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Feb 01, 2024

Dave the Diver: Tea

It’s not often that a rich acquaintance calls you while you’re lazing at the beach. After a conversation, you catch the next flight and find yourself in a boat dressed in diving gear. Published: 31st

It’s not often that a rich acquaintance calls you while you’re lazing at the beach. After a conversation, you catch the next flight and find yourself in a boat dressed in diving gear.

Published: 31st July 2023 08:35 AM | Last Updated: 31st July 2023 08:35 AM | A+A A-

Image used for representational purposes only

BENGALURU: It’s not often that a rich acquaintance calls you while you’re lazing at the beach. After a conversation, you catch the next flight and find yourself in a boat dressed in diving gear.

This is the start of Dave the Diver. In my experience, I have often been engaged in different occupations within these games — assassin, medieval alchemist, adventurous fox, and even a ferryman of the dead. Compared to these careers, my work as a diver seems rather bland. But I am not complaining. Because playing Dave the Diver after playing a barbarian in Diablo IV, is like sipping tea after a long day.

The game is described as an ‘adventure RPG’. But I disagree. In essence, Dave the Diver is a 2D pixel management simulator, with elements of an adventure game. 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 he does.

In the mornings, he dives into the ocean floor, and in the evenings, he moonlights as the waiter of the sushi bar. For the dive missions, Dave usually gets requests to fetch items that are lost in the ocean. Apart from this, he must also catch fish, which Bancho will later use to cook dinner for customers. While Bancho is initially 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 you have about a day to catch the right amount of the correct type of fish and other lost items while keeping in mind a list of other constraints. Such as – 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.

The mild ordeal of the mornings is 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 waits 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? It’s alright, you can sell some underwater treasures tomorrow and make up for it! I greatly enjoy the growth of the Sushi Bar as the day's progresses. Hiring new employees, and creating new recipes aside, Dave also needs to keep an eye on the social media responses for the bar — optimising the dishes and serving for maximum satisfaction.

While these two main occupations in the game remain unchanged, the game has a way of staying fresh as the days march on. 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 on 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.