Dave the Diver is a game we didn’t see coming. On the surface it’s a cute indie management game about going fishing and running a restaurant, but underneath all of that lies a compelling narrative, varied and delightful gameplay, and one of the best games of 2023. And now it’s even better, thanks to a major new quality-of-life update.
The update adds functionality for automated quick time events, an under-acknowledged accessibility issue in gaming for people with RSI or other disabilities, so players will have the option to just push a button and be done with it.
The overall UI size has been adjusted to make it more usable on both PCs and Steam Decks, an inventory sorting function has been added that enables players to easily ditch unnecessary items while diving, and menu navigation has been improved to make it easier to get around in vertical lists.
The update also makes optimizations that reduce the overall build and patch size, and improves performance “so that the game may run on devices with lower specs.” There’s a little bit of hedging there, but performance improvements of any type are always welcome.
Other improvements include:
- Improved the overall text quality of French / German / Spanish / Portuguese.
- Mouse cursor will no longer be displayed when playing with a controller.
- Steel Net can now be purchased in the Cobra Shop at all times when a (whoops, spoiler) is in progress.
- The overall sound quality has been improved.
- Korean & Japanese title screens have been localized.
The reaction to the patch is actually pretty remarkable. Typically, a developer releases an update, fans say thanks, and everyone goes on with their lives. Dave the Diver fans, though, are a little more enthusiastically appreciative. From the Steam comments:
- Oh my GOD! THANK YOU!
- siiiiiick Patch !!
- I love this game dude its so good
- Thank you devs! I can’t think of the last time i was this excited to play a game after an update.
- Amazing patch!!
- I’m so happy about this update. Tears in my eyes
- KEEP WORKING ON THIS MASTER PIECE, TE AMO DAVE.
- woah these qol changes are actually goated af
Alongside the QoL changes, this update also makes a number of balance tweaks and bug fixes—the full list is long and filled with spoilers, so head over to Steam if you want to dive into the whole thing. A hotfix to address a handful of issues that came up after the QoL update went live has also been released—you can read all about that here.
