Hello one and all!
Would you take a look at this hot diddly darn new spiffy lookin' dev blog we've got for Rejuvenation here! hellllll yeah. From now on, all the important news on the game's development will be posted here instead of in the V13 status thread we used previously. As some probably noticed, the V13 thread tended to get messy and would bury any significant updates in regards to the game as quickly as they got posted. So! After some consultation with Ame and Cass, we finally got our own Dev blog so these updates no longer will get buried and will remain easy to find!
However, at this point in time, there's no actual news we can share, so we're starting off the dev blog with a recap of all the things that have been posted since the V13 thread's gone up. I'm sure some of you probably have missed some of these, so here's our refresher course on the state of the game at this point in time!
The current situation:
Development has been... Slow. For several reasons. Here's the current state of matters.
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The first and foremost reason that Development hasn't been going as fast is that after V12 came out, we had to wait until November for SWSH to come out, so we could focus on getting Gen 8 implemented in Rejuvenation. This already put a delay on the next update by roughly half a year. We've been graciously getting help from several people with this, and I would like to thank @Marcello specifically for having been an absolutely great help to us for scripting several of the pain-in-the-neck abilities and moves! Godspeed you magnificent bastard. Couldn't have it done without you.
- This ties in to that because Gen 8 has been implemented, all the encounters and battles needed revisions to support Gen 8! However, this is taking a long time, and encompasses quite a bit of work. Azery and Alex are doing their best to get everything figured out, but it's taking time, part of the reason being that we needed to implement the mons first before we could actually change the teams/encounters, lol. It's a vicious cycle. BUT, all of the mons have been implemented! So now it's just a matter of going through and updating everything.
- Spriting wise only a couple of the GMax sprites are left! I've personally been seeing to getting the backsprites done for them. Honestly, the biggest saving grace to the graphics side of the project was that we were able to use front sprites of many of the Pokemon from Smogon's Gen 8 project (thank you again for letting us use the sprites!), which saved us quite literally half the time and work. All the shinies are done too, which leaves only roughly.... 23 sprites left in total? For base game Gen 8, that is. I'm uh. Not counting Gen 8.5 rn. I don't want to think about it hhahaAAA.............. either way gen 8 on the graphics side is almost complete and i hope to finish the remainder of sprites sometime next week. Would be REAL nice to cross that thing off the to-do list.
- Jan has been struggling with his health for a while. This was already prior to the pandemic, but recently posted that he did, in fact, contract COVID-19 and fell sick. He's on the road of recovery, though! It's only very likely that until the worst has passed in the area he lives in (which unfortunately is NYC, the epicentre of the pandemic in the US), stuff will remain slow on his side unless he generally feels better and/or more motivated to work on things again. He's been working on revisiting and redoing old areas in the game for final polish, though most of this is unplanned, hence why there's been not much progress on the "updating old maps" bar, let alone the new content bar. We hope you all support Jan through this tough time! Keep him in your thoughts sometime. He's doing his best.
- Last but not least, well, compared to V12, V13 is just.... Absolutely huge. There is SO much content to it. I've said it several times before, but the reason that V12's dev cycle was so short and why it feels as if V13 is taking so much longer was because V12, in comparison, genuinely is just short. I can't go into details for reason you probably can all understand and respect, but it's a TON of content, and there's just a lot of work left for it! However, I can guarantee you that even though it's taking this long, it'll be worth the wait. We're not gonna give out an estimate as of when V13 will be done because there's just too many factors tying in that make it hard to keep up a consistent pace in progress, but we sincerely appreciate all the patience all of you have been showing despite it having been nearly a year since V12 released. We hope to keep your patience until the end of the dev cycle!
Now that you're up to date, it's time for all the teasers that've been posted! Everything will be put in spoilers because otherwise this post gets uh. Very long. But it's nice to have everything in one place now! Content that's exclusively new content to V13 (so not revisions to older areas) are labeled as V13 teasers, so don't open those if you don't want to get spoiled on the new stuff!
October 18th, 2019 - V13 teaser 1 (Jan)
November 4th, 2019 - The reservoir (Route 4 revamp) (Jan)
From Jan's Patreon:
If you've been keeping up with Generation 8, you might've heard or seen stuff about the new Wild Area. If you're unfamiliar with this, the Wild Area is a big and wide open space that has a variety of Pokemon based on location, and weather.
Wild Area:
The Reservoir:
What is the Reservoir? It's a giant and wide open area that expands over time. Route 4 never had a good design because at the time, I had no idea what to do with it.
