The Game of Business

We've added a bit more texture to the car selling game. Here's how it now works. As the owner of "Aidan's car lot" I have to acquire some "inventory" to sell. This can happen two ways. Sometimes, I negotiate with another car seller for some cars that are already built. Other times, I hire a worker to build the cars for me. In either case, it costs me some money to get the inventory on the lot. Since I have an allowance now, I've got a wallet full of ones, so we use real money in these pretend transactions. Part of the trick is figuring out whether it's cheaper to make the vehicles using the worker or buy them from the other seller.

Next, I try to sell my inventory. I've quickly figured out that it's a good idea to sell my inventory for more than I paid, so that I end up with more ones than when I started. I try to choose cars that I think will especially appeal to my customers so that I can make a good profit on the transaction. My best deal so far was to get my worker to build a "heliplane"---a vehicle that's half helicopter and half airplane. It only cost me a dollar to get one of these built and I was able to sell it to a stegosaurus for six dollars---a tidy profit.

We've also abandoned the not so nice business practice of selling the same car to multiple buyers. Instead, I've become a more honest car seller and make up for the lost profits by doing a greater volume of business by buying lots of cars for the lot.