Lemonade Stand Tycoon | Game Guide and Tips




This game was created because both my daughter and I wanted to build a tycoon game that was fun but also required some thought, strategy, and even a little math (but not too much). It ended up being quite intricate and as such, might seem a little complicated to anyone that's never tried it. I've received a few inquiries online and offline about it and to that end, I'm adding this guide to help define and explain how it all ties together and more importantly, how you can build a successful lemonade stand.

Keep in mind, there is a good portion of the gameplay that is built on chance (or randomization). That was to ensure each time you play it'll be different. But beyond that, there are still certain underlying principals that stay the same. So, here's a breakdown of the different things you'll encounter and how to use them to your advantage.

1. Weather
This is one of the more driving forces that determine how much foot traffic to expect the following day. Naturally, the better weather will draw the most customers. This, of course, decreases with degrading conditions. Overcast skies or thunderstorms will drastically reduce your traffic. Keep in mind that when you check the weather, it is a forecast. The actual next day conditions may differ. That's why it's called a forecast. The best way to determine which way it'll go is to look at the barometric pressure in the forecast. If the pressure is falling, the actual weather may deteriorate. Conversely, increasing pressure may improve weather. Also keep an eye on temperature. Hot days will produce thirstier customers and they'll want colder drinks (more ice). Cooler days are the opposite. Use this info to try to anticipate your inventory needed and make modifications to your recipe.

2. Inventory
You can't sell lemonade without the ingredients. You'll need to purchase and manage your inventory in order to meet the demands. I'm not going into details about how to buy ingredients but there are a few tips here that can help. When you're starting out, don't over purchase. Try to anticipate what you'll need and buy that amount. In the beginning days, it's better to sell out of product than have a surplus of inventory. The biggest reasons for this are that you only have a finite amount of money when you start, and, that your lemons and ice are perishable. This means that at the end of the business day, any extra amount of these products expire and are discarded. Your sugar and cups do not expire though - you keep those. As you build the business, you can upgrade your stock to the refrigerator/freezer. This will preserve your inventory and you won't have to worry about expiring ingredients. Eventually, you'll be able to upgrade stock to delivery. This will pretty much negate the need to shop for inventory anymore- you'll simply receive inventory delivery (as needed) during the business day as long as you have enough cash on hand to pay for it.

Additional tip: When you buy inventory, you can go to your pricing section and it will automatically tell you roughly how many cups you can make based on how much you bought with your current recipe settings. But, if you're good at math, ignore this tip and use your head.

3. Recipe
This is the bread and butter of your business. A good product that meets customer needs will sell. That said, I will admit we've taken some liberties in how this works so keep that in mind. At any point in the game you can tweak your recipe and adjust how many lemons, tsp sugar, and ice cubes you'll use for each cup you sell. As you adjust the mixture, you'll see how it affects the product. You can make it sweeter, more sour, colder, or warmer. Make sure you check your recipe often and ensure it's optimized for the next day's demand. Your lemonade also has an overall quality. This is controlled by the quantity of ingredients you use. Play around with it and find a good balance. Customers will pay more for a higher quality drink but it will also cost you more per cup to make.

4. Advertising
Once you start building momentum, you can begin to incorporate advertising into your agenda. There are several levels of advertising you can purchase and they are done on a per-day basis. Use it to get the word out and improve your foot traffic for the day.

Additional tip: In most cases, you can counteract unfavorable weather conditions with some slick advertising. Just make sure to consider the cost and potential benefit and have fun.

5. Pricing
This is where you make the money. Set the price you will charge your customers for a cup but be careful because this isn't as arbitrary as it might seem (more about this in the customers section). Set your price too low and you may lose money, set it too high, and you'll turn customers away. Not everyone has the same price limit on what they'll spend so give it some thought before you open each day. But still try to have fun, there's a challenge in the game to try to sell a certain number of cups in a day for $2.50 (which is the max price). It's crazy, but I assure you it is possible with the right conditions.

6. Upgrades

Signage: At any point you can change the default sign you have on your stand. Aside from the normal one, there are 4 upgraded signs you can switch to on any day. You'll be charged per-day the price to use that sign. Each upgraded sign has a benefit/effect so check them out and use them to your advantage.

Lighting: Same with signage, you have several upgraded stand lighting options to upgrade with with a benefit/effect and daily cost so check them out also.

Additional tip: Use combinations of signage and lighting to help boost business, sales, or counteract any difficult conditions that arise.

Tip Jar: This is a one-time purchase upgrade. It adds a tip jar to your stand. Once you have it, any customers you sell lemonade to that love your product will likely leave a tip. This is extra money you can make every day if you have it.

More News: Ok, this is more for fun than strategic, but upgrading this will increase the frequency of News Flashes that happen during the game. They can be fun and break up the repetition a bit. More on that below.

7. Customers:
You can't sell lemonade without customers. Each day, based on things discussed to this point, a certain number of customers will pass by your lemonade stand. It's important to remember that each one is unique, they're not a drone of zombies that randomly buy or pass on your product. Customers are divided into three age groups: children, adults, and seniors. Each group has a base price limit and taste/temperature preference for lemonade. But, within the group, each individual customer gets assigned their own price limit, flavor preference, and so on. If a customer walks by your stand and doesn't purchase a cup, it's likely because you didn't meet their criteria for purchasing. Don't worry, these are chatty customers and some aren't afraid to comment on what you could have done differently. Here are some general tips for each age group that may help:

- Children will have a natural preference for sweeter lemonade but not as much money to spend on it.

- Adults will have a more neutral and forgiving preference for taste and a modest price limit. They can be persuaded to spend more if you have a higher quality recipe. Make sure your temperature is on point though- they will not buy if it's 95 degrees out and you're using 1 ice cube.

- Seniors will, on average, be willing to spend more on lemonade but don't really want it to be too sweet.

There's quite a bit more to this but you need to figure it out on your own. Experiment and see what works and what doesn't.

8. News Flashes
The beach area you're operating your lemonade stand in is a thriving summer destination. You'll see beach activity, ocean activity, and the like. Occasionally, you'll receive a news flash on your stand. Make sure you click and read it. It will tell you about news events happening the next day that can dramatically affect your business for the better, or worse. Since these come up randomly and by surprise, I'm not going to list them or go over them individually here. Better to find out on your own but, just make sure you read them. There's always a hint on how it will affect you the next day so you can plan for it accordingly. For fun, most of the news flashes will have a visual treat the next day as well so they're fun to watch.

9. Challenges
Simple, when you play, there are 14 individual achievements to beat. They range from making over a certain profit in a day to selling lemonade in a thunderstorm. See if you can beat them all.

That's about all for now. Will update as needed and we are always welcome to suggestions, comments, and questions that weren't answered here.

Daddy & Daughter

What does the Net Profit/ Loss Mean?

huntertheninja wrote:

What does the Net Profit/ Loss Mean?

Great question! It is the total amount of money you either made or lost for that day.

So, at the end of every business day, it calculates how much you made just selling lemonade and, how much you spent on things like inventory, advertising, and upgrades. If that total is above zero, then you made more money than you spent. If the total is below zero, you lost money that day by spending more than you made. Does that make sense?

okay]

This is great game

How did you make your own forum thing

How do you mean?