
Lemonade Startup – A satire simulator game - kylnew
http://lemonstartup.com
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kylnew
OP here, we developed this game over the weekend for Toronto Game Jam and I
thought the Hacker News community would appreciate the subject matter. There's
a total of 7 endings and one involves getting acquired by Juicebook. See if
you can figure it out :D

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danvoell
A couple nitpicks. It's stressful to land on a page with a countdown to start
and no idea how it works or what I need to do. I couldn't scroll down to the
instructions or forecast. Other than that the interface is pretty slick. Good
luck!

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harvestmoon
It's using Agile methodology. The problem is likely with you ;).

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teejaygreen
After about 10-15 plays, my last 3 games were:

Valuation: 312,057,919 Cash: 1,228,670 Ending: Still in Business

Valuation: 168,777,006 Cash: 949,141 Ending: Bootstrapped (was trying for this
one)

Valuation: 788,748,152 Cash: 1,257,966 Ending: Still In Business
([http://i.imgur.com/Js2ZOYx.png](http://i.imgur.com/Js2ZOYx.png))

What I did was (roughly): Left the price at $1.5 nearly the whole time. I
dropped it down to .50 in the last sprint.

First 5 days researching to get PMF.

Next 15 day designing to get Award

11 days on sales, accepting everything (all 3 carts, salmon, rappers, etc.)
but not the investors. I wanted the extra marketing/sales from the other
things, not the money. Equity be damned! (Damn that "second life" cart, it
steals m'equity! As does the salmon one too. You need all the equities for the
Fruitbook ending.)

Next 8 days on development to get the drops

Then the last 17 day on marketing, always accepting the PR/video/etc
throughout the whole time.

It will largely depend on the weather that last day, but this routine should
give you a good deal of valuation each time. On my $788M run, the last day was
29c "sunny with clouds"

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pubby
Selling $0 lemonade at the end brings your final valuation up to crazy values.
200 million range.

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ch4s3
That was too much fun for such a simple game! I just finished with 50k in the
bank and a $15million valuation. If only life were so easy to game.

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mauricio-OH
The secret to success and not bleed cash is business 101:

\- Sales and Marketing all the way. Nothing else.

\- Go to $10 from the beginning (you are starbucks of lemonade)

\- Accept: free cash, PR, licenses, new locations

\- Reject: Anything that gives away equity or royalties

260k in cash 15.9M valuation

[http://cl.ly/image/2m1F161B1w2B](http://cl.ly/image/2m1F161B1w2B)

~~~
phpnode
more business 101 - after showing initially good results and establishing
confidence, drop your prices to unsustainable levels (i.e. $0) to drive growth
and inflate your valuation, then make a swift exit. This strategy netted me
~$200k + $90m+ valuation.

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jacklockyeruk
I have been acquired by JuiceBook after finishing with $116k in cash and a
valuation of $8.6m.

It seems that the secret is to increase price throughout the game - hitting
$10/cup by the 2nd half of Sprint 4. Also accept any and all popups.

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acomjean
The name reminds me of an old apple 2 game called lemonade stand which was a
simulation of an, wait for it, lemonade stand. It had random weather...I
remember hoping for a heat wave in Lemonsville California.

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kylnew
While not played on the apple 2. A form of that simulator on the web from
younger years was an inspiration for this game.

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kenrick95
I noticed that on one day my valuation can go from negative thousands to
positive thousands and vice versa. So, what is better? Final cash or final
valuation?

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Vagasaurus
Start off designing furiously, get that Super Slick Packaging, and then switch
to Sales/Marketing until the end.

Final Cash: $1,633,350.26

Final Valuation: $147,397,541.20

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wololo_
$190M in valuation after the second try. Trick is to focus on product dev and
then once you reach PMF, just spend on S&M.

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swalsh
There's going to be a blog post about a blood orange lemonade stand selling
for $10/glass on Monday.

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coldcode
Followed by a $2048 Flappy Bird stand.

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ronyeh
Guess I ran it too lean. $30K cash left in the bank, $10MM valuation.... no
acquisition :'-(

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jvreeland
Finished with 19k in cash an 977k in valuation Fun game stressful when you
first land though.

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Jamie452
The day before the end I had a $19m valuation, then it dropped to $10m on the
last day :(

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Jamie452
Looking at the other comments on here.. maybe I should go into the lemonade
business :P