One of the only areas that wasn't planned out at all. You can tell that much from just playing through it. So I transformed it into something with substance,
A place you can actually do things in.
What's different?
Well, for one, the place is absolutely massive. One of the largest areas in the game, actually. The path to Akuwa Town is short and simple, but once you start exploring,
a whole new world is opened up to you. I don't want to show the entire map, but here's a little bit of context on how big this map is:
This small snip-it is only about 1/8th of the place.
It's pretty empty right now as most of it isn't even evented, however, I have a lot of plans for this place.
What are the benefits of being here?
Nothing is set in stone as this is pretty early on, but, this is what I have in mind:
Everything in the Reservoir has scaling:
- Levels
- Exp growth
- IV's
- Shiny Rate
- Money Gain
Knowing all this is great and all, but how exactly will they scale? As of right now, the plan is to have playtime influence scalings. Although that is the plan, I am aware of how easily this can be abused.
One could just afk on a new file and run into level 80 mons without even facing Valarie. I have a few ideas to prevent this, but I shall share those at another point.
December 3rd, 2019 - V13 teaser 2 (Jan)
Just vibing.
December 10th, 2019 - V13 teaser 3 (Jan)
Never worry about grinding or picking up new team members ever again :].
December 10th, 2019 - Route 4 new theme (Jan)
If you were curious about the new route theme for Route 4... Be curious no longer!
December 23rd, 2019 - Protagonist VS portrait updates
Well, even though I can't show off V13 content because a lot of it is still in heavy development, I do have something else to show off! It's nothing extraordinary, but the VS portraits for a couple of the protagonists got some minor touch ups, as there were definitely a couple of things that could be improved about them. They should look better now, at the very least! Old on the left, new on the right!
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December 25th, 2019 - V13 teaser 4 (Jan)
Merry Christmas everyone!
It's very cold here... Wonder what's up?
January 2nd, 2020 - Gen 8 spriting update 1 (Zumi)
We're slowly chipping away at Gen 8 addition! The most work remains with spriting at the moment -- we could wait for other people to do all of the front sprites, but since it slows down overall development and re-balancing of the game, I've been doing some work for it. myself Here's a couple of sprites for Morgrem and Grimmsnarl I did today!
My goal for the time being is to do at least five sprites every week so the spriting progress will start keeping a steady pace, since it's been a little hiccup-y lately with the holidays. It's time to get into the swing of things! I'll be showing off more front sprites in the case people from the dev team have done them from scratch as quite a couple of the ones we're using are made by people outside of our dev team... And I doubt backsprites are interesting to show off lol.
Either way, please be patient with us as we're working on this slowly but steadily!
January 5th, 2020 - Volta (Zumi)
This week is a rather plentiful week of updates, isn't it? Well I've got one last thing to show off for now! But before we get to what's being added, let's introduce you all to someone!
Some of you might remember this character being on some of Gearen's billboards in older versions of the game + you've also probably met her mother Jolene in the game by now, but I'd like you to meet Volta!
In the older versions of Rejuvenation, she was the electric type gym leader, who would go on to retire and be replaced by Erick, who then still played a significantly smaller role than he does now. In the current version of the game she was a gym leader that acted as the stand-in for Saki, but now Erick has taken over her spot as gym leader as she went off to GDC to become a news reporter... Basically reducing her to a character that's only been mentioned once or twice, along with making a single minor appearance in GDC.
But now you're probably wondering, why haven't we seen more of her yet if she's still somewhat relevant? Well, I'm here to answer that question! In V13, we're adding a hints system that is accessible through the TV's you find in houses. This system is meant to help you find your way around if you're lost on as of where to go next, which is particularly useful when you haven't played in a while and you have no clue where you left off... And Volta will be the one appearing on TV to tell you all about the latest scoops and happenings that will put you back on track! And to go with this new hints system, she got a fresh new look to go along with it as well.
Meet our new Volta!
Next time you get lost in the game just find the most nearby TV, and Volta will be there to tell you all about the latest happenings so you can find your way back to where you need to go! We hope you will appreciate the addition of the hints system. It's going to be a bit of work to write them all out considering how long the game itself is, but we hope it'll help some of you in the future!
Don't expect these V13 content updates to be this frequent by the way, as this post is about something for which the graphics were finished a few months ago already. Updates in regards to new V13 content will probably remain scarce for a while until we're done with Gen 8 implementation (unless Jan wants to post something about it whenever he feels like it LOL), so please be patient with us for a little while longer as we try to get all of that sorted out first!
Oh, and I completely forgot to mention it in my previous post... but Happy New Year from everyone in the Rejuv dev team! Let's all hope for another great year! 
