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Shops

Nine shops, eighteen things to sell, and a price and a recipe on every one of them. Guests do not buy because you built it - they buy because they are hungry, thirsty or tired.

Four things a guest feels

Shopping is not a shopping list - it is the answer to whatever is bothering them at that moment.

Hunger

Climbs on its own all day, and only food brings it down. A famished guest is a miserable guest, and a bowl of noodles fixes it where a coffee will not.

Thirst

Climbs as they walk, and much faster after anything salty. That is the whole reason to put a drinks stand next to the snack bar.

Energy

Spent on walking and on every ride they board. A bench tops it up partway for free; coffee is the biggest lift in the park.

Bladder

Fills slowly, and quickly from drinks - coffee worst of all. Sell a lot of cola and you had better have built some toilets.

Energy and hunger are not the same thing. A coffee is the biggest energy lift in the game and barely a mouthful; a plate of noodles is a meal. That is why the coffee shop and the snack bar are both worth having, and why neither one replaces the other.

How a shop works

Placing it is the easy part. Getting guests to the counter is the game.

1

It serves from one side

Every shop has a counter on one particular face of it, and turning the shop with R turns the counter with it. Guests queue on that side and nowhere else.

2

A road has to reach it

If nothing walkable touches the counter, the shop sells nothing at all - and its window says so, rather than leaving you to wonder why the takings are zero.

3

One guest at a time

The counter is booked before the walk, not on arrival, so a guest who cannot get a slot picks a different shop instead of forming a scrum outside this one.

4

They carry it away

The cook hands it over and the guest walks off eating, drinking or holding it up - and, some distance later, looking for a bin.

Every shop

Prices below are what a shop opens with. They are yours to change, and the numbers beside each item are what it does to the guest who buys it.

Snack bar in Amusement Factory

Snack bar

Four lines · the most filling stop in the park

Hot food to order, and the messiest shop you can build - everything here comes in a wrapper.

Burger€ 8
Fills 50 Energy +48 Thirst +16 Salt dial
Hot dog€ 6
Fills 40 Energy +38 Thirst +20 Salt dial
Pizza€ 7
Fills 46 Energy +44 Thirst +14 Salt dial
Sandwich€ 5
Fills 34 Energy +30 Thirst +6 No dial

Cold, plain and cheap. Nothing to get wrong.

Cafe in Amusement Factory

Café

Three lines · the sit-down one

A proper coffee house. Lay a paved terrace of tables and chairs out front and guests will sit down, set their cup on the table and stay a while.

Espresso€ 4
Energy +55 Quenches 12 Bladder +26 Strength dial
Cappuccino€ 5
Energy +40 Quenches 22 Bladder +24 Strength dial
Pastry€ 4
Fills 24 Energy +16 Thirst +6 Sugar dial
Noodle shop in Amusement Factory

Noodle shop

One line

A proper meal, and the best energy in the park short of coffee.

Noodles€ 9
Fills 55 Energy +52 Thirst +22 Salt dial
Hot dog stand in Amusement Factory

Hot dog stand

One line

A street kiosk that does one thing well, and fits into corners a proper shop will not.

Hot dog€ 6
Fills 40 Energy +38 Thirst +20 Salt dial
Coffee shop in Amusement Factory

Coffee shop

One line

The biggest pick-me-up there is. It goes straight through a guest, though - every cup fills a third of their bladder.

Coffee€ 4
Energy +60 Quenches 18 Bladder +30 Strength dial
Soft drinks shop in Amusement Factory

Soft drinks shop

Two lines · the fastest way to deal with a thirsty crowd

Cold and fizzy. What goes in must come out, so a busy drinks stand makes for busy toilets.

Cola€ 3
Quenches 55 Energy +16 Bladder +28 Sugar dial

The sweeter one: more of a lift, quenches a little less well.

Lemonade€ 3
Quenches 68 Energy +10 Bladder +24 Sugar dial

The best thirst quencher in the park.

Ice cream shop in Amusement Factory

Ice cream shop

One line

Scoops in a cone, eaten on the spot - so no wrappers to clean up after.

