Question about serialized data and the datastore table

[nerbert]

I'm working on a project for the admin CP that requires permission from the site owner / super admin so I don't want to put the settings in settings > options. I thought of creating a new table but as I researched how the various vB options are stored for use I see they are serialized and put in the datastore table. Somewhere this table is queried and the options unserialized to be available as $vbulletin->options. I want to do something similar and store my project settings this way as $vbulletin->my_project

If I go this route I see no reason to build a new table for my settings. Is there any reason I should have my settings in a new table if they're in datastore?

But most importantly, where is the datastore table queried and how do I unserialize my project settings (i.e., what hook location)?