Mintrocket\u2019s 2023 hit Dave the Diver<\/em> <\/em>is a chaotic mix of genres, fusing management and fishing sims with a host of mini games and absolutely absurd plot. The silliness and surprises not only produce a highly engaging game but make it very easy for Mintrocket CEO and game director Jaeho Hwang to keep adding content to it. Since launch, he\u2019s been regularly reaching out to his favorite creators to find ways to bring new characters and challenges into Dave\u2019s strange world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe try to be a version of Fortnite<\/em>,\u201d Hwang told Polygon in a video call. \u201cOur game is set in the ocean, an open space that anyone can visit, so anything can happen, and we have a restaurant that anyone can walk into so it doesn\u2019t feel really strange at all if someone suddenly shows up.\u201d<\/p>\n Hwang traveled to Japan to broker deals to bring two of his favorite properties \u2014 Godzilla and Yakuza \u2014 into the game. The first add-on for Dave the Diver <\/em>involved Godzilla retreating to recover in the Blue Hole, the place where Dave catches fish, battles giant monsters, and fraternizes with merfolk. In another content pack, Yakuza\u2019s Ichiban Kasuga arrives at Bancho Sushi and teams up with Dave to fight the shady environmentalist organization Sea Blue.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to bringing outside characters into our world, I don\u2019t want to just make them a cameo appearance, but I want to give them some role in the game,\u201d Hwang said. \u201cI said I want to be like Fortnite<\/em>, but we try to care more about the storyline, so it\u2019s kind of hard for us to bring in characters from different settings like medieval or sci-fi. There are some IPs that I really want to work with, so maybe we should add a time portal to bring them in.\u201d<\/p>\n Hwang\u2019s favorite crossover so far was with another 2023 breakout game, Black Salt Games\u2019 Lovecraftian horror fishing game Dredge<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI had so much fun playing it myself, and I really wanted to find a way to work together, and there were a lot of requests from our players to do a crossover. I actually reached out to them directly by email at first, but I didn\u2019t hear back at all, so I ended up going to their Discord and posting in the community channel myself,\u201d Hwang said. \u201cLater we heard the Dredge <\/em>staff thought our email was fake.\u201d<\/p>\n Dave and his pals have also popped up in plenty of other games including Balatro<\/em>, Human Fall Flat<\/em> <\/em>and Real VR Fishing<\/em>, and he\u2019ll be coming to Fortnite<\/em> soon. Hwang credits the popularity of his characters to how relatable they are, and he loves hearing about people\u2019s favorites when they reach out about collaborations. Beyond Dave, developers and fans often want to see more of the sushi chef Bancho, the sketchy restaurant investor and vendor Cobra, and the restaurant\u2019s resident cat Momo.<\/p>\n \u201cMy general approach is to have Dave appear in as many places as possible, in all kinds of forms so I\u2019m pretty open to other teams changing Dave\u2019s look to fit the art style and atmosphere of other games,\u201d Hwang said. \u201cDave is very cute. We love our characters. We actually make T-shirts and merch ourselves for those characters.\u201d<\/p>\n The crossover fervor will continue when the Dave the Diver: In the Jungle<\/em> <\/em>DLC launches on June 18. The content pack \u2014 which the developers estimate includes around 10 hours of content \u2014 will take Dave and friends beyond the ocean to a series of jungle villages, many of which will include references to other games.<\/p>\n \u201cThose characters will show up as part of a quest, visiting this village,\u201d Hwang said. \u201cWe are pretending these IPs are real so jungle villages talk about a certain game saying I love this game <\/em>or I played this game <\/em>and then they use some content or items from those games.\u201d<\/p>\n While Hwang is excited to expand the world of Dave the Diver <\/em>with In the Jungle<\/em>, you can expect more collaborations down the line.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are working with the IPs that we respect and love,\u201d Hwang said. \u201cSince launch, we wanted to do a big DLC with a story about our characters, not other characters, but the crossover DLC was too fun, so we kept doing them. All last year we put enormous effort into the In the Jungle <\/em>DLC and we\u2019re almost there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Cobra](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/like-a-dragon-3.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Mintrocket<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/godzilla-1.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Mintrocket<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/dredge-2.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Mintrocket<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n