Flower Stand Tycoon

Flower Stand Tycoon is about a chic urban floral business with some hefty profits to be made. In the game, your Uncle Pott's has a dream of nurturing a great florist business. Fortunately for you, however, Uncle Pott's is more of a bioengineer than a businessman, and would rather spend his time inventing new flower cross-breeds than being a salesman. He hands you his van, $700, and an old flower cart to start, and you're sent out to make your fortune as a budding Flower Stand tycoon.

To start, you'll need to stock your cart with inventory. Inventory includes both flowers and merchandise. The variety of flowers you can sell will increase with further research. Merchandise (like balloons, teddy bears, and wind chimes) is earned as you reach certain objectives, such as taking over competitors territories. Until you've bought the refrigerator upgrade, your daily supplies can not be carried over the next day, so select carefully. While restocking, you can also adjust your prices to meet with customer demand.

Once you've gotten your cart stocked, you are ready to select a target neighbourhood. Your flower stand is mobile, and can travel to a different neighbourhoods each day. You may purchase more carts later on in the game, allowing you to visit different neighbourhoods at the same time. The features of each neighbourhood and its customer base are unique, so you'll find differences in the amount population and customers' favourite flowers. After selling flowers in a neighbourhood, demand will go down temporarily. It may take several days for demand to replenish, which is why its a good idea to visit different neighbourhoods each turn.

As the day is being played, you can observe your carts on display monitors. The customer's reactions give you vital feedback on your business strategy. Satisfied customers are market with a happy face. Disgruntled customers may be upset over high prices, long wait times, or lack of flower variety. At the end of each day, you will get news article hinting at things that affect the following day's sales. As you'd expect, you may buy a variety of upgrades for your carts. Lights attract more customers, and music makes them more patient. Calculators improve your speed, and refrigeration allows you to roll over unused supplies. Larger carts can handle more inventory, plus have a bigger presence and attract more customers. Allocating more money towards Uncle Pott's research means you'll have faster access to new flower types. Advertising means more customers and better market share. You'll also have regular access to research which can assist you in making strategical choices.

Later in the game, you will begin to have competitors. Each neighbourhood will give you a statistic on your market share, along with the competitors'. When your market share is higher than all competitors, the neighbourhood will be highlighted in your colour - orange. Competitors will also have their own highlighted neighbourhoods. You can take over by getting a higher market share, but they can likewise take over your territories, so its important to keep an eye on market share trends.

You'll notice numerous similarities in Flower Stand Tycoon to both Fairy Godmother Tycoon and Ice Cream Tycoon. The concept of market share and competitors is a nice twist that makes the game more interesting. While not unique in mechanics or theme, it is relaxing and never turns the pressure up too high. All things considered, its fairly easy to learn how to play, and most of the rules can be figured out as you go. However, while tycoon games always have an audience, Flower Stand Tycoon doesn't seem to offer anything special or interesting to the player. The game play also appears open ended, with no real goals outlined for the player other than "becoming a tycoon". There aren't any major twists, the plot is rather minimalist, and the game play can be somewhat predictable. In contrast to Fairy Godmother Tycoon, which was full of humor and clever cutscenes, Flower Stand Tycoon is a bit more plain. There are no jokes or interludes or anything of the sort, short from the cute newspaper headlines shown in between each day. While it's tough at times to figure out what the main point is, other than earning a daily wage, Flower Stand Tycoon does offer accessible tycoon gaming with a no-pressure attitude.