June 17, 2024
Summer is slowly coming to an end, and you’re already starting to think about fall. There might not be anything better than spending a cold fall night in the warmth of your home, playing your favorite cozy games. But summer is still not over, and there’s still plenty you can do outside during the hottest months of the year. However, if you prefer to spend your summers hiding from the heat and the bustle, but you still enjoy the summer vibes, here are a few sea-themed games that can refresh you from the comfort of your home.
Dave the Diver
Dave the Diver is a charming single-player adventure RPG that combines action adventure with elements of a manager sim style game. This game was developed and published 2023 by an indie studio named Mintrocket. Since then, Dave the Diver has gained a lot of popularity. In 2024, it won a BAFTA Games award for best game design. It was nominated in eight other categories as well. What makes Dave the Diver such a fantastic game is its unique gameplay and atmosphere. You play as Dave the Diver whose job during the day is to explore the sea. While doing so, you have to collect various sealife and materials. During the night, Dave helps run a sushi restaurant where the various materials collected during the day can be used. This way, players earn gold, which they can use to upgrade Dave’s equipment, which lets him dive deeper. However, while diving, Dave discovers a mystery that needs to be unveiled. In addition to its amazing pixel graphics, Dave the Diver is a beautifully crafted game that offers many hours of thrilling underwater exploration.
Submerged: Hidden Depths
Submerged: Hidden Depths is a relaxing exploration-based post-apocalyptic game set in the ruins of a sunken city. It’s part of the ecogames genre, which covers themes such as the effects of climate change. The game was developed and published in 2020 by an indie studio named Uppercut Games. The first installment of the series, called Submerged, was released in 2015 and is similar in many ways to this sequel. Players control Miku, a girl cursed with a mysterious power, and her brother Taku. The game features no combat and no enemies. The main characters can’t die. This lets players focus exclusively on exploration. The game features relaxing puzzles and many collectibles. Another exciting element to this game is the animal database. While you’re exploring, every animal you encounter gets added to your database. You can find some genuinely unexpected things hidden throughout the game. All in all, Submerged: Hidden Depth is a truly relaxing experience with nice platforming and beautiful visual design.
DREDGE
With DREDGE we are slowly moving away from cozy underwater games to more unsettling ones. DREDGE is a single-player fishing adventure game. It was developed in 2023 by an indie studio named Black Salt Games and published in the same year by Team17. In DREDGE, players control a small fishing boat. During the day, players can safely fish and salvage items at certain spots. After successfully reeling out some fish, players can sell their catch to merchants. This way the boat and the equipment can be upgraded. However, during the night, the atmosphere of the game changes quickly. During the night, a panic meter appears. If the panic meter goes too high, the character begins to hallucinate. This can cause hazards to appear, which can damage the player’s boat. In addition to that, the waters around the archipelago are swarming with Lovecraftian monsters. DREDGE is an amazing game that slowly makes you feel more and more uneasy.
Subnautica
Subnautica is one of the games most people cite as their first encounter with thalassophobia. However, this amazing game is worth the scare. Subnautica is an open-world action-adventure survival game set almost completely underwater. It was developed and published in 2018 by Unknown Worlds Entertainment. Since then, it has been widely regarded as one of the best underwater exploration games. This is due to many factors. One of them is incredible game design. This includes truly frightening creature design, as well as mesmerizing biomes and structures. The game features truly amazing ambient music and a gripping story.
Players play as Riley Robinson, the sole survivor of a crashed spaceship called The Aurora. Riley wakes up in the middle of an alien planet with nothing but a raft. Players need to gather resources and build equipment in order to get off the planet. However, while doing so, they need to venture deeper and deeper into the sea. Subnautica is a truly frightening game. However, the alien flora and fauna make this game equally terrifying and beautiful. Without spoiling too much, Subnautica is truly something you need to experience for yourself. But be sure that you won’t be going for a night swim for a long time after it.
In conclusion, sea-themed games are proving to be quite popular. The theme of the sea works really well in a relaxing setting, which is proven by Submerged or Dave the Diver. However, only 26% of our seafloor here on earth has been explored so far. Therefore it comes as no surprise that many developers were inspired by the sea while making some truly scary games. No matter the genre, if you’re someone who enjoys the sea, at least one of these games is sure to be a great pick for you.