Despair Child

Creator of Pokemon Rejuvenation. Asks are closed until v13 is out!

[janichroma]

Hiya Jan! v14 has been great so far. Absolutely gorgeous project my goodness, there were points I almost came close to tears just by how astoundingly beautiful it's been so far...

Do wanna give y'all in the team a heads up though transform is a biiiit bugged out. If I try transform on rift bosses or pokemon with special forms the game crashes quite badly (specifically I have to force close the game). It also crashed on a normal mon too (Dracovish) so I'm not sure if it's limited to the rift mons.

Hmm, we've tried this a couple times and it seems to be working just fine? What was the specific rift boss you faced?

[janichroma]

Hey Jan, just wanted to send in an ask since I wasn’t sure if I could reach out through a dm or not. But I downloaded V14 and loaded into my game, and one of the mons in my party (not gonna say which one since I’m not sure how asks work and don’t wanna spoil) appears to have had a spontaneous form change and I strongly presume it’s one I’m not supposed to have seen yet when I first load in. On other files though the same mon that was kept in the PC stayed the same though, so I presume this glitch only happens if this specific mon is in the party rather than just in the PC. I’m also not sure if this is the case for other mons yet besides this one

Yes, this is known! Buuut this actually may have given us enough details to see what actually went wrong. thank you!

[janichroma]

Hey Jan, just finished V13.5 and i've beeen really curious about what touching those karma butterflies feels like. You know the ones that go 'Your soul feels rejuvenated' and 'You feel hatred in your heart'?

blue: that feeling u get when u know u dont have work the next day orange: heart burn

[jazz-kitty]

i thought it'd be cute if aevium had its own version of cosplay pikachu

[sodabeaches]

404

[estraumatized]

FE GBA Saki Blakeory

[janichroma]

Not the same anon (and not even a game dev), but I've experienced a lot of the same issues with motivation and keeping the momentum. So I was wondering, do you have any advice for how to keep the momentum going on a personal/creative project when real life responsibilities like school or work are consuming a lot of your time and/or energy?

honestly, when i find the answer... I'll let you know. I still have a hard time keeping up sometimes... It can be hard when finances are involved, and as much as it hurts, the path that keeps your finances up should probably take priority.

That being said I think the prior advice of doing work for your creative projects, even if its just one thing, does way more than putting it on hiatus or whatever. A lot of times hiatuses turn into cancellation because you become accustomed to life without that project. Sometimes that's what's best, but sometimes it's an unfortunate end to something that has potential.

[janichroma]

Hi, so we all know what Vitus is like in the post-old-earth world, but what was Old World Vitus like? Was he a decent guy or was he just as bad?

just a normal dude! no evil from that man

[janichroma]

random silly question, does axis high university have a mascot?

it does not but that is a fun idea that i will be stealing for the next version

[janichroma]

can i have some advice to encourage my partner? he's working on a fan game and had a huge burst of inspiration & progress for a while but he's been struggling lately. he feels really discouraged. he wants to work on it but he's having a really hard time with progress now. do you have any advice? ive tried telling him this is a longterm project and he believes me but is still feeling down about the lull he's in. his biggest hangup at the moment is how difficult working on writing is. thank you in advance, he and i both love your own game so much <3

Yes! This is not easy. Like, for real. Even me who is known for being Crazy... I have trouble finding motivation and energy to work on Rejuv. Honestly, with any project you're going to feel luls and intrusive thoughts, etc etc. It's important to keep going and to keep working on it even if you don't want to.

As for advice... Honestly, my advice is going to be really annoying and samey to everything else, but KEEP WORKING ON IT EVEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!! Even if it's just one thing. You have, have, have, HAVE to keep the momentum. If you lose momentum it's extremely hard to get back into it. That was me during v13. There were entire months i did nothing and it was vehemently difficult to bring it back to where I am now. I'm not saying you can't take breaks. I'm saying you have to discipline yourself. Writing is very difficult. It's also a bit of a broad subject... Do you mean writing as in story? or dialogue? all the above? In that case, honestly? just consume more media. Listen to video game music. See how they do things. Find what you like, and try to emulate writing/dialogue styles. Then eventually you will gain your own footing. It's even difficult for me too, but you get used to it.

Above all else, I guess you just have to keep going even if you think it sucks or it's not good. You have to get through bad stuff to build something good, I think. Good luck to your partner and if you need any more advice please ask. I hope this was helpful. I know I didn't exactly have any groundbreaking advice, but this is generally what works for me.

[janichroma]

Hello jan :-) any ariana facts to spare? for her birthday

a little late, but sure!

