What is Violet?
Violet will be a 2D semi open-world, action-adventure game heavily inspired by The Legend of Zelda series. Our goal is to create a game that graphically feels like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but plays similarly to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. We are also very intrigued with games like Rocket League, where the game is easy to pick up, but hard to master. Violet will not be “Dark Souls” hard, but challenging and rewarding.
We wanted to go down the road where the main enemy type was the name of the game — similar to how Metroids are for the Metroid series. Even though Metroids are not the main antagonists (or even in a couple of games) of the game, they play a significant part of every story for the series. We also wanted to capture that essence in the story. I (Dan) tried thinking of some creative name for the enemy. I don’t remember how or why I landed on the name “Violet”, but it has stuck since.
We don’t want to spoil too many ideas for the Violets, but their behavior is similar to the splitting and combining of the game agar.io. See more details at our post.
The Team
Dan Jewett – Lead Developer
B.S. Computer Science
Cedarville University ’11
As a child, I have always wanted to create videogames. I would create these things I called “maps” which were essentially 2D Mario platform levels I’d make on paper (how different things would have been if Super Mario Maker came out in the 90s!). Eventually making “maps” weren’t enough, and I eventually started making “mazes”, which were Zelda dungeon like puzzles I’d have friends beat. From there I found an engine called “Game Maker 5.0”, which would turn my “mazes” into fully realized games.
Eventually life happened and “adulting” took over, but my childhood dream never died. Some unfortunate circumstances happened in my life, but it did leave me with a lot more free time. I decided to spend that free time not vegetating and consuming content, but creating the game I’ve always dreamt of. It has taken a lot of hours, planning and sacrificing to get to where we are today. And I certainly couldn’t do it without the awesome team I have!
Kennedy Jewett – Writer
B.A. Cedarville University ’20
M.A. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
My name is Kennedy Jewett, and I graduated from Cedarville University back in 2020 (what a year), and then went on to get my Master’s. I’m relatively new to the world of videogames, but I have always been an admirer of storytellers like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and want to write a book in the near future.
Corrine Schwallie – Concept Artist
B.S. Illustration
Indiana Weslyan University
My name is Corinne Schwallie, and I graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University with a Bachelor’s in Illustration. I’ve been having a lot of fun with this project. The opportunity to combine two of my favorite things – art and gaming – was just too good to pass up!
Tyler Shipley – Composer
B.A. Creative Writing
University of Toledo
My name is Tyler Shipley, and I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Toledo. Music is a passion of mine, and I have been composing my own songs for several years. I’m excited to have the opportunity to work on the game by writing new music.
Tony Wojnar – Pixel Artist
B.S. Computer Game Development
DePaul University
My name is Anthony (Tony) Wojnar. I graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Game Development, released my own mobile game ‘Dribble‘ on the side, and have practiced pixel art for a little over a decade. Happy to be on the team!