Following the recent launch of the Dave the Diver In The Jungle expansion, we had a chance to chat with Head of Mintrocket and Dave the Diver Director Jaeho Hwang about the state of the game, why they did an expansion, whether the Guilty Gear Strive DLC will be made available to other platforms, the 50hz Unity engine issue, potentially adding cross save, coffee, and more.
Nintendo Insider: Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at Mintrocket. Also what were your inspirations when you began working on Dave the Diver?
Jaeho Hwang: I’m Jaeho Hwang, Head of Mintrocket and Director of Dave the Diver and our other new titles.
The first idea for Dave the Diver came to me at Jeju Island in Korea. I loved how the ocean always felt different every time you went in, even in the exact same spot, and I wanted to build an exploration game around that feeling.
But simply exploring the ocean did not produce fresh fun on its own. After a lot of back and forth, I came across a beachside pub in Jeju that turned the day’s catch into sushi and ran its business that way, and I decided to bring the idea into the game.
As you know, it became a really strong structure to build the game on.
Nintendo Insider: After doing multiple free and paid DLC packs, what made you want to do a full expansion?
Jaeho Hwang: It was actually the opposite. Originally we wanted to make a DLC where Dave and his friends take a journey to a new place, based on a region with freshwater fish.
But more players loved our game than we had expected, and our opportunities to collaborate with other IPs grew significantly. We felt that if we were going to do collaborations, we should do them while the hype was there, so working on those collab DLCs pushed the full expansion to a later date.
We released most of the earlier collab DLCs as free DLC, as they were intended to give players a different kind of experience within Dave the Diver.
Nintendo Insider: When I first played Dave the Diver on Steam Deck, I thought the base game already was incredible. I didn’t really think we needed more, but every DLC and update keeps improving it. Are you happy with the state of the game?
Jaeho Hwang: I’m truly grateful if you saw it that way. I still feel there is a lot we fall short on. I’d like to tell a bit more of the Blue Hole story, and share more of what happens after the trip to the jungle.
But separate from my own wishes, as a development team we are at a point where we need to move forward. So from here we’ll continue to showcase not only Dave but our other games as well.
Nintendo Insider: How was it working with Nintendo and doing the ports for Switch 1 and 2?
Jaeho Hwang: Releasing the latest DLC on Switch 1 was quite challenging. Because we developed the game for current-gen hardware, the Switch 1 version required a great deal of optimization. I am very sorry that even at this point the Switch 1 version is not as stable as it should be.
Internally, though, a significant part of the problem has been resolved and an update is underway. From late July you’ll be able to play in a much more stable state.
Nintendo Insider: While I love the game, one small technical issue has been annoying me on every platform. The Unity 50hz issue is covered by Digital Foundry here. This is also present underwater in Dave the Diver. Are there plans to fix it?
Jaeho Hwang: First, thank you for looking so closely at even the small details. We are aware of the behavior you described. It comes from a physics update setting that has been in place since the early development stage. It does not appear differently on a particular platform, as every platform shares the same build base.
Fixing it could affect a number of behaviors across the game, so it would need to be carefully reviewed. Including this, we will continue checking the technical side to give the smoothest experience to our players.
Nintendo Insider: Are there any plans to sell the Guilty Gear Strive DLC on the eShop or other platforms?
Jaeho Hwang: We do have plans for it. We just have not decided on the right timing yet. We’ll share more soon, so as many people as possible can enjoy it.
Nintendo Insider: I recently bought the game on Xbox and started replaying it. It made me think how much I would’ve loved cross save between Switch 2, PS5, Xbox, and Steam. Are there any plans to add that?
Jaeho Hwang: As a player myself, I know well how appealing and convenient cross-save games can be. That said, cross-save requires systems like account linking across platforms and exchanging save data, which would also need to go through each platform’s review. Because this is something we have never experienced, we cannot start on it right away.
However, we hear our players fully and share the sentiment, so if the situation allows we’ll share the update right away.
Nintendo Insider: Final question. How do you like your coffee? Go into as much detail as possible.
Jaeho Hwang: Haha, that is an incredibly tough question. We have a coffee machine at the office that uses Starbucks beans, and I only ever get my coffee from that one.
Some of my colleagues are really into coffee, so they change the beans regularly, but I can barely tell the difference. You could probably put Milo in there and I would not notice.
