{"id":68641,"date":"2026-06-24T10:02:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=68641"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:02:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:02:26","slug":"dave-the-divers-in-the-jungle-expansion-is-basically-dave-the-diver-1-7-says-director-even-players-who-usually-skip-dlc-should-give-it-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/dave-the-divers-in-the-jungle-expansion-is-basically-dave-the-diver-1-7-says-director-even-players-who-usually-skip-dlc-should-give-it-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave the Diver\u2019s\u00a0In\u00a0the Jungle\u00a0expansion\u00a0is \u201cbasically Dave the Diver 1.7,\u201d says director.\u00a0\u201cEven players who usually skip DLC should give it a try\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Dave the Diver\u2019s&nbsp;latest&nbsp;<strong>In the Jungle<\/strong>&nbsp;DLC&nbsp;expansion, the setting shifts to the jungle. Dave&#8217;s new base of operations is a village called Utara, from which he ventures into unexplored waters. This time,&nbsp;players&nbsp;dive into&nbsp;freshwater rather than the ocean,&nbsp;encountering&nbsp;an ecosystem&nbsp;never&nbsp;before&nbsp;seen in the series and embarking on a&nbsp;brand-new&nbsp;adventure. The DLC&nbsp;launched on June 18 at $9.99.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AUTOMATON&nbsp;recently interviewed Jaeho Hwang, CEO of MINTROCKET and director of the Dave the Diver project.&nbsp;In this&nbsp;installment, we&nbsp;focus&nbsp;on the new&nbsp;DLC\u2019s&nbsp;content&nbsp;and&nbsp;development philosophy,&nbsp;as well as the studio\u2019s&nbsp;future plans&nbsp;for the series. Be sure to also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/dave-the-divers-developers-arent-indie-but-making-a-small-scale-game-under-a-corporation-came-with-its-own-set-of-challenges-we-talk-to-mintrocket\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">check out&nbsp;part one of this interview<\/a>, which explores&nbsp;the&nbsp;behind-the-scenes&nbsp;of&nbsp;the original game\u2019s development&nbsp;and Hwang&#8217;s thoughts on what defines an indie game.&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 - In the Jungle DLC Launch Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HCYultesGEg?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<h1 id=\"transforming-the-base-game-s-more-passive-aspects\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Transforming the base game\u2019s more \u201cpassive\u201d aspects&nbsp;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014In the Jungle is a major expansion with over ten hours of&nbsp;new&nbsp;content&nbsp;and gameplay.&nbsp;It&#8217;s&nbsp;already&nbsp;been about three years since the release of the base game. What led to the decision to develop&nbsp;this DLC?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Once&nbsp;I&nbsp;felt the game&nbsp;was a&nbsp;success,&nbsp;I&nbsp;thought we should make at least one major DLC&nbsp;for it,&nbsp;especially&nbsp;a story&nbsp;expansion. There were still parts of the narrative&nbsp;I&nbsp;wanted to&nbsp;build upon,&nbsp;and characters I wanted to explore further, so&nbsp;I felt we&nbsp;had to do something.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The community had also been asking&nbsp;for an opportunity to catch&nbsp;freshwater fish for quite a while&nbsp;too, so we decided to make rivers the theme.&nbsp;Before we knew it, that gradually evolved into a jungle setting, and we actually settled on the jungle concept quite a&nbsp;while&nbsp;ago.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However,&nbsp;subsequent&nbsp;collaboration DLCs ended up delaying&nbsp;In&nbsp;The&nbsp;Jungle\u2019s&nbsp;development considerably. We always intended to make&nbsp;it, but&nbsp;since&nbsp;collaborations&nbsp;are the most effective&nbsp;if released&nbsp;while the game is still in the spotlight, we prioritized&nbsp;collab&nbsp;content&nbsp;whenever an interesting opportunity came up. Before we knew it,&nbsp;nearly three&nbsp;years had passed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When it comes to making&nbsp;additional&nbsp;content,&nbsp;the safest approach would have been to&nbsp;simply&nbsp;expand&nbsp;the base game, but&nbsp;I&nbsp;thought it would be more interesting to try&nbsp;something&nbsp;new, so&nbsp;we\u2019ve&nbsp;introduced&nbsp;plenty&nbsp;of fresh mechanics.&nbsp;For example,&nbsp;the&nbsp;game unfolds in real&nbsp;time, and&nbsp;venturing into&nbsp;the forest leads to some&nbsp;rather&nbsp;unusual&nbsp;gameplay. There are mechanics here that are quite different from the original Dave the Diver, but&nbsp;we\u2019ve&nbsp;approached development with the same mindset we had when making the base game&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;let&#8217;s&nbsp;try something new,&nbsp;and&nbsp;let\u2019s&nbsp;make&nbsp;something other&nbsp;developers&nbsp;normally&nbsp;wouldn&#8217;t&nbsp;attempt.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014It feels like&nbsp;there\u2019s&nbsp;a stronger&nbsp;emphasis on&nbsp;interactions with the people of Utara Village&nbsp;in the DLC, like how&nbsp;deepening your relationships with villagers increases the number of customers&nbsp;visiting&nbsp;Bancho&nbsp;Grill.