DAVE THE DIVER

The idea came to director Jaeho Hwang on Jeju Island. The owner of a small seaside restaurant caught fish every morning, and in the evening that catch kept the restaurant going. Hwang had long wanted a game about the underwater world and fishing, and it all clicked.

In 2023 it was nominated for Best Independent Game at The Game Awards, and the nod drew criticism. Mintrocket was a subsidiary of Korea's Nexon, and critics said the game might have taken a slot from other indies. Hwang later said there is nothing indie about it and that they never applied. In 2024, though, it won the BAFTA for Game Design. No South Korean game had won at those awards before.

Reviewers met it with near-universal acclaim, though one found some late stealth sections and light beam puzzles not entirely successful. Players leave 96% positive out of 144,504 reviews, critics give it 90 on Metacritic. By our Recommended Score it is #50 of 4,736 games.

Liked it? Try Stardew Valley, where you bring your late grandfather's run-down farm back to life and can go fishing too, and Spiritfarer, a management sim in which you ferry the spirits of the dead to the afterlife.