Speech Bubbles
Dialogue is conveyed using speech bubbles as a variety of characters speak to Ace, the player. Students progress through the story by clicking on the speech bubbles or objects to advance to the next scene.

Field Guide
The Field Guide contains online screens covering a range of ocean-related topics from food webs to seafloor features. Students can access the Field Guide at the bottom of their screen at any time during the game or through hyperlinked words in the body of a speech bubble. The information in the Field Guide helps students understand unfamiliar terms, answer questions and complete activities.

Notebook
The Notebook contains important materials collected by players as they progress through the game. As students successfully complete each activity, such as tide graphs, quizzes and maps, the results are added to the Notebook. The Notebook can be accessed at any time during the game to help answer further questions or review concepts.

Creature Cards
The Creature Cards add an extra gaming element to the story. Thirteen cards are scattered throughout the game, each with part of a key needed to decode a secret message. Cards are hidden and players must carefully explore the game environment to find them. Although players can progress through the game without collecting all the cards, they provide extra learning incentives. Students may exchange card information with other players to help decode as many letters as possible and guess the message.

Larry Ligurian
The character of Larry Ligurian illustrates what happens when proper investigative and scientific procedures are not followed. Larry, a bad investigative reporter, is always at work trying to solve the same problems as Ace, the player. Larry continually makes mistakes (while offering comic relief). Ace can check on Larry at several points in the game to learn how to avoid making the same errors.