‘Dave the Diver’ studio’s zombie game begins testing next week

While Dave The Diver only released this year, the development studio’s next game is already about to hit a pre-alpha testing stage.

Developer Mintrocket is launching a pre-alpha next week, November 28, and is currently planning on releasing the game at some point in 2024. Nakwon: Last Paradise, the next game from the studio, is a sharp departure from Dave The Diver, as the game is a PvPvE (Player vs Player vs Everyone) zombie survival game.

The game’s Steam page offers more details, stating that it is a “realistic zombie survival set in the backdrop of Korea” and that the player’s job is to “infiltrate a city full of zombies (AI) and other survivors (players).”

The players will live inside a “safety zone”, and are given a “citizen grade” which helps give them access to certain areas and privileges. On every level of the grading system, you’ll be required to “make money for rent and better equipment”, with higher grades giving you access to more and more things.

As for the studio’s last game, Dave The Diver is one of the highest-reviewing games of the year, currently sitting at a 90 on both Metacritic and Opencritic. It was even nominated for The Game Awards 2023 as part of the “Best Indie Game” category, with the title also put forward for three different awards at the Golden Joystick Awards.

The nomination for “Best Indie Game” proved controversial, however, as people noted that Dave The Diver isn’t considered an indie game by publisher Nexon. In an interview published in late 2022, Kim Dae-Whon (the vice president of Nexon) said that while Dave The Diver may “look like an indie” it’s “not necessarily so.”

In other gaming news, Plague Tale developer Asobo Studios is working on a “major new project” with publisher Focus Entertainment.