KOCHI: It’s not every day that a rich acquaintance of yours calls you on the phone while you’re lazing at the beach. After a quick conversation, you catch the next flight out and find yourself in a boat dressed in diving gear. This is the start of ‘Dave the Diver’.
Playing ‘Dave the Diver’ after, say, playing a barbarian in Diablo IV, is like sipping tea in the afternoon.
The game is described as an “adventure RPG”. But in essence, it is a 2D pixel management simulator, with some elements of an adventure game. This is because the game revolves around the stressful work life of Dave: a reluctant employee of a dive-boat owner called Cobra, and a sushi bar chef named Bancho.
Set in repetitive day and night cycles, the gameplay within each day changes based on the work that he does. In the mornings, he dives into the ocean floor, and in the evenings, he moonlights as a waiter.
For the dive missions, Dave usually gets requests to fetch items that are lost in the ocean. He must also catch some fish, which Bancho will later use to cook dinner for the Sushi Bar customers. While Bancho is initially a little less snobbish about the fish choices, the requirements evolve as the Sushi Bar gets more popular. This makes catching fish not all that straightforward.
The diving adventures become more complicated when you realise that you have just about a day to catch the right amount of the correct type of fish and other lost items while keeping in mind a whole list of constraints like the weight that Dave can lug around underwater, the limits of the oxygen tank, and the ability to swim away or attack the nastier fish.
These are worth it though, when you realise the more rewarding evening mini-games. Every evening, Dave creates a custom menu based on his fish haul for the day, delegates work to employees and wait on tables.
The hurried panic of waiting tables and pouring green tea for customers is weirdly meditative because the stakes feel quite low. Made a loss in the Sushi bar today? That’s alright, you can sell some underwater treasures tomorrow and make up for it!
While these occupations remain unchanged, the game has a way of staying fresh. There are always new fish to find, and new treasures to hunt. There are also better ways to navigate the underwaters, and Dave befriends new people to help him with the process.
For example, we meet Duff, the weapons guy that makes shiny new guns for Dave to use on the more violent sharks. Only a month since its release in Windows and macOS, ‘Dave the Diver’ is already incredibly popular and well-loved. Developed and published by Mintrocket, the game is currently priced at Rs 880 on the Steam store.