How Dave The Diver’s New DLC Uses A Dash Of Animal Crossing To Shake Things Up

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Dave the Diver, a game that started small, has become surprisingly popular. Originally a mix of underwater exploration and restaurant management, it’s already featured collaborations with other games like Dredge and characters from Godzilla and the Like A Dragon series. Now, the game is getting a major expansion called ‘In The Jungle’ in early 2026. This new content will take Dave and his team to a freshwater environment where they’ll catch new creatures to serve as dishes. Mintrocket CEO and game director Jaeho Hwang recently spoke with TopMob about the expansion, how they’ve handled the game’s success, and the detailed research they do to create a food-focused game.

TopMob asked about the origins of the “In the Jungle” idea. They wanted to know what the development team hoped to accomplish by adding this new environment to the game.

In Dave the Diver, we successfully captured the wonder of the ocean, so for our next game, we decided to create a totally different setting.

We were really excited to finally add the jungle biome to Dave the Diver! From the beginning, we wanted to include exciting freshwater creatures like alligators and piranhas, and players have been requesting them for a long time. You might recognize huge, powerful fish like catfish and tigerfish from nature documentaries – we thought it would be a blast for Dave to catch and fight them.

I’m so excited that they’re not just focusing on the lake! They’re planning to fill the game with all sorts of jungle creatures and bugs too. I can already picture Dave running around trying to catch butterflies, or maybe even getting ambushed by mischievous monkeys – it’s going to be hilarious!

Did you learn any lessons from the main campaign and previous DLCs that you’ve applied to this one?

We didn’t want this DLC to just add more of the same content like many expansions do. Instead, we set out to create a truly unique experience. While it still has the fun management and exploration aspects of the main game, we’re focusing on delivering enjoyment through completely new gameplay systems. We’ll continue to expand the original game with future DLC and updates, but ‘In the Jungle’ is all about trying something different and introducing experimental features. We’re essentially offering two distinct types of content.

I’m really excited about this new DLC! One of the coolest things is that time actually passes in the village – it feels so much more alive! They’ve added gathering and crafting too, which is awesome. It’s different from the main game because you can’t just wait for the story to happen. I have to go out and talk to people to get things moving, which I think is a lot more engaging. Don’t worry though, there are still those surprise visitors that pop up – that’s always fun!

It’s just as hard to revamp an existing game while keeping it fun as it is to build a new one from scratch. Development has been tough, but we’re constantly working to improve things and are confident players will enjoy the DLC when it releases.

Developing new underwater environments in games and crafting realistic sushi recipes actually involves quite a bit of research! It’s not just visiting aquariums and sushi restaurants, though those can certainly be helpful starting points.

Hwang announced a surprising change for this event: instead of the usual sushi, the main courses will feature grilled freshwater fish, fitting the theme.

Removing such a popular feature might seem risky, which is why we’re offering it as downloadable content instead of making a whole new game. A sequel would require us to keep and improve everything people loved about the first game, and this approach lets us explore changes differently.

Whenever I create a new world or environment, I like to get a feel for it myself whenever I can. For the jungle area, I was heavily inspired by a trip to Indonesia, though I wasn’t able to go swimming in a lake while I was there.

While most of the food in Dave the Diver is made up, the team is full of scuba diving enthusiasts who frequently share their culinary experiences from around the world – and we’ve included those inspirations in the game. We also spent time together at aquariums, studying real fish to make them more authentic.

When creating the In the Jungle DLC, we used fish from our office aquarium as references, specifically discus and snakeheads.

The new lake environment likely changes the kinds of fish we’ll find. Will this also affect other parts of the underwater areas?

Hwang noted that the trailer revealed a major change: the addition of creatures like alligators and catfish.

The lake also offers different resources to collect underwater compared to the ocean. You won’t find things like coral or starfish here.

This downloadable content makes finding underwater weapons less about luck and more about improving your gear back at the village. We’ve also added new weapons specifically designed for this area.

In the downloadable content, the lake begins in a polluted state as a result of a past event, which sets off a series of consequences. Players can then cleanse the lake by completing a specific process.

I can’t share many details right now, but we’ve discovered some interesting artifacts related to ancient civilizations at the bottom of the lake.

How do you approach paid vs free DLC updates?

I’m absolutely blown away by how popular Dave the Diver has become! The developers, Hwang and the team, have been amazing – they’ve really focused on giving us players tons of free content. Seriously, everything so far, including the awesome Like a Dragon crossover and even plans for the Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade, has been totally free! They say the support from the community has been incredible, and they honestly haven’t felt like giving so much away has hurt them at all. It’s just fantastic to see a studio so appreciative of its fans!

The In the Jungle DLC will offer around 10 hours of gameplay and represents a substantial development effort. Because of this, it will be a paid add-on. We understand some players felt the Like a Dragon DLC was expensive for its size, so we’re dedicated to pricing this new content fairly and ensuring it delivers the high quality our players expect.

Wow, the game really blew up, which is amazing! I’m curious, did that success change how you approached DLC? Were you always planning on adding so much content after launch, or did the game’s popularity lead you to expand those plans? I’m a huge fan and I’m loving all the extra stuff, so I’m just really interested in how the whole process evolved!

As a director, I’ve always hoped that if our game did well, we could build on its world by partnering with other games. Luckily, the success of Dave the Diver allowed us to collaborate with some fantastic franchises – and even include characters I personally love, like Godzilla and Ichiban Kasuga, in our game.

We always wanted to add a jungle-themed expansion to the game, but honestly, we needed to see if people were actually enjoying it first. I’m so glad they are! I just want to say thanks to all of you players – your support lets us keep building and adding new stuff. It means the world to us.

I still have some exciting ideas for crossovers and new content, even after releasing the ‘In the Jungle’ DLC. I can’t share details right now, but I’m hoping for another opportunity to present them through TopMob in the future.

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2025-12-05 21:13