When coming up with the character of Pirate Pete, I thought back to some of my fondest childhood movies. A no-brainer that came to mind was the story of Peter Pan. Not necessarily pirate-focused, but with the main antagonist being a vicious pirate of the sea, Captain Hook, it intrigued me. This led to my younger self imagining what it would be like to tell the story of a mean pirate whose ultimate goal is to rule to sea, this childhood imagination of mine led to the character of Pirate Pete being born. Pete ultimately wants to be the captain of the meanest and largest crew of the sea, however, when it becomes apparent near the end of the story that Pete actually needs to have affection from others close to him. 

As stated above, throughout the story from the opening slides it is known by readers that Pirate Pete wants to rule the sea. It is known by the way he seems to be a heartless man ordering his crew around and also a descriptive passage about Pete reveals that he ultimately wants to rule the sea and everything that is in it. This differs from the true needs of Pete, which is that what he needs to maintain the few friendships he has and hold them close. The true needs of Pete are revealed near the end of the story when the ship is approaching a storm and carry on up until the last passage. It is revealed that Pete’s cold, mean exterior is a protective shell for his caring and loving self. 

The main decision point within the story happens at the most climactic scene when Pete and his crew are approaching the storm. Three options are given to readers at this point 1.) Veer left 2.) Go straight 3.) Veer right. Based on what the reader picks in this scenario will reflect a different aspect of Pete at the end of the story. Different versions of Pete are seen at the end of the story based on this decision, but ultimately Pete’s needs of being together with others and maintaining relationships are the same. Other decision points in the story such as pet names are seen as a secondary choice compared to this. 

In order to come up with story beats that made these decisions make sense, I had to put myself in the reader’s shoes by playing the game I was creating. I did this for two reasons, 1.) Gauge the overall flow of the story and 2.) If the decisions that I was making would make sense. This technique was very helpful and prohibited me from placing story beats that did not make sense and would ruin the immersion of the story. Another tactic used was that I would have fellow colleagues play different versions of the game and gauge their reaction accordingly. Doing this I believe allowed for the best overall version of the story.  

There were two very difficult decisions that had to make when in the process of coming up with this story. The first decision was having to determine what the wants and needs of my character would be. This was difficult because if they were too similar in nature, the audience would not see any sort of change in Pete’s character arc from the beginning to the end of the story. If they were too different, however, the story would not seem realistic to the audience and ruin the immersion. This was a difficult task of coming up with the perfect balance in Pete’s wants and needs but I believe that I was able to find good middle ground. The other difficult task that I was faced with was trying to have different branches of the story and by being able to connect them and have them make sense to the audience at the end. This was a very tedious process and took several hours of altering words and scenarios in order to have an effective story. This made it difficult because I had to ensure that Pete’s wants and needs were seen by the audience by branching off in these different scenarios but also making sure the story would make sense throughout.  

I tried to make Pete seem as realistic of a character as possible to the audience. The wants and needs and the motivations behind this are like many people in today’s society. Every decision that was made by Pete, I did not think of him as a pirate as much of a typical person. That is why Pete bursts in an emotional wreck when a loved one dies after he had portrayed a hardened man the entirety of the story. This is like many people, how after a long amount of time of bottling emotions up, one situation can release all the bottled up emotions.