Ice cream€ 5
Fills 18 Energy +26 Quenches 8 Sugar dial
Popcorn and candy in Amusement Factory

Popcorn & candy

Two lines

Fairground snacks. Salty enough to sell drinks for the stand next door, and sweet enough to be pure mess.

Popcorn€ 5
Fills 22 Energy +20 Thirst +18 Salt dial
Candy floss€ 4
Fills 16 Energy +18 Thirst +12 Sugar dial
Gift shop in Amusement Factory

Gift shop

Three lines · nothing here answers a need

The one shop that sells nothing a guest actually needs, and the one whose stock advertises itself.

Umbrella€ 12

Off sale unless it is raining - and then everybody wants one, over anything else in the park.

Souvenir€ 8

Handed over the counter and put straight in a pocket. A little something to take home, and it cheers them up.

Balloon€ 3

Carried on a string for the rest of the day, cheering that guest up the whole time - and every guest who walks past one wants their own. The only purchase that survives boarding a ride.

Tuning a shop

Click any shop to open its window. Price and recipe are set per item, per shop - two snack bars on opposite sides of the park can run completely differently.

Sugar · salt · strength

Turn the dial

Most items carry one dial that runs from 0 to 100. It scales what the item does - between 60% and 140% of its headline effect - and it is always best left near the middle.

0 · inedible 50 · just right 100 · inedible

The satisfaction cost grows with the square of the distance from the middle, so a small adjustment is nearly free and either extreme makes the product horrible. Guests still buy it. They just do not enjoy it, and the park's reputation notices.

  • Sugar drives the energy an item gives back - and how sickly it gets.
  • Salt drives how thirsty it leaves them. Turn it up and watch the drinks stand queue.
  • Strength drives coffee: more energy, and a much fuller bladder afterwards.
  • No dial touches how filling something is. A saltier burger is still a burger.
Price · 0 to 99

Set your prices

Every item has a fair price, and guests judge yours against it. You can charge whatever you like - but there is a cliff, not a slope.

You chargeWhat happens
Under the fair priceA bargain, and they know it
Around the fair priceEverybody buys
A bit overThey pay, and grumble
1.8x or moreThey refuse - loudly

A guest cannot see the price until they get to the counter. That is deliberate: they make the whole walk, refuse in front of everyone within earshot, and will not come back to that shop for a while. Overprice one stall and it empties out rather than merely annoying its customers one at a time.

Stock is not free. Every sale costs the park what the item cost to put on the counter, so the takings are not the profit. The shop's own window shows you both, per line and in total.

Weather moves the till

Demand is not fixed. Every item is either served cold, served hot, or neither - and the season and the sky decide which of those a guest fancies.

  • Summer sells ice cream, cola and lemonade, and leaves the coffee going cold.
  • Winter and autumn do the reverse - hot food and coffee carry the park.
  • Rain pushes any day toward coffee weather, whatever the month says.
  • Umbrellas only exist while it rains, and then they outsell everything.

Cold things

Ice cream, cola, lemonade. Wanted in the heat, ignored on a cold wet day.

Hot things

Coffee, noodles, burgers, pizza. The colder and wetter it gets, the better they sell.

One gift shop pays for itself in a single downpour

A guest caught in the rain wants an umbrella more than they want anything else in the park - including the ride they were queueing for.

What happens afterwards

Selling a guest something is the start of a chain, not the end of one.

Wrappers

Nothing is dropped at the counter - guests carry a wrapper well down the road before they think about it. If a bin is within reach they walk over, pause and use it. If not, it goes on the ground. Click any bin to see how much use it gets: one sitting on zero is standing somewhere nobody walks.

Toilets

A toilet block has to be come across, like a bin, so one block in a far corner will not serve the whole park. Set a fee or leave it free - free costs you a little on every flush and buys real goodwill. Blocks get dirty with use, and a cleaner will pick a filthy toilet over a dropped wrapper every time.

Somewhere to sit

Lay a paved terrace outside the café and dress it with tables, chairs and umbrellas. A tired guest carrying a coffee will sit down and set it on the table rather than holding it in mid-air - and benches along the paths do the same job for free.

Now go and build something for them to queue for.

Nineteen rides, four thrill bands and a dial on every one.

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