Rejuv V14 Update Dev blog | 1/16/2025

Seems like my last post was done sometime in... July? What? Time goes by SO quickly.

Anyway, I just wanted to crawl out my grave and actually show that yes, I'm doing science and I'm still alive.

Before I continue, I did upload a bit of a preview back in November!

You can view that here if you missed it:

So, besides that, what's going on in the rejuv world? It's been a year! You said this time it wouldn't take as long!

Well, I was wrong as usual. Life comes at you fast. To the people who thought the game would drop the february after v13.5 dropped... Uh, no.
This game takes time and I will take my time. I still plan on being 60 and playing Pokemon and that's just a fact we're all going to have to live with.

That being said, update! Where am I now? Well, Paragon is in its final stages! (Besides one big thing but that's something i need to work on over time, even during Renegade's development.)
I'm in the final new area and I'm working on finishin up the story. One event takes me a day. Maybe more sometimes.

I wanted Paragon to be done by the New Year, but I always forget that December is my suffering month (aka holidays), so that never gets done. And then I remember January is my annual I'm so fucking burned

out from life month. So progress has been a bit slow now, too. But then February rolls around and I'm like hold on I'm a beast?
Also, I know I'm going to be asked this.

Q: "Will you release Paragon once it's finished, or will you release that when Renegade is finished?"

A: I will not release Paragon once it's finished. Paragon and Renegade are meant to coexist together. Even if it means I hold onto a finished Paragon for a year, it is what I've decided. ty.
 

And yes, I did say Renegade probably won't take as long, and that's PROBABLY still true but please don't hold that as a promise. Nothing is a promise.
Except for the things I'm going to promise right now.

Gearen Laboratory

I didn't expect the lab changing to look more sleek was going to be such a contentious topic. Though, I am willing to give some context on the decision. Whether or not you like it is up to you.
(Spoilers for v13 story. I can never remember the chapter number/plot correlation.)

During the expo drop, it was revealed that Celine went to Reborn City to learn more about their league process and how it was done. Inspired by the way the league is run in that region, she chose to emulate

that process and as such, the Gearen Lab (The PUBLIC league HQ) was meant to look more like the Grand Hall. But that in of itself isn't the main issue. People found problems with the way you get your starter.

Calling it boring and less exciting than previous versions. I do agree. However, the intent was to streamline the first few moments so that you get your starter as fast as possible. And as of this moment, I'm still quite happy

with that.

There was another reason for this change, though. Gen 9 was coming out and I knew I wanted to include it.  Which means more events taking up space in the mini biomes. tl:dr i was running out of space and expanding
the biomes took a lot more technical work than expected and thus just defaulted to tables i could just perma extend.

Regardless, I understand that the more personal way of obtaining your starter is important to some people. Especially those who like to create OC's. I hear you, and I understand you.
Which is why I plan on creating two versions of this experience!

Express Version:

Is exactly how it is now in game. You go up to the table and adopt your gerbil.

Standard Version:

Amanda will take you downstairs into an enlarged biome where you can walk around and find your starter and pick it. Older rejuv versions did have this. But it was removed due to the maps being ugly lol.

Now, this is not promised for v14. I would much rather work on new content than spend energy working on this rn. However! I am promising that this will come eventually. It may even come in v14 if I finish things up early! Or who knows, I may gain inspiration randomly during a testing period or whatever and knock it out in a day. These things happen. I have ADHD. It is what it is.

Prologue Intro:

Everyone knows the intro with lil Maria walking around her house and then somehow finds herself in some horror game!

Well, the quality of the intro has been bugging me for several years now. When I take a break from a release, I usually do something fun to unwind and shake off the rust.
This cycle, I finally went back and used my current skills to update the intro. Yes, with the Pangoro story still present, if not a bit changed.

Old intro:

New Intro:

(These gifs/images are a quite a bit old as I've shown these off on my patreon like a year ago, but theyre still like 99% relevant minus some polish and detail.)
There's also a few new secrets to be found in the intro, so you definitely want to keep an eye out for those :).

And also no it is not necessary to play the entire damn game again just for the intro. It's neat! but not necessary.

Uhhh, what else do I got to say?

I guess I can dump some stuff I posted on my discord? There's not much this time around. but ye.

Yeah, that was kind of a bad showcase, rip.
Everything is very hush-hush. under wraps. CIA. FBI. Uhhh idk 9/11... never forgetti spaghetti whatever. idc.

I do care, but also I'll leave you with one thing. A word to have you prepare a lil better. But.

[Image ID: Image of a mysterious room with a Zygarde statue at the very back of it."]

You better start collecting those cells.