Ingermanson, R., Economy, P. (2009) Writing Fiction for Dummies, 1st edition, Indianapolis, India: Wiley Publishing

Chapter 2 - Creating Compelling Fiction
Identifying the Parts of a Story World
"The natural world: When you describe the natural world, you create a sense of place. The natural world includes everything there is to know about the physical environment. Normally you don't mess with the laws of physics or chemistry in your novel, but you do have to know the geography, typical weather patterns, and a thousand other details..."

As the islands of the story/game are fictional, this can all be made according to how I want the islands to be. For most of the islands, I have an idea about the different weather on each island and the conditions, but the geography is still somewhat unclear for all of the islands (well, this meaning that my vision isn't 100% clear on this, but once again if I was to be asked, I'd have somewhat of an idea). 

"The backdrop for conflict: This is the political or cultural or religious or interpersonal climate that makes it possible for your story to have conflict. Without conflict, you have no story."

In my story/game, the conflict will be mainly between people and the mechanical sea creatures (antagonist/minions). Although there will also be aspects of humans vs humans, as our concept is to have solely gameplay based sections where the player encounters pirate ships that attack that player's ship.

Common Character Archetypes in Fiction:
Hero - "The hero of your story is normally the person your reader is rooting for. Most novels have a strong hero, although usually an imperfect one."

The hero character is most likely imperfect as a story with a perfect character from the start could end up being boring and unrelatable (although this isn't saying there aren't stories that have this). But if the character is imperfect, this could possibly be how the character develops throughout the story.

Villain - "The villain of the story is normally the person who opposes the hero. In a long series, a single hero commonly has many villains, one for each book."

For the story of our game, there will only be one antagonist, being the mecha shark. Although the antagonist will have minions (smaller mechanical sea creatures) that appear throughout the different islands).

Antihero - "This is a nontraditional protagonist who lacks certain virtues of the usual hero."

Sidekick - "This is a close friend of the hero, usually one with qualities that complete the hero."

In our game/story, there will be a sidekick character. This being an octopus named Octavia. While the protagonist is brave and maybe even considered reckless, Octavia is timid and scared and could question some of the reckless decisions of the protagonist throughout the story (whether the protagonist listens or not). Additionally, since this is for a game, the sidekick's main role would be to assist the player (in a similar way that Navi assists the player in Zelda: Ocarina of Time, such as helping during combat or helping the player with the objective).

Mentor - "This is an older and wiser teacher who guides the hero on his path to maturity."

Out of all of my characters, there's not really on that is a mentor. However two of the characters in the game are the protagonist's parents, so they could possibly take this role, or even the crew members (specifically crewmember 1 / Leonard) could take make use of this role.

Chapter 7 - Creating Compelling Characters
Understanding why backstory matters to you
"You have to understand where your characters came from, or you'll never understand what your character wants or why he acts the way he does. If you don't know, then neither will your reader." 

Establishing your character's motivation
"Developing your character's motivation is hard, dirty, messy, creative work. You can do it in any order that you like. You don't have to define the character's values first, then ambition, and then story goals. You can work out each character's motivation before you write you write your first draft or afterward or while you're writing. But you must do this work eventually, or your readers will complain that your characters are flat and boring. (A flat character is one who lacks depth and is therefore predictable.)"

After developing my characters, I have made sure that each has their own motivation and aspirations for the story. However, this is what links my characters together, and makes the concept of the characters becoming a crew make sense. All of my characters decide to travel with the protagonist due to a range of reasons, but the main reasons are to help the protagonist, and to try and defeat the mechanical shark (although each characters motivation/inspiration does vary, such as carrying out the mothers wishes, to helping others, to getting revenge on the mecha shark).

Chapter 8 - Storyline and Three-Act Structure: The Top Layers of Your Plot
"Here are the essential features of a good storyline:

• It's short. You want it to be short so you can memorize it easily and say it quickly - and so can everyone else in your selling chain.

• It's emotive. Fiction is about creating a powerful emotive experience, so your storyline needs to tell what emotive experience your story will deliver.

• It arouses curiosity. Your storyline shouldn't give away the story. It should raise a story question that demands an answer.

 

I have tried to implement these different features into my own story concept. The general outline of the game/story could be summarised as 'Protagonist traveling from island to island to complete his map with the hopes of following and finding his missing father'.
There are emotive parts of the story, such as elements of loss, where characters have had a loss of family in their past/during the story (such as the protagonist's/Ace's mother dying at the beginning of the game/story).

What is the three-act structure?
"1. Act 1 takes up roughly the first quarter and ends with a major disaster.
The first disaster comes at the end of Act 1 and links to Act 2."

"2. Act 2 takes up the second and third quarters, and each quarter ends with an even worse disaster.
The second disaster comes at the midpoint of Act 2 (ending the second quarter) and serves as an antidote to what people often call the sagging middle. The third disaster strikes at the end of act 2 (ending the third quarter) and links to Act 3."

"3. Act 3 takes up the last quarter and includes a climax (also called a resolution), which answers the story question - the question of whether your lead character will succeed.
The climax typically falls late in the fourth quarter, and everything after it serves to wind down the story."

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Without meaning even meaning to, my story somewhat has the form of a story with a three-act structure already. However, this is something I will want to try and further develop if possible.