Ariana is the older sister, and Axel is her -half brother-, they share different dads. (Axel I've been thinking he's half south asian/middle eastern, hence the different hair types) She's a natural optimist. Makes every situation a good one somehow, or tries to. (probably why she became a cheerleader) Her Torchic is a chicken. Like, as a species, and personality wise. Just full of anxiety. She loves everyone, even her enemies. Although if you are mean to her close friends and family, she might just make an exception. Her favorite food is popcorn. Her least favorite food is probably something really really bitter. EDIT: also as an aside for other people asking me questions. I probably am not answering long winded questions. Easier/simplier questions are better for me right now. I'm just too busy/tired to give lengthy in game explanations.

[janichroma]

hi jan.! i'm curious if i could get any info or crumbs on what the relationship between aevia and ariana was like...?

They most likely got along very well! Ariana is the extrovert best friend that forces Aevia to leave the house once in a while and do something fun. Aevia appreciates it... sort of.

[janichroma]

Hey, just saw in a message you had planned to stop developing Rejuv after v13, and I want to say thank you for keeping it going. Rejuvenation has been my favorite Pokemon work (outside of my own little continuity with some of my friends) since I found it in v11.

That said, I do have a question: Is there a way that, sometime in the future, a script of the game could be released? Maybe after it's finished? The game is very big, and I want to do a novelization of my Interceptor at some point (assuming you're fine with that too) and that would be a huge help to me and possibly others.

I'm glad I kept up with it too.

As for your second question, do you mean like a document that has all the dialogue in a text format? I think that may already be possible in 13.5, but if not it definitely in future versions there are ways to extract the text in document form

[janichroma]

omg, I absolutely adore your game, it's one of, if not my favorite game ever and I go back to replay it every couple of months!

thank you so much for the time and effort you put into it!

Thank you for playing :'). Makes the effort worth it

[janichroma]

do you plan on doing anything with beth anymore? i think she's cute and silly so i get excited when i see her on route 4 in my runs or when ben mentions her.

also what's your favorite moment in the game as of v13.5? personally i really like the "destiny is not set" scene because its funny that "i set destiny" variya shows up but i also like that one scene with amber and venam from the paragon karma files as it just feels. real.

I won't/can't answer if I plan on using Beth for anything else, but in general Beth is kind of just a minor NPC that sells stuff... for now.

My favorite moment in all of 13.5... is tricky. I think I like the casual hangouts in Paragon's Karma files, but I also pretty much love all of Renegade Route, even though I think my work on that is pretty rough now compared to Renegade Route Chapter 1 (v14)

[janichroma]

Hello, long-time player of the game, first timer to your blog! Zetta is a character I enjoy (even did a S/V play as him and intend to do one again b/c that one was pre dlc). Is there any lore about him that isn't well-known or just hasn't been shared yet? I love character tidbits but I'm not the best with having specific questions, i'm so sorry.

I don't have many interesting tidbits about Zetta other than he likes to read and lift. He didn't really exist (in world) long enough to really develop any substantial hobbies as he kind of was a soldier right out of the bag. Maybe one day he'll get a chance at being his own person...

[janichroma]

One thing that seems really important in Rejuvenation is parenthood. Lots of the most important characters either are parents or their stories were significantly influenced by their parents. I believe every member of the Xen Raid Squad has a notable parent character.

Melia has Jenner, Erin, Alice and Allen have Vitus/Indriad as well as Anathea. The player has Nancy. Ren and Venam's parents aren't magic or involved in the dramatic conflict directly but they are important characters you went to the trouble of fleshing out. Ren's father who we never even see still manages to be important by unintentionally 'baton passing' his dream for Goldenleaf Town to Ren, Regina is going to be involved in V14 in an unforgettable fashion. Venam's mum threw her through the roof like Rejuv is a cartoon or something while her Dad is a sidequest NPC who I like. (I really appreciate how when Venam got petrified you showed both her parents visiting the hospitable and even Eizen tagged along. The fact that Venam/Ren have 'normal' families really contrasts them with the rest of the squad.) Aelita has Keta and kind of Taelia who both matter a lot. Keta in particular haunts the narrative a good bit. (I really need to play WhereLoveLies) You even made a point in .karmafiles of having Kanon state that in hindsight Nymiera probably viewed him as her son. That statement in particular feels like a conscious attempt to reinforce the thematic symmetry he has with the rest of the Xen Raid Squad.

So here's the actual ask:

Why did you decide to make parents so important?

I guess it wasn't so much a conscious decision to make their families so important, but the story and themes centered around family just made that even more apparent. I guess in general I am interested in writing family dynamics in general. My parents weren't perfect, and I don't really have a strong relationship with one of them so maybe that has something to do with my writing style? Who is to say... But I just think it's natural for these characters to have parents who care (or neglect) them.

This didn't really answer your question, but I don't think I have one tbh.