by itten games

Editor's note: Here's a design and development history of itten's SPIEL Essen 25 release, told in the form of a Q&A session. —WEM

Diver Go! is a new set-collection game designed by Mashiu and published by itten from Japan. It's a game in which players collect sought-after coins from the "ocean" game box, while being unable to see what they're grabbing. Among the coins are cursed ones — and if you take too many, you bust. The game mixes the fun, party-like action of blind picking with a strategic element of estimating the probability of cursed coins.


Shimamoto (itten's Director): 
Mashiu, could you tell us about the original idea behind the game?

Mashiu:
 I've always wanted to design games that work well with a minimal number of components and to look for gameplay inspirations in everyday life.
 The inspiration for this game came from "Cash Grabbing Contest", a Japanese shopping street festival event in which a box is filled with crumpled bills, and participants reach in and grab as many notes as possible. This activity is a little wild and exciting and naturally draws in spectators. 
That thrilling action of grabbing money that you can collect really excites people, and I thought it would be fun to capture that energy in a game.


Then the idea of combining money-grabbing with a "bust" element came to me.
 I also thought that a large pile of bills stacked on a table would be an interesting idea.


Shimamoto:
 Initially, you sent me the plan and the rulebook by email, isn't that right?

Mashiu: 
That's right. I proposed it as a compact light game that would fit within the Funbrick Series, but during our first in-person meeting to talk about it, the bills had already turned into coins, and the background setting had shifted to picking them up from the ocean floor — what a surprise!


How did itten's team come up with the idea of changing the paper bills to coins?

Shimamoto: 
Well, after receiving the rules I made a quick mock-up and tested it and immediately thought, "This might work."


However, since the game requires the bills to be crumpled up, we discussed how this could be presented to players.
 If players were asked to crumple up the nice paper bills, it might make storing everything neatly in the box afterwards difficult. 
That's when we thought: Why not make the components coins instead? So we created a new mock-up and started testing it.

Actually, this was the second game submission we received from you. For the previous one, we carefully considered it, but ultimately, we weren't able to pick it up, so this time we wanted to make sure everything was okay before giving the go-ahead.

Mashiu:
 I'm glad to hear that. I was happy to collaborate on the rules development together. The action of "quickly grabbing a diver card" — which determines the turn order, as well as the number of coins a player can take — didn't exist in my original version. 
I think that adding this element works well and gives the game more depth and strategic tension.
 While the "cash-grabbing" wildness was toned down by limiting the number of coins you could take per turn, the dilemma was presented more clearly.



We also put a lot of thought into balancing the reward cards. 
We debated whether to differentiate the coin value between gold, silver, and bronze coins, but in the end, we made them equal to stay true to the game's core goal.
 The key design challenge was simplifying elements that had the potential to be complex, while maintaining the depth.


The component quality turned out beautifully, just what you would expect from itten. Were there any particular difficulties on your side?

Shimamoto: 
The coin manufacturing was one.
 We wanted coins to feature a paint mark to show that they were cursed, but when the first samples arrived, we realized you could feel the paint texture on the coins by touch. 
The factory worked hard to adjust this, and the final result turned out well in the end, but we were worried for a while. 
Also, the intricate design caused strong reflections from the surface plating, making it hard to tell heads from tails, so we also adjusted the coin artwork. 
Ultimately, the final result worked out well.

Do you have any final words you would like to share with everyone?


Mashiu:
 I think this game fits in the "family" or "gateway" game category, but it's also something core gamers can enjoy.
 The design includes variants like solo and easy modes, so players can enjoy it in many different ways. 
I hope lots of people will give it a try!

Shimamoto: 
Thank you for collaborating on this game with us.
We also put a lot of effort into the game's world-building. 
The coins, the sunken ship, the octopus — all of them are connected in a side story we created. 
For now, we are planning on giving out this story sheet as an item bonus at events like SPIEL Essen 25. 
By reading the story, players can see how the designs and symbols hidden in the graphics and coins tie together, creating a kind of puzzle-like experience we hope people will enjoy!