Inconsistent Rewards

The most addictive gameplay features inconsistent rewards for repetitive actions. Diablo, and World of WarCraft come to mind — you click, enemies die. Sometimes they drop good stuff, sometimes they drop nothing. So you keep clicking. And clicking. And clicking…

Kōtiro will not have “items” per se: there will be no armor, no helmets, no socks, no underwear. No weapons, no shields, no magic wands.

This game is not about acquisition, but about platforming and strategic gameplay. If I want to use inconsistent rewards to my advantage, then, I’ll have to get creative.

Mana

Mana, in the Māori sense, not the Dungeons and Dragons sense, is the life force within a person (or object), and it is directly proportional to the “authority” they have.

I’ll use variably dropping “mana” to engage the player. (More on this further down)

Figurines

The Jade and possibly bone figurines that represent each attribute that can modify an ability. This is an exception to the “no item collection” rule — there will be collectible figurines. The scale isn’t the same as collection games though, because there will be a small total of figurines in the game — something on the order of 9 total (3 of each type).

Benefit of Mana

Mana drops when an enemy is killed or neutralized, when a goal is reached, or a “crate” is broken.

Upgrade Moko

Fire and Water abilities begin with nowhere to place figurines, but as they are used, the slots expand up to three each. Using the abilities successfully will afford Kō mana for that specific ability type. The mana will eventually expand her authority to use the figurines.

Upgrade Figurines

Figurines have a coefficient that you might think of as “quality” — for example, a momentum figurine might have a quality coefficient of 1. It would work, but not well. With successful use, that figurine’s coefficient could expand to, say, 10. The quality would be expressed on screen visually, by going from a cracked and dull carving, to a glowing, polished figurine.

Health

I haven’t yet decided how I’ll handle health. I kind of like systems that have no health — if you are hit, you die. On the other hand, traditional HP systems are usual in platform games. Something like that could add more depth to the combat. If I do have “hp” I could use mana to replenish it.

Points

Each point of mana collected, no matter where it is allocated, is added to the overall point total. The points collected in each area of the game will give a score for that area, and certain point value (depending the area itself), will afford ranks like Bronze, Silver, Gold (although more setting appropriate).