&nbsp;Are there any major differences between the game design concepts of the base game and&nbsp;the&nbsp;expansion?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>The&nbsp;base&nbsp;game is fairly passive. Dave and Bancho simply wait at the restaurant while&nbsp;nameless&nbsp;customers come in, eat, and leave.&nbsp;It&#8217;s&nbsp;fun&nbsp;in its own way, but you&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;really&nbsp;get to&nbsp;interact with those customers much, and&nbsp;I always felt that&nbsp;was a bit of a&nbsp;shame.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Similarly, Dave rarely took the initiative to invite people to the restaurant himself. So,&nbsp;for this DLC, our motto was to&nbsp;completely reverse these aspects of the game system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, unless Dave&nbsp;takes action, almost nobody comes to the restaurant. There are a handful of default customers just to keep&nbsp;things running, but everyone else&nbsp;has to&nbsp;be brought in through Dave&#8217;s efforts. He talks to villagers, helps them with their requests, builds up their affinity, and only then do they start visiting&nbsp;Bancho&nbsp;Grill.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1524\" height=\"854\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1524px) 100vw, 1524px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-001-1080x608-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-68646\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-001-1080x608-1.jpg 1524w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-001-1080x608-1-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-001-1080x608-1-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We spent a lot of time testing how that progression should be paced, and I think&nbsp;we&#8217;ve&nbsp;found&nbsp;a good&nbsp;balance. We also introduced&nbsp;some&nbsp;unexpected&nbsp;events&nbsp;to add variety.&nbsp;Our&nbsp;goal was&nbsp;basically&nbsp;for&nbsp;villagers&#8217; affection to naturally increase over time without requiring&nbsp;the player to run around too much,&nbsp;thus preventing the experience from&nbsp;dragging.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, I knew players would eventually get tired if they only ever saw the same villagers every day. So,&nbsp;borrowing&nbsp;from the structure of the base game, we added plenty of surprise visitors from outside who&nbsp;just&nbsp;show up&nbsp;like, &#8220;Wow, I want to eat something!&#8221;&nbsp;These scenes&nbsp;actually include a lot of collaborations with other games too, so don&#8217;t miss them.&nbsp;(laughs)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"out-internal-feedback-sessions-are-so-brutal-we-call-them-sparring\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Out&nbsp;internal feedback sessions are so brutal we call them&nbsp;\u201csparring\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014You&nbsp;seem to&nbsp;be&nbsp;quite conscious of&nbsp;pacing in your games. How do you judge whether the&nbsp;tempo&nbsp;is right? Do you&nbsp;compare against&nbsp;benchmark games, or do you have your own criteria during playtesting?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Once&nbsp;you&#8217;ve&nbsp;played your own game enough, you lose the ability to evaluate it with a fresh perspective.&nbsp;I&#8217;ve&nbsp;tested it so much that&nbsp;I&#8217;m&nbsp;basically numb&nbsp;to&nbsp;it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I feel&nbsp;something&#8217;s&nbsp;off about the pacing, I write down the issue and discuss it with&nbsp;my&nbsp;team. A mission might be fun the first time, but on the second playthrough it starts to feel repetitive, and if that keeps happening, it stops being enjoyable. I&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;think&nbsp;that&#8217;s&nbsp;because&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;inherently boring, but due to&nbsp;issues in&nbsp;pacing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I love Dragon Quest, for example. At its core,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;fundamentally&nbsp;a game&nbsp;about numbers, but the pacing is so good that&nbsp;it&nbsp;keeps&nbsp;playing all the way through.&nbsp;That&#8217;s&nbsp;why&nbsp;I&nbsp;think pacing&nbsp;is incredibly important.&nbsp;It&#8217;s&nbsp;also one of the easiest things for developers&nbsp;to lose sight of.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s&nbsp;why&nbsp;we conduct internal tests and ask everyone to review the game,&nbsp;or rather, to&nbsp;tear it apart.&nbsp;Everyone&nbsp;leaves really&nbsp;brutal comments&nbsp;(laughs).&nbsp;Like, &#8220;I&#8217;d never buy a game that released in this state.\u201d&nbsp;Then we invite those people&nbsp;in&nbsp;and&nbsp;interview them. Thankfully, everyone has strong nerves, so when I ask&nbsp;them, &#8220;Why did you hate it&nbsp;that&nbsp;much?