{"id":49604,"date":"2025-07-02T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49604"},"modified":"2025-07-02T11:26:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T02:26:00","slug":"dave-the-diver-director-addresses-controversial-best-indie-game-nomination-from-2023-theres-nothing-indie-about-us-we-didnt-apply-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dave-the-diver-director-addresses-controversial-best-indie-game-nomination-from-2023-theres-nothing-indie-about-us-we-didnt-apply-for-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave the Diver director addresses controversial \u201cBest Indie Game\u201d nomination from 2023. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing indie about us, we didn\u2019t apply for it\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hit deep-sea exploration RPG <strong>Dave the Diver<\/strong>, developed by Nexon\u2019s subsidiary Mintrocket, became the subject of much debate when it received an out-of-place nomination for \u201cBest Independent Game\u201d at the 2023 Game Awards. People pointed out that, as a subsidiary of a major Korean entertainment conglomerate, Mintrocket shouldn\u2019t have been on the list at all. At the same time, due to Dave the Diver\u2019s unique, \u201cindie-esque\u201d visuals and gameplay, many were not even aware of these circumstances, merely assuming that it was an indie title.<\/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>The studio itself, however, never claimed their games were indie, and in a recent interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.4gamer.net\/games\/635\/G063598\/20250627083\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">4Gamer,<\/a> Mintrocket CEO and Dave the Diver creator Jaeho Hwang directly addressed the controversy, emphasizing that Mintrocket had nothing to do with the nomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wonder if people mistook us for an indie studio just because we\u2019re developing games as a small team, or just because our art styles and game systems tend to be unique. For some reason, we also ended up getting nominated for the Best Indie Game award, which caused some people to go, \u2018Hey, isn\u2019t that a Nexon game?\u2019, but it\u2019s not like we applied for the award ourselves (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250701-496040001.jpg\" alt=\"Dave the diver gameplay.\" class=\"wp-image-49605\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250701-496040001.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250701-496040001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250701-496040001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As Hwang pointed out, the reason why Dave the Diver ended up on the ballot indeed had nothing to do with Nexon, but rather how the nomination system for the Game Awards works. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/thegameawards.com\/faq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Game Awards official website<\/a>, nominees for most categories are chosen by an international jury of over 100 global game media outlets \u2013 and most importantly, there is no submission process through which developers can apply themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Game Awards nomination policy states that all games are automatically eligible for nominations as long as they are released before the given deadline. Furthermore, as a non-exceptional rule, developers and publishers are not made aware of nominated games in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1075\" height=\"604\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1075px) 100vw, 1075px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250701-496040002.jpg\" alt=\"Dave the diver gameplay.\" class=\"wp-image-49606\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250701-496040002.jpg 1075w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250701-496040002-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250701-496040002-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With more than 100 global publications nominating the games, one could argue that they should be aware of the games released by major industry developers, however, it seems like enough of them believed that Dave the Diver truly was an indie game. With the game possibly taking another indie title\u2019s rightful place in the ballot, the backlash was almost inevitable, sparking debate among indie developers. In response, as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.videogameschronicle.com\/news\/keighley-weighs-in-on-debate-over-dave-the-diver-qualifying-for-best-indie-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">VGC<\/a>, The Game Awards executive producer and host Geoff Keighley said he ultimately decided to leave it up to the jury as \u201cindependent is a broad term\u201d and \u201cit can mean different things to different people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The CEO of Mintrocket, however, explains that it wasn\u2019t their goal to make Dave the Diver feel like an indie game. They\u2019re making games for Nexon, so even if they tried to go for an indie vibe, the fact that it\u2019s a game released by a major studio still stands \u2013 which is why trying to do that would be pointless, Hwang suggests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CEO of Nexon&#8217;s subsidiary Mintrocket and director of Dave the Diver says the studio never intended to make indie-esque games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":49607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-49604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dave the Diver director addresses controversial \u201cBest Indie Game\u201d nomination from 2023. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing indie about us, we didn\u2019t apply for it\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CEO of Nexon&#039;s subsidiary Mintrocket and director of Dave the Diver says the studio never intended to make indie-esque games.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dave-the-diver-director-addresses-controversial-best-indie-game-nomination-from-2023-theres-nothing-indie-about-us-we-didnt-apply-for-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dave the Diver director addresses controversial \u201cBest Indie Game\u201d nomination from 2023. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing indie about us, we didn\u2019t apply for it\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CEO of Nexon&#039;s subsidiary Mintrocket and director of Dave the Diver says the studio never intended to make indie-esque games.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dave-the-diver-director-addresses-controversial-best-indie-game-nomination-from-2023-theres-nothing-indie-about-us-we-didnt-apply-for-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-02T02:26:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250701-49604-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dave the Diver director addresses controversial \u201cBest Indie Game\u201d nomination from 2023. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing indie about us, we didn\u2019t apply for it\u201d - 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