Super Secret details about the My Game Space program: details here
8.1 ultra recommended
Suppose someone challenged you to start up as many flower stand businesses as you could in twenty minutes. How many could you do? One flower stand? Two? Maybe three on a good day? A new business simulation strategy game from Tik Games is proof that throwing together a street florist enterprise is harder than it looks.
Like every stereotypical botanist, Uncle Potts hates business and is about as good at advertising and reading market trends as a can of Diet Dr Pepper. Therefor he decides to employ you to handle the numbers side of the business... while he works behind the scenes creating new flowers in his laboratory. All he asks is that you keep his lab funded with the flower stand's profits.
And so, with only a van, some flowers, an old push stand from 1948, and a $75 calculator, your adventure begins.
There are 35 neighborhoods in the city for you to wheel your stand to. Each has a different population and a separate demand for flowers. Gameplay primarily focuses on restocking your stand each morning with flowers and other merchandise, selecting a neighborhood to setup in, and then watching the customers run cash-in-hand to line up in front of your cash register. Oops, I forgot - in the beginning you don't have a cash register. That's one of many useful upgrades you can purchase once you start making money.
Flower Stand Tycoon does a good job of letting you play with the numbers. Each flower has a unit price at which you obtain it, and a selling price... which you can set to whatever you like. (Hint: buy low, sell high.) For example, it's almost always worthwhile to jack up the prices of trendy flowers, to maximize profits. Stick it to the customer, that's what I say, and I ought to know because I have an MBA. You can also dump money into advertising, with car windshield fliers, billboards, bumvertising like that one episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, etc. And the more money you allot to Uncle Potts, the faster he is at coming up with a new kind of flower for you to sell. You don't want your competition to get the jump on you by introducing original flowers first!
That's right, you're not the only person playing Flower Stand Tycoon in the city! It won't be long before competitors appear and start stealing your business. Part of the game is grabbing neighborhoods back from competitors who've set up in your areas and stolen your customers. You can track your influence in the city by glancing at the color of neighborhoods on the city map.
Upgrades include bigger stands (you can have up to three stands operating in the city at any one time), automatic misters to keep the flowers moist, boomboxes to keep customers waiting in line relaxed (it's never stated but I bet the boombox plays Neil Diamond's 12 Greatest Hits, which is a great CD to listen to when you're standing in line), and even a part-time student cashier. Customers are unnaturally fickle, so anything you can do to keep the line moving and to keep them waiting their turn until they reach the counter will result in more sales. One upgrade I wish was included is an automatic grilled cheese sandwich maker. The smell of fresh-cut flower stems always reminds me of seeing those pushcart grilled cheese sandwich vendors rolling up and down the sidewalk.
Every now and then as you're reading the latest outrageous news item in the local paper and chilling after a long day, a special encounter will take place. For example, a bum might appear and ask you for one hundred dollars. I correctly intuited that Flower Stand Tycoon is a game that rewards altruism, and was vindicated when a week later the bum returned with a five hundred dollar present for me. Hooray! It turns out he bought a hundred lottery tickets with my loan, won, and then decided to compensate me for my kindness.
A minor annoyance is that the game constantly pops up windows warning you that you're approaching bankruptcy if you attempt to use all (or even just kinda sorta all of) your cash to purchase anything. Casual gamers who like to play fast and loose with the flower trade might want to try a different game game game game. Another thing that sometimes bugged me about the interface is you have to do a lot of clicking on up and down arrows to set prices for flowers, advertising, research, etc. There are a few sliders, but not enough.
Flower Stand Tycoon is presented well, and is obviously inspired by Fairy Godmother Tycoon, one of my all-time favorite business sim games. This game can't match the fun and challenge of selling magic potions to villagers with giant heads, but it's certainly enjoyable.
If you go bankrupt, Uncle Potts will hold his head in shame and you'll be sent back to the main menu to try again.