&#8221;&nbsp;they&nbsp;lay things out&nbsp;very honestly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, in this DLC, events only trigger when you meet villagers. We assumed players would naturally move around the map clockwise, but if they go the other way,&nbsp;they might not meet anyone at all.&nbsp;Or, on the contrary,&nbsp;they&nbsp;can&nbsp;run into too many villagers at once and receive five or six&nbsp;missions in a single day, making the experience exhausting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I realized that when I was playing in my own style and at my own pace, there were parts of the game I&nbsp;wasn\u2019t&nbsp;seeing at all. Players approach the game in all sorts of ways, right? We tested this internally,&nbsp;checking&nbsp;various scenarios, and then passed the test to external testers, where we checked the scenarios once more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014So,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;fair to say your internal reviews are&nbsp;quite&nbsp;strict?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Very strict. We call it sparring, in fact.&nbsp;Everyone comes at you with full force (laughs).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014Do you also give that kind of harsh feedback yourself?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Back when I was&nbsp;just&nbsp;a&nbsp;game&nbsp;director, I was probably pretty harsh too. But now&nbsp;I&#8217;m&nbsp;the CEO&#8230; (laughs),&nbsp;so&nbsp;I&#8217;m&nbsp;one of the gentler ones. But&nbsp;staff members who are on the same level are much more&nbsp;ruthless&nbsp;with&nbsp;each other.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014It sounds like&nbsp;you&#8217;ve&nbsp;started taking on more of a fatherly role,&nbsp;like&nbsp;the person who brings everyone together.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Exactly! (laughs)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"drawing-inspiration-from-movies-and-producing-a-live-action-trailer-with-the-creators-of-sharknado\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Drawing inspiration from movies&nbsp;and producing a live-action trailer with the creators of Sharknado<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014The ancient ruins featured in the DLC gave off a very Indiana Jones-like&nbsp;vibe. Combined with the recently released live-action trailer produced&nbsp;by&nbsp;The Asylum&nbsp;(the studio behind Sharknado), Dave the Diver seems like a game that naturally lends itself to film. What made you pursue that direction?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>I&#8217;ve always loved B-movie creature films.&nbsp;I&#8217;ve&nbsp;been watching them for years, including The Asylum&#8217;s productions.&nbsp;They&#8217;re&nbsp;a little ridiculous, but somehow you&nbsp;can\u2019t&nbsp;stop watching.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;ve&nbsp;already shown players plenty of gameplay footage over the years, so making yet another standard gameplay trailer&nbsp;didn&#8217;t&nbsp;seem&nbsp;so interesting. We wanted to try something different, and decided to go with live action, so I thought \u201cWhy not contact&nbsp;The Asylum?\u201d&nbsp;Our staff reached out, but we&nbsp;didn&#8217;t&nbsp;hear back for over a month. The release date was getting closer, and we were almost ready to give up when they finally&nbsp;replied,&nbsp;saying they wanted to do it.&nbsp;We explained Dave the Diver to them and showed them the script, and they became&nbsp;very interested.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trailer, including the casting, has&nbsp;received a lot of praise from fans, with people especially impressed with how much&nbsp;the live-action&nbsp;Dave and Cobra&nbsp;look like their in-game counterparts.&nbsp;I personally participated in the casting process, reviewing&nbsp;costumes&nbsp;and styling alongside our art&nbsp;director&nbsp;and providing feedback. Thanks to all&nbsp;our&nbsp;efforts,&nbsp;I think we&nbsp;ended up with something that truly feels like Dave the Diver.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Partway through production, The Asylum even suggested increasing the budget and turning it into a short film.&nbsp;That\u2019s&nbsp;how&nbsp;we ended up shooting&nbsp;the&nbsp;ten-minute&nbsp;live-action&nbsp;short&nbsp;that&nbsp;was recently released. I hope everyone checks it out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014Since the game works so well alongside film, were there any other movies that inspired you?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>When we first started planning the jungle expansion, we asked everyone on the team what came to mind when they thought of&nbsp;jungles, and&nbsp;built the concept from there.&nbsp;Naturally, someone brought up the movie Anaconda, and we actually drew quite a bit of inspiration from it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We also watched National Geographic documentaries about monster fish in the Amazon and jungle survival, which served as inspiration as well.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"605\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-005-1080x605-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-68644\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-005-1080x605-1.