ve worked to keep it engaging by adding various features and mini-games. Some were well-received, while others weren’t. In particular, we had received some feedback that the Sea People missions were lackluster. We took this into account, adjusted the balance of that part of the game, and recently added the ‘Balatro’ crossover content to enhance the experience in the Sea People Village. We will continue to make these improvements to address any remaining shortcomings.

Have you ever considered a randomized or procedurally generated diving mode to increase replayability?

Mintrocket: We tested this aspect early in development and had many discussions about it. However, we found that using procedural generation had the drawback of making the amount of fun vary too much for each session. Of course, it could be that we were somewhat inexperienced and the quality just wasn’t up to par, but we concluded that developing multiple hand-crafted maps would be better to maintain the level of fun.

Are there any plans to expand Dave’s sushi restaurant beyond Bancho Sushi? Maybe new locations or a franchise system?

Mintrocket: In this upcoming Jungle DLC, Bancho will also be coming along, so naturally, a new restaurant will open in the new area. Since the location is different, most items on the menu will likely change as well.

Have you considered adding an aquarium feature where players can collect and display rare fish instead of just selling them?

Mintrocket: Yes, this was also suggested many times during the development process. However, there were many opinions questioning whether a simple aquarium would be fun enough. So, it was changed to a Fish Farm where you can see the collected fish and actually sell them.

Some fans have expressed interest in co-op or multiplayer elements. Has the team ever explored how that might work in Dave the Diver, or is the game strictly meant to stay a single-player experience?

Mintrocket: Currently, as ‘Dave the Diver’ is a character-centric game, it seems difficult to incorporate a multiplayer mode. It might be more feasible to release a spin-off where multiplayer mode is the focus, similar to what Elden Ring did. But for now, we are concentrating on the DLC, so there are no immediate plans.

How long does Mintrocket see itself supporting the title with frequent content updates? Do you have a specific year, like until 2027, etc.?

Mintrocket: I haven’t thought about it yet, but we are getting a lot of collaboration proposals, and many of them are interesting, which makes me quite eager to work on them. Perhaps the time will come when we no longer receive proposals, and our ideas run out. But for now, I think there will be many exciting updates until next year.

Dave the Diver is a casual single-player adventure game developed and published by Mintrocket. It is currently available on PlayStation 4 & 5, Nintendo Switch, macOS, and Windows. As per an update from the studio in November 2024, the game has sold over 5 million copies across all platforms. We appreciate the developers for answering our questions.

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