A dystopian sci-fi MOBA was the last thing I expected from the studio behind Dave the Diver, but it's real and playable soon

Nothing about Wakerunners looks like it came from the same studio as Dave the Diver, but, then again, nothing about Nakwon: Last Paradise did either. Mintrocket has a third game on its way and it's a sci-fi MOBA where characters move around like they're permanently wearing skates.

In Wakerunners' dystopian sci-fi future, people broke off into factions and now fight each other on a dying Earth. While there are guns in the teaser trailer, most battles in Wakerunners will take place at close range. A "unique acceleration and deceleration mechanic" lets you slide around the arenas much faster than something like League of Legends and opens up opportunities for you to outplay the enemy team using one of its unique characters.

Next month, you'll be able to play a demo of Wakerunners during Steam Next Fest that includes seven playable characters and five game modes. Each mode determines if you'll be on a four- or five-person team and whether or not you'll be chasing kills or capturing an objective. Wakerunners director ChaeHyun Lim told PC Gamer in an email interview that "most" matches will last "about 10 minutes long," depending on the mode.

Lim says the game will "appeal to players who thrive on solo play in MOBAs," but will still have roles like other team-based games, like damage and support. In team deathmatch, for example, healers will be crucial for keeping everyone alive, but might be less necessary in the other modes.

"Wakerunners focuses more on the fun of individual control than team cooperation," Lim says, and thus you can actually swap characters at any time, but it'll cost you any skills you've charged up. The trailer teases attacks that send your character flying toward enemies and what looks like an automatic rocket launcher, so I imagine you'll need to carefully pick characters based on who you're up against.

Image 1 of 11

Wakerunners MOBA screenshots of gameplay and characters — (Image credit: Mintrocket)

The characters, who frankly look like they were ripped out of Valorant, will have cosmetics to earn and wear via a battle pass that Lim says will be explained before the beta test next month.

If you told me that there's a part where you drop into an arena and fight a bunch of stylish people wearing Heelys in Dave the Diver, I would've believed you. In fact, I'm not fully convinced Dave won't show up in Wakerunners. The fisherman recently found himself in the murky hell that Dredge takes place in, maybe he'll stumble into a time machine at some point and become a sci-fi jungler.

Tyler has covered videogames and PC hardware for 15 years. He regularly spends time playing and reporting on games like Diablo 4, Elden Ring, Overwatch 2, and Final Fantasy 14. While his specialty is in action RPGs and MMOs, he's driven to cover all sorts of games whether they're broken, beautiful, or bizarre.