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-005-1080x605-1-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-005-1080x605-1-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conveying&nbsp;the&nbsp;vast beauty and sense of mystery&nbsp;of the ocean is&nbsp;challenging in its own right, but&nbsp;depicting the jungle&nbsp;was difficult in&nbsp;a different way. The challenge was in capturing&nbsp;that wild, untamed atmosphere, especially in pixel art.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s&nbsp;why we relied heavily on films and documentaries as references while figuring out how&nbsp;best to approach it, and I think&nbsp;we&#8217;ve&nbsp;managed to create a&nbsp;pretty convincing&nbsp;atmosphere.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014While&nbsp;we\u2019re&nbsp;on the topic,&nbsp;what&#8217;s&nbsp;your favorite movie?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>People might be surprised to hear this, but I&#8217;m actually a big horror fan. I especially love slasher films, the kind&nbsp;with&nbsp;serial killers. I also love Godzilla. I just really like creatures.&nbsp;There&#8217;s&nbsp;something fascinating about watching people overcome hopeless situations involving giant monsters.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I also enjoy movies where you have absolutely no idea where the story is going. One recent example is The Substance, starring Demi Moore. I thought that was fantastic. I also really enjoyed the Japanese film Hell&#8217;s Garden, starring Mei Nagano, which is available on Netflix.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230;My tastes&nbsp;might be a bit unconventional&nbsp;(laughs).&nbsp;I watch&nbsp;pretty much everything&nbsp;except romantic comedies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"the-weird-ideas-usually-come-from-me\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">The weird ideas usually come from me&nbsp;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014Both this DLC and&nbsp;previous&nbsp;ones have experimented with all kinds of gameplay styles, from rhythm games to fighting-game-inspired action sequences.&nbsp;I believe the abundance of minigames is one of Dave the Diver&#8217;s&nbsp;main appeals, but where do these playful ideas come from? Are they something the whole team comes up&nbsp;with together?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>That&#8217;s&nbsp;primarily my area, actually. Whenever we decide to try something weird, the idea usually comes from me.&nbsp;I grew up in the&nbsp;Famicom&nbsp;and PC Engine era, and&nbsp;I feel that period&nbsp;was full of games that were&nbsp;fun in an&nbsp;instinctive,&nbsp;intuitive&nbsp;way. Of course,&nbsp;there are plenty of great games today as well, but back then it felt like developers were competing more directly on&nbsp;the fun factor of gameplay itself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ve&nbsp;always wanted to bring&nbsp;that kind of fun&nbsp;into our games. The&nbsp;problem&nbsp;is that if you just keep throwing things in, you end up with a random collection of minigames, so pacing becomes&nbsp;crucial.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One thing smaller-scale games&nbsp;often excel at&nbsp;is&nbsp;repetition and&nbsp;replayability&nbsp;\u2013 the core loop involves doing the same things&nbsp;over and over.&nbsp;Hades, for example,&nbsp;mitigates&nbsp;some of that roguelike repetition by&nbsp;gradually unlocking story content.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Dave the Diver, minigames serve&nbsp;as a way to&nbsp;refresh the player between the core loop of diving&nbsp;and managing the restaurant.&nbsp;That said, if you use them carelessly, the game can start to feel&nbsp;haphazard, so&nbsp;we&#8217;re&nbsp;very careful&nbsp;about how we introduce&nbsp;them. This includes things like&nbsp;determining&nbsp;whether a minigame&nbsp;should&nbsp;only appear&nbsp;once, how much time should pass before another one appears,&nbsp;and&nbsp;things like that.&nbsp;We&#8217;re&nbsp;surprisingly cautious about it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"605\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-006-1080x605-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-68643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-006-1080x605-1.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-006-1080x605-1-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-006-1080x605-1-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014So pacing is important to you even when it comes to minigames. On another topic, the mobile version of Dave the Diver was recently announced for a worldwide launch this August. Are there any new elements or improvements for existing fans as well as\u00a0new players?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Fundamentally, the mobile version is designed to be the same game as the console and PC versions.