UX and onboarding · all games
Reward reveal
The short animation or sequence that shows a player what they won, such as a chest opening, a card flip or coins counting up.
Also called: reward animation, chest opening, reveal animation
A reward reveal is the moment between earning something and seeing it. Instead of adding items to an inventory silently, the game stages the result: a chest shakes and opens, cards flip, a number counts up, a rare item gets a flash and a sound.
The pause helps the reward register. A staged reveal gives the player time to notice what they got, and bigger staging for a rarer prize tells them it was special, so the effort goes where the player cares most.
Reveals also set pace. One that feels delightful once can feel slow the fiftieth time, so some games let players skip or speed it up.
In mobile games
On mobile, reveals usually follow a win screen, a chest or a gacha pull, and often end on a button to collect or continue. The screen also often hosts an offer or a prompt to double the reward by watching an ad.
What to watch for
- No way to skip. A long reveal that repeats every few minutes adds friction, so offer a skip or a fast mode.
- A reveal that hides what is in the box. When the reward is random and bought with real money, app store rules require the odds to be shown before purchase.
