Choreographed Emotion—How to Create a Legendary Card Pack Opening

Many of the Top Grossing mobile games have something in common. They use gacha monetization systems to drive a dominant share of their in-app-purchase revenue. The system was popularized in Japan, mainly for card collecting games, and is now employed globally across a variety of game types.

Gacha experiences are based on toy vending machines where each turn of the crank offers you a chance to win the elite, rare items needed to improve and complete your collection. Often, users receive less exciting common rewards. But the perception is, the more you play, the better your chances of winning the good stuff.

In mobile games, users are paying premium currency, so it’s essential they feel good about the purchase. By crafting a card opening sequence with choreographed emotional peaks, you will make the experience surprising, fun, and repeatable.

Start

Pull a lever, spin a wheel, get it started

Successful Japanese games usually present a machine with a lever or similar mechanism that requires the user to perform a gesture. Besides adding some fun, this ensures the user is paying attention and ready to start.

Puzzle & Dragons, Monster Strike, and Marvel Contest of Champions start the process with a gesture.

In the West, most games initiate the process when the user taps Buy. They jump directly to the summon animation or even the reveal itself. This is a missed opportunity for drama and choreography. It’s important to set the stage for your epic reveal.

Imagine how much less fun it would be in the physical world if you bought a pack of baseball cards and the dude behind the counter ripped open the package and handed you the cards. Not delightful.

Summon

A quick animation builds anticipation.

Users spend a lot of money on card packs. They spend time stalking the purchase, weighing their options and projecting their return on investment. Make the buying process more interesting and expressive with a summon animation.

It should feel like the process is alive as it randomly assembles their card pack. The animated sequence should be very short. If you see users tapping the screen to skip the animation, it’s either too long or boring.

Marvel Contest of Champions gives the user a feel for what they may win during the animation.

Preview

The cards appear. Highlight rare cards before they flip over.

This is the first emotional peak in the sequence. Users will get really excited when they realize there is a super-rare card in the deck. In some cases, this is even more exciting than seeing the actual card. Give their imagination a moment to run wild before revealing what they actually won.

This is the emotional response you‘re looking for.

Indicate rarity with color, contrast, and movement. Don’t force users to memorize more than 3 types of rarity. For example, if your scheme is Common, Uncommon, Epic, and Legendary — only highlight Epic and Legendary. Lump the lower rarities into a single presentation.

• Color—use color with particle effects or other motion to maximize visual emphasis. Use gold for the highest rarity. It’s a well-understood convention that maps well to real life. One less thing for the user to learn and memorize.
• Contrast—use treatments that are different enough to obviously stand out from the basic cards. Some people have difficultly discerning tints and shades, so don’t depend on this entirely.
• Movement — movement is one of the best ways to draw attention, since it takes advantage of a primal survival skill. It also pairs well with color and contrast to compensate for the variation in people’s color perception.

Hearthstone highlights rare cards with color, contrast, and movement.

Reveal

Celebrate rare cards dramatically to delight and inform.

This is the apex of the experience, the highest emotional peak. This moment determines whether the user feels delighted or disappointed with their purchase. It’s absolutely critical to hugely celebrate rare cards. In additional to rewarding their purchase experience, you are also teaching new users which cards are valuable and giving them hints about which ones to keep or try using in their deck.

Conversely, if you’ve appropriately set expectations, winning common cards shouldn’t feel like a letdown. Start by making the reveal for common cards feel quick and satisfying and build up the drama from there. There are many cases where users will not win any high rarity rewards and it’s important they don’t give up on buying future card packs as a result.

Despite their low-fi aesthetic, P&D nails all the core points.

• Celebrate top rewards — apply the same principles as the Preview step above, but kick it into high gear. This is not the time for subtlety. Make it really obvious when the user has won a rare card. This is the maximum return on their investment and they should be elated!
• Focus — maximize the most valuable attributes of your cards. If you have exceptional character art, make the cards large enough to show it off. If stats are the main value, ensure the numbers are legible.
• Common cards — don’t waste time playing up the reveal on these when there are rare ones in the pack. Make it clear that these are not the top rewards, though still valuable. You might flip them automatically, especially if it’s a card the user has received before.
• Teach — new users will be unfamiliar with your content. Teach them which cards are valuable. Make it obvious that this is a card they can be excited to win, try in a deck, and invest in leveling up.

Summary

After all cards are revealed, allow the user to inspect each one at their own pace.

Many experiences skip this point, but I have found giving users a chance to appreciate what they’ve won fosters stronger affinity and a better sense of satisfaction in the purchase. The user starts to envision how they would use each card. Will this fit into one of my current decks? Which card will benefit most by fusing this one? Is this the catalyst I’ve been waiting for?

Ultimately, this step should inspire the user to continue purchasing packs and building out their card collection.

Legendary lets you covet the beautiful art, stats, and back story for each card.

Repeat

Care for another?

Since the user is already in the process of buying and collecting, it’s a great opportunity to offer them another chance. Encourage them to try again for that top reward! And if they won big, give them a shot at extending that luck to another spin. Make it easy to continue the winning streak and continue building their collection and strengthening their deck.

By focusing on emotional peaks and choreographing a rewarding experience, you will increase your player’s satisfaction, increase revenue, and encourage retention.

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