mattyflexx's Lemonade Stand Game v1.0.0 --- Now public!

Hey everyone!

Welcome to mattyflexx's Lemonade Stand Game! This is my first ever video game. It is designed to be charming, addictive, and endearing. 

In early June, I went to go find the classic lemonade stand game from my childhood, and I struck out. Wanting to relive those glory days, I decided I would teach myself a little bit about coding, and try to re-create that magic. I knew nothing about coding whatsoever, but with the help of AI, I was able to build and finish it in less than 30 days --- this includes devoting one full week to producing a 9-song soundtrack for the game of all original songs. The soundtrack is actually quite good, and comically overshadows the game's simple plot and poor graphics.

Before I get into the update, I first wanted to thank my son, Hampton, who bravely did everything possible to exploit every component of my game. In doing so, I was able to identify not just cosmetic issues, but tangible flaws with the game mechanics.

I am crazy proud of this, and I hope some of you out there have a chance to enjoy it as much as I do.

This first public release, v1.0.0, is packed with features, fixes, and quality-of-life updates to make your launch experience as fun and smooth as possible. Here’s a rundown of everything I've been working on since v0.9.9 --- it's a lot.

The Soundtrack & Audio Overhaul

I might have gotten a little carried away with this one.

• 9 Original Songs! I spent a whole week writing and recording 9 unique music tracks for the game. I busted my ass on these, and I'm genuinely proud of how they turned out.
• New Audio Menu & Playlist: There's a brand-new audio menu in the settings where you can independently control the volume for music and sound effects. You can also pause or skip songs in the new playlist.
• Listen on YouTube: If you like the music, I've added a link in the audio menu that takes you directly to the full soundtrack playlist on YouTube!

Making Each Day Unique: The Event System

To make every 30-day run feel different, I've added a major event system to the game.

• Dynamic, Choice-Based Events: I've added a system to trigger unique events that will only appear once per playthrough. These present you with choices that have real consequences.
• 14 New Unique Events: Get ready for anything! You might get interviewed on the "Good Morning, Lemonville!" TV show, deal with a "Duck Invasion," negotiate a "Rival's Truce," or even find a "Stray Dog."
• Random Daily Events: On top of the unique events, I've added smaller random occurrences to shake up your daily routine. Watch out for a new "Sugar Tax," a visit from a picky "Lemonade Connoisseur," or a boost in demand from a local "Construction Crew."
• Choice events actually have different outcomes with different probabilities --- that means if you choose to hire "Pucker Pete", you may be rewarded this round, but it may cost you in the next round. 

The Big Stuff: Major New Features

These are the game-changers that create a more complete and rewarding experience.

• Three Ways to Compete: The leaderboards are live! You can now compete for the top spot in three different categories: Total Revenue, Return on Investment (ROI), and Customer Retention.
• Save & Continue is Here! This was a big one. The game now automatically saves your progress at the end of each day. You can quit anytime and use the "Continue" button on the main menu to jump right back in.
• Overhauled Daily Reporting: The old bar chart is gone. Now, you get a clear "Daily Report Card" and a "Market Capture" pie chart. More importantly, the report gives you individualized feedback that takes your pricing into account and explicitly tells you what customers were actually willing to pay. This feedback will help you to understand the pricing system like never before.
• Check Stats In-Game: You no longer have to finish a game to see how you're doing. I've added buttons directly on the main game screen to pop open the Achievements and Leaderboards whenever you want.
• In-Game Restart Button: You can now restart your game from the main screen without a full page refresh. Don't worry, there's a confirmation pop-up to prevent tragic misclicks.
• I have also added a "how to play" page that will help players to discern what is important as they start their lemonade journeys.

Gameplay & Balancing

I took a hard look at the core mechanics and made some significant adjustments to improve strategic depth.

• Major Upgrade Rebalance: The Wholesale Card felt underpowered, so I've reduced its price to $150 and boosted its discount to a much more impactful 25%.
• Umbrella Overhaul: The umbrella is now your best friend on rainy days. It will double your potential customer traffic, turning a bad day into a strategic opportunity.
• Smarter Recipe Logic: I reworked the recipe system to prevent an exploit where super watery lemonade could get a "perfect" rating. The game now considers the total amount of ingredients, not just the ratio.
• Guaranteed Heat Wave: To ensure an exciting endgame, a Heat Wave (at least 3 hot/dry days) is now guaranteed to occur in the final week of the game.
• Granular Reputation: The price bonus from your reputation now increases in smaller, more gradual steps, making each point feel more meaningful.
• "Practice" Mode: I've renamed "Easy" mode to "Practice" mode. This is a risk-free sandbox for learning the ropes. To keep the competition fair, scores from this mode won't be posted to the leaderboards.

UI, Polish & Quality of Life

These are the smaller touches that make the game feel better to play.

• Fireworks Celebration! When you successfully complete all 30 days, you'll be treated to a fireworks display on your final report. I also found and deleted a pesky invisible panel that was blocking the view.
• A Proper Splash Screen: First impressions matter! I added a new title screen and standardized all the menu icons with a clean, uniform style.
• Smarter Social Media: The end-of-day social media posts are now much more dynamic and accurately reflect what happened. (Thanks to my son, Hampton, for catching the original weirdness!)
• Skip Leaderboard Submission: Don't want to post a score? No problem. There's now a simple "Skip" button on the submission screen.

Critical Bug Squashing

I spent a ton of time hunting down and crushing game-breaking bugs to make sure your launch experience is solid.

• CRITICAL Audio System Overhaul: The music player was... stubborn. I rebuilt it from the ground up to ensure the new 9-song playlist plays seamlessly, even when you start a new game. This was a nightmare to fix, but it's solid now.
• CRITICAL Radio Ad Bug Squashed: Fixed a game-breaking bug where using a Radio Ad would prevent the end-of-day report from appearing. This was a nasty one, and it's been eliminated.
• End-of-Game Screen Fixed: I resolved the issue where the final victory screen wouldn't appear after Day 30. It now works as intended.
• Event System Crash Fixed: The game would sometimes crash on startup when trying to process an event before the game had even started. That's fixed.
• Mobile Display Fixed: The main selling animation screen has been updated to scale correctly on all device sizes, especially mobile phones.
• Achievement & Stat Fixes: I fixed a bug that caused the "People's Champ" achievement to trigger multiple times and corrected an issue where your reputation score could go above its intended cap of 100.