Okay, so I didn't get around to posting a more coherent post. Oops.

I did get a bit more done conceptually for NaNoWriMo; my story now has a one-sentence blurb! (And also a vague idea of plot and such-like.)

Plot in games is an interesting beast. On the one hand, people seem to want deep, complex plots (frequenly involving saving the world). On the other hand, people don't seem to want to be railroaded through each plot point. Combining both of these together is hard. For an amateur game developer, I would probably suggest going for a single, complex plot, possibly with sidequests but without (much) branching. Okay, now I feel like this is too obvious to need saying.

Because I can't think of anything better: The Well-Tempered Plot Device. It's an introduction to the Art of the Predictable, i.e. cliches.