January 25th, 2020 - Keta VS portrait update (Zumi)
[Keta's] VS portrait in-game actually has been changed slightly as well to match his official art better, as I felt it's more visible what a sorry state the poor guy actually is in like this. The differences between his normal and his spirit portrait are much more clear now, too.
Old:
New:
January 26th, 2020 - Gen 8 spriting update 2 (Zumi)
hello yes i have actually done something gen 8 related this week outside of the character art and that's making the got dam bone snake's -- aka Eternatus -- hell backsprite. i already did the front sprite back in December but i kept putting it OFF because iiiiiiiiiii knew this sprite was going to give me pain and guess what! it sure fucking did.
jesus christ almighty i am DEAD but anyways take these. u'll be seeing these in game at some point. when? i do not know!!!!!!
i actually really don't know LOL so don't read into it pls, but i had to make them anyways because of the gen 8 project so u'll get to see them in the graphics folder at the very least!!!!!!
also u know im frustrated when i decide to write forum posts in the same way i normally talk on discord. this sprite can eat big stinky doodoo for all i care >:^(
February 1st, 2020 - Character art part 1 (Zumi)
Soooo... It's finally time to show the full versions off of the character art for Rejuvenation's early game characters! As most of you are probably well aware, a good couple of these characters have different appearances/outfits later in the game, but I will be drawing art for those as well. For the time being, here's the plot-relevant characters up to Carotos mountain -- Melia (1st appearance), Ren (1st appearance), Venam (1st appearance), Zetta, Nim, Aelita (1st appearance), Keta and Madelis!
...Yes, I forgot Eli and Sharon. And Amanda. Eli & Sharon will be included in the next batch though!! And Amanda I'll be keeping for West Gearen characters for.... Reasons you can probably all appreciate. :]
*cough* her battle right before erick's battle catching me off guard every fucking time *cough cough couGH COUGH*
Either way, all of the individual transparent character artworks can be found in the Official art thread! There's also a bunch of icons I made of the new art that you can use if you want in that thread as well, so feel free to check it out 
February 9th, 2020 - New forest backgrounds (Jan)
~A nice stroll through the forest~
February 28th, 2020 - Gen 8 spriting update 3 (Zumi)
Hey hey all! Figured I'd be giving a little update on Gen 8 sprite progression!
Not counting the shinies, we're over halfway done with all the sprites -- 62% of them are done, to be exact!! HELLA.
We have a vast majority of the front sprites (we're literally only missing like... 10) with a couple still needing some cleanup as some of the sprites we collected were not quite suitable yet for use within essentials. The biggest chunk of work still lies within the backsprites, of which we're still missing plenty... But fortunately, yours truly is planning to make a decent dent in that amount of remaining sprites this week! There's been a bit of stagnation with the sprites -- I'm just as guilty of it -- but it's gotten to a point where I'm just thinking that the sooner Gen 8 implementation is done, the faster we can shift gears and focus on V13 itself. Hopefully this'll let us pick up the pace!
For now, have some Nickit and Thievul sprites! The original front sprites were done by KingOfThe-X-Roads, while I cleaned the sprites up and did their backsprites.
March 19th, 2020 - Gen 8 spriting update 4 (Zumi)
Good news -- Generation 8 main dex sprites are complete! This means all the new mons and the galarian forms have both their front and backsprites finished and are ready for usage. The only thing that's left right now are the Gmax sprites, but these have significantly less priority than the other sprites did. Essentials is a little bit fucky in that it sometimes crashes the game if mons don't have proper sprites (not always, for whatever fucking reason sdhfjskdgfsdbhjsdfksf GOD), so having all the sprites for the base forms available should make testing all the mons a sligthly less crash-y experience! helllllllll yea.
anyways have some sprites! here's uhhhhhhhhhh
horf? horf. two whole horf.
front sprites were originally done by conyjams on deviantart, and were cleaned up and had their backsprites made by me!
April 1st, 2020 - Saki twitter (Zumi)
Speaking of Saki....
She's got a twitter now. Finally hearing something of her after so long, huh?
April 8th, 2020 - Zetta VS sprite update (Zumi)
Nothing major... But Zetta's VS sprite got a lil glow up! Felt it might be good to give his portrait a bit of a cleaning.
Old: New:
...Zetta also told me to tell u guys that you should give him your phone. just sayin.
April 14th, 2020 - Character art part 2 (Zumi)
New character art has been made!
While you're waiting for V13, here's some more official art of the characters! This time around Marianette, Indriad, Eli, Sharon, Geara and Narcissa got their art done.
