‘I don’t just want to make them a cameo’: How Dave the Diver’s dev has built a better Fortnite

The game director is considering adding a time portal to enable more crossovers Mintrocket’s 2023 hit Dave the Diver is a chaotic mix of genres, fusing management and fishing sims with a host of mini games and absolutely absurd plot. The silliness and surprises not only produce a highly engaging game but make it very easy for Mintrocket CEO and game director Jaeho Hwang to keep adding content to it. Since launch, he’s been regularly reaching out to his favorite creators to find ways to bring new characters and challenges into Dave’s strange world. “We try to be a version of Fortnite,” Hwang told Polygon in a video call. “Our game is set in the ocean, an open space that anyone can visit, so anything can happen, and we have a restaurant that anyone can walk into so it doesn’t feel really strange at all if someone suddenly shows up.” Hwang traveled to Japan to broker deals to bring two of his favorite properties — Godzilla and Yakuza — into the game. The first add-on for Dave the Diver involved Godzilla retreating to recover in the Blue Hole, the place where Dave catches fish, battles giant monsters, and fraternizes with merfolk. In another content pack, Yakuza’s Ichiban Kasuga arrive