The visuals are quite charming, with the goofy little people wandering the neighborhood (or mall, or whenever you put your stand in later levels) and a capable interface that makes buying supplies and prepping recipes easy on the peepers.
Advertise to the right demographic and they will come. You provide a product the public wants and they will buy. Anybody with an ounce of entrepreneurial curiosity in them will immediately take to Lemonade Tycoon, as it manages to present all the aspects of business leadership and required horse sense you might find in a college classroom without the insane tuition. Lemonade Tycoon is a freakishly inventive, clever, and addictive game. Exclamation points mean the wait was just too long. The inverted grin with the squinty eyes means your mix was either too sour or too watery. A big smiley face means they dug your product. When they visit your stand, you can gauge their satisfaction by tiny thought balloon that appear over their heads as the wander away. They move to and fro, going about their business. The people that visit your stand are groovy little automatons cut from the Sims. Get a line, and you might miss some crucial sales. On a hot day, you need to crank out that beverage to keep the customers coming by.
Use those profits to upgrade your stand with superduper equipment, like an industrial-grade juicer that will mix your lemonade faster. Stick with it, though, and take time to consider all the variables that can go into a single day of lemonade slinging, and you'll soon be turning incredible profits. Too many days of losses and it's time to hang up that "We lost our lease!" sign. Make appropriate adjustments for day two and try again. But it's good experience, a way to start learning about the fancies and fickleness of your customers. No matter what, you ain't gonna break the bank on that first day.
And if it's overcast, try a little extra sugar to appeal to the communal sweet tooth. If it's a particularly hot day, consider using more ice than usual in your mix. Judge the weather and neighborhood before you draft your initial recipe, because once the day has started, there's no changing the formula. You must use your capital to buy supplies, like lemons, sugar, cups, and ice. You start the game with an empty stand a a few bucks. Tired of watching your profits disappear into the ether on the stock market? Bummed that your combo fro-yo/tire shop went bust? Go back to business school by setting up a lemonade stand in a quiet neighborhood and reacquaint yourself with the basics of business: supply vs.
Now, the sweet sim is back on your cellphone and PDA, thanks to Hexacto, and it's up to you to rid the neighborhood of scurvy, once and for all!
A crash course in business sense, you learned how to manage profit with cost, how to gauge customer response, and the inherent value of sugar in any enterprise. Years ago, when Commodoe 64's ruled the classroom, Lemonade Tycoon was considered a killer app.