10 Years

10 Years baby!! I did not expect this to be going on for 1 year let alone 10 LMAO. But something about this game keeps bringing me back. I mean, I wouldn't be making it if I wasn't having fun with it!

This won't be a progress report post as I've done nothing of note this week. I guess the vacation I expected to have last week came a little late. Well, that's fine. I can dedicate this post to Rejuv on a whole.

Rejuvenation's Beginnings:
How did Rejuv start? Well, it all started when I was like 17 in high school. Stuck in a boring anatomy class. I had just finished watching Shofu's playthrough of Reborn and decided to take a crack at the game myself. Loved it, obsessed over it, wanted to do it too! Rejuv actually isn't my first fan game. I did a lot of Rom hacking back in the day (That went nowhere because those programs used to edit roms sucked and you could break your entire game irreversibly if one thing went wrong. I am seriously not joking.)

I still have one of those projects but it literally has one map and a broken fight in it. Literally all. Anyway, aside from that, Rejuv time. I remember I was in that anatomy class just writing down ideas for a game I was making. I showed my friend at the time what I was doing. Fun fact, that friend I showed my ideas to was none other than LumioseTrainerZac, if you know that youtuber! He does anime reviews primarily on Pokemon.

ANYWAY X2. That night I decided to download the latest version of essentials and see what's up.
I had no idea what I was doing. The interface was so confusing. I had SOME mapping experience with the editors used for rom hacking, but those functioned differently, and roms have built in structure that made editing a Pokemon game in the style of Pokemon very easy. RPGMaker on the other hand is like... nah son, this is the wild wild west! You gotta figure out everything! You gotta figure out how fast events move! How long a "!" lasts in canon! You gotta make these guys move manually!! What a nightmare. Here's my first map ever:

This is Entry City. This is what East Gearen City was before it was Gearen. You can see some semblances of what Gearen City was. You have the mansion on the hill, the pier just south of it, and the professor's lab. To the north was a gate to Goldenwood Forest. No train required. No route 1 either. To the east, (no train required) was the gate to Route 2!

As you can see... This map is very bad, but I love it all the same.

Story's Beginning:
Soooo, how did I end up writing this convoluted story that gives everyone brain disease?
Well, it started out much simpler. I had taken the sprites for Curtis and Nancy from BW2 because I did not know how to sprite yet. I had no knowledge of spriting, or how to do so properly. The story followed the son/daughter of Nancy, the superstar from the Unova region! The plan was to make it to Entry City, meet up, and then travel together to Spotlight City... But as you're about to dock and meet her in Entry City, she's kidnapped by Definitely Not Curtis! Who, plot twist, was your secret father all along! ...That was it. That was all I thought of. Oh, and Melia was there and she just so happened to be a Meloetta turned human. Yeah that's all. Team Xen wanted to kidnap Melia and revert her back to that she could use her song to "soothe the savage beast"... Any of this sound familiar? If not, then that's okay!

Oh yeah! Ren was there too, but he had Brendan's sprite and was a major jerk. You can kinda tell by the first island's design that I was literally making bs up as I went. It wasn't really until V6 where I decided to get serious about things and actually think of what to do with this gosh darn game. Obviously, this is the spark-notes edition of all of this. There's still the topic of how Maria was created, Vitus, Indriad, etc etc... And the real answer to those questions is that I can't really remember. It has been 10 years, after all.

10 Years Later:
Well, it's been 10 years. A lot of painful years, and a lot of good ones too. Rejuv improved my skills in so many ways and I'm so happy where it is now. v14 is turning out to be my magnum opus, probably! I hate overhyping stuff, but I can't help be proud of what's been made so far. I'm really excited to finally release this dang thing. Yeah, maybe Rejuv is a victim of scope creep, and yeah maybe I go a little too far with plot elements, but where's the fun in being conventional?

Here's a map you'll encounter in v14 (Hint: it's not GDC)

I never really had the Opportunity to show this map before now, I think? If I did, oops. Just in case, have this.

And you know what? Happy 10th, have this too.

Eh, what the hell, have this too:

Next week I'll resume the progress reports as normal. We'll also finish off those new player char forms with Ana. Thank you guys for supporting me for 10 years. As much as it was fun, I hope it doesnt last another 10 LMAO. Let's finish it in 2-3. Yes? Yes. Okay. Thank you guys again :""")