&nbsp;In Korea, I often meet people&nbsp;who&#8217;ve&nbsp;heard of Dave the Diver but only play console or mobile games and never touch PC games. So,&nbsp;the mobile version is really a project aimed at expanding&nbsp;our&nbsp;audience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The content is&nbsp;basically&nbsp;the&nbsp;same,&nbsp;there&#8217;s&nbsp;nothing brand-new. However,&nbsp;we&#8217;ve&nbsp;added shortcuts&nbsp;to&nbsp;the Sea People Village because certain aspects of navigation can become more cumbersome on mobile devices.&nbsp;We&#8217;ve&nbsp;also made&nbsp;some&nbsp;quality-of-life adjustments, such as increasing text size in some areas.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014So<\/strong><strong>,<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;fair to say&nbsp;the Dave&nbsp;the Diver&nbsp;world&nbsp;is continuing to expand.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Personally,&nbsp;I&#8217;m&nbsp;not someone who spends much time looking far into the future, so I&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;really think that far ahead.&nbsp;To be honest, any future plans will depend on how players respond to the&nbsp;In&nbsp;the&nbsp;Jungle DLC.&nbsp;That said,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;a project&nbsp;we&#8217;re&nbsp;very passionate&nbsp;about, so&nbsp;I&#8217;d&nbsp;still like to do one or two more&nbsp;collaboration&nbsp;DLCs.&nbsp;&#8230;Though at some point,&nbsp;I think&nbsp;players&nbsp;are bound to&nbsp;start saying, &#8220;Okay, that&#8217;s enough already.&#8221; (laughs)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014(laughs)&nbsp;Is there anything&nbsp;you\u2019re&nbsp;considering for the future?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>One thing is that we&nbsp;didn\u2019t&nbsp;really&nbsp;cover the ocean at Blue Hole much in the main game. Even the Like a Dragon collaboration focused&nbsp;mainly on&nbsp;land-based content and missions with Ichiban. The&nbsp;new&nbsp;jungle expansion takes place somewhere completely different as well, so&nbsp;I&#8217;d&nbsp;like to&nbsp;revisit Blue&nbsp;Hole and do something centered on the ocean again someday. Of&nbsp;course, that depends on player feedback.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another request we hear often is for&nbsp;additional&nbsp;game modes&nbsp;like&nbsp;multiplayer, time attack modes, boss rush modes, and so on.&nbsp;Those kinds of features take a significant amount of development time, though. Part of me thinks it might be&nbsp;a good idea&nbsp;to open things up and let players handle some of that themselves through mods.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014Those all sound&nbsp;like fun&nbsp;ideas. Speaking of future announcements, your new game Bancho the Chef&nbsp;appears to offer&nbsp;a more in-depth cooking experience. The trailer shows fishing scenes as well, but&nbsp;will players gather ingredients&nbsp;like in&nbsp;Dave the Diver?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Yes. During the daytime, players will be able to fish, gather ingredients in the mountains and fields, and prep ingredients at the restaurant.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m&nbsp;not much of a cook myself, but people who do cook often tell me that ingredient preparation&nbsp;makes up most of the work.&nbsp;So,&nbsp;we want players to spend time&nbsp;gathering supplies or helping townspeople in exchange for ingredients.&nbsp;For example, if you&nbsp;help out&nbsp;the lady who runs the vegetable shop, she might start stocking new vegetables, which then unlocks new recipes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea is that you spend your daytime doing&nbsp;all sorts of things, and the people you help become customers&nbsp;later on. If you serve them&nbsp;dishes&nbsp;they particularly enjoy, you earn extra rewards.&nbsp;The basic cycle is similar to&nbsp;Dave the Diver: you spend the day preparing for the&nbsp;restaurant\u2019s evening service.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The main difference is that instead of diving,&nbsp;you&#8217;re&nbsp;gathering ingredients in other ways.&nbsp;Rather than serving customers in the dining hall at night,&nbsp;you&#8217;re&nbsp;directly cooking the food yourself. It may look like a completely different game, but from my perspective&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;really just&nbsp;a matter of replacing the ocean with land and the dining floor with the kitchen.&nbsp;That\u2019s&nbsp;the kind of difference we were aiming for between the games.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014I&#8217;m&nbsp;not&nbsp;very good&nbsp;at cooking myself, but I love cooking games, so&nbsp;I&#8217;m&nbsp;really&nbsp;looking forward to it.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Me too.&nbsp;Cooking games are incredibly fun, but they&#8217;re often fairly casual experiences,&nbsp;Cooking Mama&nbsp;being a&nbsp;good example.&nbsp;I thought it might be interesting to take that concept further and build something with more of an RPG-&nbsp;or adventure-game-like&nbsp;structure around it.&nbsp;That&#8217;s&nbsp;the direction&nbsp;we&#8217;re&nbsp;going for.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-007-1080x608-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-68642\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-007-1080x608-1.