Dave the Diver has been at the center of a debate about what counts as an indie game ever since its nomination for Best Indie Game at The Game Awards 2023. The game’s director, Jaeho Hwang, recently spoke out to explain that the title isn’t indie and that the nomination was not something they pursued.
Despite its pixel-art style and smaller team feel, Dave the Diver is developed by Mintrocket, a small team within Nexon, the South Korean giant known for large-scale live service games and massive revenues, $1.8 billion in 2021 alone. This corporate backing led many to question the game’s indie status, since “indie” often implies smaller budgets and independence from big publishers.
Hwang shared in an interview with 4Gamer.net that MintoRocket was established to focus on lower-risk, smaller projects compared to Nexon’s larger teams. He said, “We never intended to give [Dave the Diver] an indie game feel. To begin with, we’re making a game at Nexon, so there’s nothing indie about it.” He suspects that the game’s distinct art style and systems led people to assume it was indie. “For some reason it was also nominated for an indie game award, and people were asking ‘even though it’s a Nexon game?’ But we didn’t apply for it.”
At the time, Geoff Keighley, host and producer of The Game Awards, explained that the final nominees are chosen by a jury of 120 global media outlets, each with their take on what “indie” means. He pointed out that the term can encompass different aspects, such as budget, team size, and independent spirit, and that even games from studios like Larian or Kojima Productions have been debated as indie, despite backing from larger companies.
Keighley also noted that some other nominated indie games had publishers, questioning where the line truly lies. Ultimately, Dave the Diver did not win the award, which went to Sea of Stars from Sabotage Studio, a Quebec-based indie developer.