...But there's more on the way! I have sketches ready for another six characters, so you'll be seeing those soon too -- in fact, next up is... The Blacksteeple castle arc crew. hoooh. 
As per usual, you can find back all the character artwork, a link to full resolution versions and bonus icons in the Official art thread! Make sure to check it out if you want to see them!
April 17th, 2020 - Character art part 3 (Zumi)
Aaaaand.... Here's batch 2 of the character art!
Like I said previously, I had the sketches all ready to go, so I figured I'd just go ahead and finish the rest today. Here's the Blacksteeple Castle arc crew, featuring Valarie, Saki, Adam, Nancy, Neved and finally, Madame X!
Oh, and if the art seems a little out of proportion it's because all the resized versions are at 800px height. You can find a link to the proper full resolution artwork in the official art thread as per usual, along with icons of the characters!
April 26th, 2020 - Character art part 4 (Zumi)
The Terajuma arc characters have their art finished!
This time we're taking a look at Melia's 2nd appearance, Rorim B, Crawli, Angie, Texen (ugh), Amber, Tesla, Crescent and Jenner. As you can see, Rorim B finally got a finalized design and will have redone battle and VS sprites to reflect these changes to his appearance in V13! Next to that, this is the first time you're getting a proper look at what Crescent looks like.
now, for a quick Q&A!
Q: Did you deliberately make Rorim B look like a fashion disaster?
A: absolutely. no i do not take criticism, let him be the horribly embarrasing disco dad he is, thank you for coming to my ted talk
ok thank u for coming to my q&a, as per usual you can find all of the art back along with bonus icons and a link to all of the full resolution artwork in the official art thread!
April 27th, 2020 - General update on old content (Jan)
Hi guys. It's been a while since I've made a status update here, so I thought I'd go ahead and clear up a few things.
Most people know that I am based in NYC, the area that was hit hardest by the Corona virus. Unfortunately, I was not able to stay healthy and contracted the disease (I live with an essential worker and I got it from them.) For the past few weeks I have been struggling with Covid, but I can happily say that I'm in recovery now. I have been for a little while.
During this time, working on Rejuv has obviously been scarce. But I did not stop completely. I went on to take the opportunity of quarantine to visit past areas and continue polishing. I may never(and hopefully never, ever. Seriously, covid sucks.) get a chance where I have a lot of free time to do something like this. So I decided that it's probably in my best interest to work on things that don't require a lot of energy and focus. I have been working on things that were not planned.
If this is the case, why hasn't the Old Content section been updated? Everything that was done prior to quarantine was planned content. Now that I'm working on things I had not considered, I thought it would be inappropriate to consider this part of that progress bar. I could create a separate section for the content I'm working on now, but eh... Even now, the things I'm working on are still not considered planned. I'm just going where my energy wants me to. So for me to put out another progress bar may be pointless.
It's not much, but these are a few examples of what I've polished up.
There are many, many, MANY other things I have in store, but these are just a few things I wanted to show. Just to assure that things are still moving, albeit at a slow pace. But that's all I have to talk about for now. Please stay safe and have a wonderful day :).
May 1st, 2020 - Rorim B VS portrait update (Zumi)
Like I said I would, I've updated Rorim B's sprites to match his redesign!
sooooo happy that the sprite inconsistency will be solved in V13 tbh JDFKDFdjgd IT'S ABOUT TIME,
anyways i only made this post to show off disco dad im out again bye
May 3rd, 2020 - Character wallpapers (Zumi)
NEW: Character wallpapers!
Hey hey! A couple of weeks ago I saw a couple of requests for possible character wallpapers for the characters... And I am more than pleased to announce that I am here to deliver :^) So I'm not gonna post literally all of them as a preview here bc there's uh. quite a bit. There's currently 28 of them, but just to give you an impression of what they look like before you check all of them out, here's a couple of examples!
The full set of them can be found here! Each wallpaper comes in 1440p, 1080p and 720p resolutions so you can download whatever one fits your screen best. I'll be making these wallpapers for any future characters I draw as well. Feel free to use them for whatever you like!
As per usual, you can find a link back to all the wallpapers in the official art thread! Which one is your favourite?
...Aaaand that's about it for all the updates we've had! I know a bunch of these are extra content and not really super directly related to V13 development, but it's still stuff for you to enjoy while you wait for V13 to come out, no? hehe.
There's more to show in the future, but for now we're sticking to this recap. We'll show off more when the time is right! For now, I welcome you to this shiny new dev blog and hope you're looking forward to more updates!
Edited by Zumi
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