Jonette Valenciano
Little Majesty
"That child needs me."
"Visions, dragons in the cornices, chambers and corridors that transform in the blink of an eye -- and a young ward who knows far more than she lets on. Isadora Greille is the new governess at Vielturren Manor, and it'll take sheer courage and more to survive the household unchanged.
The question is: will Miss Greille even want to?
Once upon a breakup, a road trip, and some soul-searching, I'd decided it was high time to write a story that my 10-year-old self would have cheered for. Little Majesty #1 was born from a month of writing, illustrating, and so, so much coffee. Nominated for Best Writer in the 2017 Komiket Awards, Little Majesty is my proudest work to date, with many more issues to follow.
Media / Reviews
Time Princess: Dreamtopia -- Heartwood Mysteries
On April 2021, I joined a writer's table of four to work on a story that was then named Heartwood Mysteries: The Curious Case of Lauren Ives for the mobile dress-up game Time Princess: Dreamtopia. I was tasked to write a handful of chapters and one of the happy endings, as well as various collaterals such as item names, descriptions, lore, callouts, quips, letters, and more.
On April 2023, exactly two years after, Heartwood Mysteries was shipped as one of the many playable stories within the game library. Time Princess has garnered a 4.7 rating on Google Play and a 4.6 rating on The App Store, with 10m+ downloads to date.
As part of the requirements for the story's release, I was tasked to create a map delineating the relationships and roles of each of the characters. The map is in keeping with Art Deco elements in keeping with the story's setting, London in the 1920's.
As Time Princess is a dress-up game, research is a vital part of building the designs and inspirations behind the main character's garments and accouterments. Daytime and nighttime looks, the ebb and flow of silhouettes and materials, and the zeitgeist of the times were all taken into consideration. I curated the images and mood board pegs, and kept the presentation layouts faithful to the art deco motif of the story.
To view the deck, feel free to flip through the slides below, or click here.
The Story When
"Papa's Tattoos". A memoir in honor of my father, the jazz musician and sitarist Joey Valenciano's philosophy, spirit, and ink on his arms.
"... Pa, what kept you in that chair through the pain, with the needles on your skin?”
“What else? I'm here, I want this, this is a kind of art I believe in. It's not art you can hang on a wall, but it's art that you carry with you and lives with you, it's art that tells a story of a certain part of your life. It's a visual part of your story na.”
... “Okay, last question.You're 50, right?”
“Next year, yeah.”
“Okay. So... how do you feel about your tattoo now? Any pride? Regrets?”
“How do I feel now? Wala lang. ["It's no big deal."]
“Huh? What do you mean, 'wala lang'?”
“Wala lang, like it's a part of me na. Like my hand, or my foot. My art. It's part of me.”
Cyber Crush 2069
"Year 2069, it’s a time when advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, have become mainstreams as part of every citizen’s life, or even body parts literally.
You, as a ripperdoc (self-proclaimed), have started your new clinic in a corner of Little China. Due to your business characteristics, you have encountered different girls with different occupations. With your cyberware fixing skill, will it help you to get rid of your 28 years of virginity?"
Cyber Crush 2069, a match-3 NSFW dating sim game from Mature Games on Steam, is a ghostwriting freelance job from Upwork. I was responsible for co-writing the stories of the five love interests in-game as part of a tight team of three. I collaborated with my partner in conceptualizing the outlines of the five girls, their backstories, their personalities, motivations, and worldviews. I wrote the scripts for three girls, supervised my teammates with writing the scripts of the remaining two, and wrote the first four girls' questions, responses, greetings, and reactions for another feature of the game.
The game has since enjoyed a Very Positive rating from players within the first week of the game's release. Out of the 249 reviews sent in, 81% are Positive recommendations, with many players enjoying a "surprising depth to the stories". The game has even reached meme status.
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Considering the coincidence of its launch alongside the heavily anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, I'd say this did well for a little game that could.
Read two reviews on the game on HG101, and 336GameReviews. (Caveat: NSFW images)
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Splinterworld -- Ecstacity
Welcome Ecstacity – a city where the smog is hot, the beer is cold, and the nights are never-ending neon-electric. It’s the perfect spot if you need a hit of that sweet digital dosage, holographic honey, or a hired hitman – all for a price, of course.
In the summer of 2022, during the heyday of NFTs, my freelance game-writing team was commissioned to flesh out a world of colliding ideas, symbols, and realities for the game SplinterWorld. Ecstacity was one of the games major landmarks, a cyberpunk pleasure dome in the Wastelands, conceptualized as Gotham meets Las Vegas meets Blade Runner. Ecstacity is run on bread and circuses by an iron-fisted enclave, and championed by a shadowy vigilante and his team of volunteer doctors.
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Dive into Ecstacity by clicking the button below.
