{"id":22999,"date":"2023-11-14T15:28:42","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T06:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=22999"},"modified":"2023-11-14T15:28:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T06:28:44","slug":"20231114-22999","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20231114-22999\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave the Diver&#8217;s nomination as \u201cindie game\u201d sparks debate worldwide. Even developers themselves do not call themselves indie\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The nominated video game titles for each category of<strong> The Game Awards 2023<\/strong> have been revealed. Among the nominees for the \u201cBest Independent Game\u201d category, the title Dave the Diver was included, raising a lot of questions in the community worldwide. Japanese developers have also raised doubts about how appropriate the nomination is.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/Takaaki_Ichijo\/status\/1724235751188308230?s=20\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><font size=\"2\"><strong>Post translation: <\/strong>Huh? Nominating Dave the Diver for the indie award in TGA is pushing things a bit too far. Surprisingly no one seems to know it\u2019s a Nexon game.&nbsp;<\/font><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Game Awards include a number of different categories, and for each category several nominations are put forth, out of which the grand winner is chosen. For this year&#8217;s \u201cBest Independent Game\u201d category, the following titles have been nominated:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u30fbCocoon<\/strong>&nbsp;<br><strong>\u30fbDave the Diver<\/strong>&nbsp;<br><strong>\u30fbDREDGE<\/strong>&nbsp;<br><strong>\u30fbSea of Stars<\/strong>&nbsp;<br><strong>\u30fbViewfinder<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The nominees are all titles released this year which have achieved high critical acclaim. However, it\u2019s been pointed out that the title Dave the Diver does not quite fit the description of an indie game. Game developers such as Tyler Glaiel, developer of titles such as \u201cThe End is Night\u201d and \u201cClosure,\u201d has commented that Dave the Diver cannot fit any reasonable definition of the term \u201cindependent game,\u201d a point he has made on a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TylerGlaiel\/status\/1718795391305662504\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previous occasion<\/a> as well.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">there is no reasonable definition of &quot;independent game&quot; that could possibly apply to Dave the Diver<br><br>not too late to swap that with pizza tower <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hmknqhfgt0\">https:\/\/t.co\/hmknqhfgt0<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Tyler Glaiel (@TylerGlaiel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TylerGlaiel\/status\/1724148646026059910?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 13, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The opinion seems to have been <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GameOverGreggy\/status\/1724116360601702541\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shared<\/a> by many users and industry professionals, and the original post by The Game Awards\u2019 X\/Twitter account now has a community note including a statement that backs up the claim that Dave the Diver is \u201cnot necessarily\u201d an indie game.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TheGameAwards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#TheGameAwards<\/a> nominees for BEST INDEPENDENT GAME are:<br><br>\ud83d\udd38 Cocoon<br>\ud83d\udd38 Dave the Diver<br>\ud83d\udd38 Dredge<br>\ud83d\udd38 Sea of Stars<br>\ud83d\udd38 Viewfinder<br><br>\ud83d\uddf3\ufe0f Vote Now: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ExP93r9hmS\">https:\/\/t.co\/ExP93r9hmS<\/a><br><br>\ud83d\udcfa Streaming live December 7 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YofACLvjVe\">pic.twitter.com\/YofACLvjVe<\/a><\/p>&mdash; The Game Awards (@thegameawards) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thegameawards\/status\/1724110877522043092?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 13, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But what stops Dave the Diver from being an indie game? The game was created by a company belonging to the Nexon conglomerate, one of the world\u2019s largest video game companies that runs titles such as MapleStory and Dungeon Fighter Online.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dave the Diver was created by a small-scale development team within Nexon and released under the MINTROCKET brand. The question is whether it\u2019s acceptable for a game made by a small in-house team at Nexon, a company with a huge capital base, to be included in the indie game category.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DAVE THE DIVER | Official Launch Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p85VHMpE0to?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where the statements of Nexon and MINTROCKET themselves are important to take into account \u2013 they do not consider Dave the Diver an indie game and do not refer to themselves as an indie team. In a previous <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/interviewsjp\/20230626-253420\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interview<\/a> given by Jaeho Hwang, the director of the Dave the Diver project, he emphasized that the game was made within Nexon and by Nexon\u2019s team and did not use the term \u201cindie game\u201d at any point. While large companies trying to pass off small in-house teams as indie developers is a pattern you see a lot nowadays, Dave the Diver does not seem to be such a case.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the first place, the definition of \u201cindie game\u201d is somewhat vague, which keeps leading to discourse such as \u201cWhat is the limit of what can be considered indie?\u201d or \u201cCan X title really be called indie?\u201d But the most commonly cited characteristic of what makes an indie game an indie game is the absence of major capital backing it. Some even argue that games made with a certain degree of stability in terms of development environment and funding are not &#8220;indie-like.\u201d The fine aspects of what indie means differ from person to person, but it seems that as far as Dave the Diver goes, the majority is not accepting of its nomination as an indie title due to the corporation behind it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/RicardoJuchem\/status\/1724235462032732291?s=20\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Nominations for The Game Awards are determined by a select jury that includes individuals from more than 100 media and influencer outlets from around the world. The 2021 and 2022 indie game nominations included titles such as Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Stray and Cult of the Lamb. Some of these game titles are backed by well-funded publishers, so one could argue about how appropriate their nominations are too. At the same time, Dave the Diver was something of an \u201cextreme case\u201d which is likely why the issue has gathered so much attention.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Considering the fact that the nomination of Dave the Diver has potentially taken the rightful spot of another quality indie game, it\u2019s easy to see why the topic is generating so much heat, especially among indie developers themselves. It remains to see how the organizers of The Game Awards will respond to the voices of users and industry professionals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:12px\"><br><br><br><br><em>Written by. Amber V based on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/newsjp\/20231114-272011\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original Japanese article<\/a>\u00a0(original article\u2019s publication date: 2023-11-14 13:15 JST)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dave the Diver has been nominated for the best indie game category of The Game Awards 2023, raising a lot of questions in the community worldwide. Japanese developers have also raised doubts about how appropriate the nomination is.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-22999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dave the Diver&#039;s nomination as \u201cindie game\u201d sparks debate worldwide. Even developers themselves do not call themselves indie\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dave the Diver has been nominated for the best indie game category of The Game Awards 2023, raising a lot of questions in the community worldwide. 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