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-007-1080x608-1-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dave-the-diver-20260619-450563-007-1080x608-1-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"in-the-jungle-was-envisioned-as-dave-the-diver-1-5-but-ended-up-being-version-1-7\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">In&nbsp;The Jungle&nbsp;was envisioned as Dave the Diver 1.5, but ended up being&nbsp;&#8220;version 1.7&#8221;&nbsp;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014Finally, do you have a message for players who finished the base game but are still undecided about whether to buy the&nbsp;In the&nbsp;Jungle DLC?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Personally, I&#8217;m actually not someone who buys&nbsp;DLC often.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014(laughs)<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Seriously. Once I finish a game, I usually&nbsp;feel like the experience&nbsp;is complete.&nbsp;If a DLC turns out to be disappointing, it can even damage&nbsp;my&nbsp;positive memories of the original game. If&nbsp;I&nbsp;think of a game as a film completed by its creators, then once&nbsp;I&#8217;ve&nbsp;seen the movie, I personally like to leave those memories&nbsp;exactly as they are.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s&nbsp;why&nbsp;we&nbsp;challenged ourselves to create something fundamentally different&nbsp;with this DLC, rather than a straightforward expansion of the base game.&nbsp;In that sense, we treated it&nbsp;almost like&nbsp;a new game. We designed it so that fans of the original could enjoy it as a separate experience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even players who&nbsp;didn&#8217;t&nbsp;play the&nbsp;base game may find this DLC easier to get into.&nbsp;I honestly&nbsp;think it&nbsp;feels quite different.&nbsp;We&#8217;ve&nbsp;taken the world, characters, unique fishing, and management systems of Dave the Diver and used them as the foundation for what feels like a new title.&nbsp;I&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;think&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;an exaggeration to view it as a new game from the Dave the Diver team, rather than just an expansion DLC.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014Does that mean I can put&nbsp;&#8220;almost a new game&#8221; in the headline?&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>You can, but&#8230;&nbsp;I&#8217;d&nbsp;appreciate it if you&nbsp;didn&#8217;t&nbsp;raise&nbsp;people\u2019s&nbsp;expectations&nbsp;<em>too<\/em>&nbsp;much&nbsp;<em>(laughs).<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014(laughs)&nbsp;Understood.&nbsp;Let&#8217;s&nbsp;say you approached it with the mindset of making a new game.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>That&#8217;s right. Originally, I thought of it as Dave the Diver 1.5, but now&nbsp;I&#8217;d&nbsp;say&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;more like version 1.7 or 1.8.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014Then&nbsp;I&#8217;ll&nbsp;put &#8220;<\/strong><strong><em>Dave the Diver<\/em><\/strong><strong>&nbsp;1.7&#8243; in the headline.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hwang:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>That&#8217;s fine&nbsp;by&nbsp;me. (laughs)&nbsp;But seriously,&nbsp;we&#8217;ve&nbsp;packed in&nbsp;so&nbsp;much content. If you rush through it, you can finish it in around seven hours, but a typical playthrough will take about ten hours.&nbsp;Some of our testers became so absorbed in it that they ended up spending more time with the DLC than they did with the base game.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s&nbsp;how much effort we put into it.&nbsp;I genuinely believe we&nbsp;delivered more than what the price point would normally demand. We did our best.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2014Thank you very much.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mintrock.et\/en\/game\/game.php#davejungle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dave the Diver\u2019s In the Jungle&nbsp;DLC<\/a>&nbsp;is out now for PC (Steam\/Epic Games Store), PS4\/PS5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right wp-block-paragraph\">[Interviewer, writer, editor: Misako Murayama]&nbsp;<br>[Interviewer, editor:&nbsp;Ayuo&nbsp;Kawase]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interview with Dave the Diver director Jaeho Hwang about the new DLC&#8217;s scale and improvements upon the base game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2","date":"2026-06-24T01:02:31+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3moypr3w2dk25","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3moypr3w2dk25\",\"cid\":\"bafyreidhvscwq4ord5nqjh3vwoadk7ap7vtig52zretycfzwlzwlgjic4e\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreiaxuk4zhclqlvpby2vtiz2yzpqylv5uard5drfw6evnb6frsx2psi\",\"rev\":\"3moypr3wc5k25\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - 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