DEV DIARY #1 – Why We Made DIVE OR DIE 🤿

WHY WE MADE DIVE OR DIE

A manifesto from the three of us at Drop Rate Studio

There are games that entertain you. Then there are games that leave a mark.

For us, that game was Subnautica. Not because it was hard or complex, but because it made the deep feel "real". The moment the seafloor disappears beneath you. The silence, that isn't quiet silence. The shape of something enormous drifting just past the edge of your light.

We’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.

We are three Lovecraft -obsessed developers who share a love of things that should not be named and depths that cannot be fathomed. We couldn’t build an infinite ocean. 🌊 So, we built something stranger.

OUR SCALE, OUR VISION

Dive or Die is our answer to that feeling: The bizarre, the unknown, the creeping helplessness of diving into something that has no interest in being understood.

Think of it as a dark, twisted cousin of Dave the Diver: a 2D descent into dread where every dive is a gamble. 💀🎲

Instead of serving quality sushi, our game has you make Choices and Sacrifices. You never know what lies below, what rules will apply in a few seconds, minutes, days. Every encounter is a negotiation with something that doesn't share your concept of mercy.

But survival here isn’t only about what you find below the surface.

Above water, choices are rarely simple either. Your camp is fragile. In a flooded world, you take those who remain. Each of them carries scars. Health is frail, sanity is volatile, and keeping the camp alive sometimes comes at human cost. ⚰️⚰️⚰️

Not all sacrifices are voluntary. You'll learn to grieve efficiently.

It’s not comfortable. It isn’t meant to be.

We want it to feel like standing at the edge of a dark pier at 3am, knowing something is looking back up at you. 👁️👄👁️

We hope you jump in.

— Théo, Achille & Julien

Nobody wishes for a nightmare. Do it anyway. Wishlist it today.

DIVE or DIE Children of Rain