Fantastic action-adventure game and management sim (and so much more beyond that) Dave the Diver is getting more free updates, including a crossover with fellow fishing game Dredge. In its latest developer update, game director Jaeho Hwang and game designer Nolan King from Mintrocket go over what we can expect from the December patch, which also includes several other welcome changes for one of 2023’s most delightful games.
The pair start by expressing thanks for their recent nominations at The Game Awards, saying they felt “really proud to be standing side-by-side with so many good games” despite Dave the Diver not coming away with any wins. King gives a shout out to Robocop: Rogue City, a game he’s enjoying right now, while Hwang addresses Dave the Diver’s inclusion in the indie category, saying he understands the concerns, but that the team is focused on making the best game it can regardless of what genre it’s considered to be.
For the update coming on Friday, December 15, the main focus is the free Dave the Diver and Dredge collaboration. “The atmosphere of Dredge is quite different from our game,” King remarks with a smile, “so we added this new dark and gloomy Dredge feeling to Dave the Diver.” He explains that comments and fan art from players inspired the developers to work together, noting that both teams “are huge fans of each other’s games.”
With a red mist descending over the Blue Hole, Dredge’s Travelling Merchant arrives to request that Dave track down the mutated ‘aberrations’ from Dredge, which appear on foggy nights. “You can actually navigate around the Blue Hole by operating Dave’s boat,” King says, “something you haven’t been able to do yourself to this point.”
You’ll find aberrated fish in three different areas around the Blue Hole, and Hwang says the newcomers have “unique and diverse attack patterns” to watch out for. To help, you’ll get a new weapon – the drain gun. This weapon, King explains, “has a different way of dealing damage to the target fish while also allowing you to replenish your health,” which sounds fantastically useful to me.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, these bizarre creatures aren’t going to go down particularly well with your regular clientele. Instead, on foggy days you’ll be visited by mysterious hooded figures – “these customers have healthy appetites,” Hwang says, “so it’s probably a good idea to catch a good amount of aberrated fish because they continuously order until the restaurant closes.” He notes that, since regular customers don’t eat aberrated fish, it’s still important to remember to prepare your ordinary range of culinary delights for everyone else to enjoy.
There’s more to this latest free Dave the Diver update than just the collaboration, however. Responding to feedback that the Sea People village is cumbersome to navigate, the Beluga taxi will now stick around when you call it without charging you for its use multiple times – it’ll just wait for you whenever you go into a building.
There are some new dishes to discover, and additions to the Cooksta feed. You’ll now be able to cancel the celebration animation after carving a big fish, allowing you to move out of the way if another fish is attacking. The UI has also been improved to make it more readable, which should be of particular help to players on portable devices, such as those of you playing Dave the Diver on Steam Deck.
In closing, Hwang returns to the Dredge collaboration, saying, “This is our first piece of crossover content – we really had fun making it so we hope you guys enjoy it too. We will keep looking out for more fun crossovers to do in the future.” To celebrate, there’ll also be a bundle to buy the two games together released alongside the update on Friday, December 15, perfect for anyone who’s yet to pick up either game.
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