Pickers

Overview

Pickers is a hidden object/store management sim developed and published by MumboJumbo for the PC and Mac platforms.

Gameplay

Pickers gameplay is based on the real life act of picking, which involves people going out and buying items from other people to re-sell. The act of picking was made popular by the TV show American Pickers.

Main Game

In the main game the player has 30 days to make more money than the computer controlled opponents. Each day up to seven items can be bought or earned.

There are 12 different locations, each of which consists of 2 different screens, several closeups, and a hidden object minigame where the task is to find up to a dozen items for money. Once these scenes are completed the player earns a free item which takes one of 7 daily item slots.

After items in each scene are chosen to purchase, the opportunity to haggle with their owner over the cost happens. Their disposition towards the player will change depending on the money offered, which affects how much they can be undercut on their initial price in future haggles.

Once 7 items have been collected, players return to their shop to prepare items for sale. Some objects are obtained in an incomplete state which can be combined in order to make a more valuable complete item. Another way to increase an items value is to restore it at a fixed cost.

An expert can be payed $75 to appraise an items worth. This expert can be called is three different times in a single day. The cost of paying the expert adds in to the items investment total.

Each item can either have a price set for selling it in the store or can be sold at an auction. Auctions can pay big bucks for rare and in-demand items, but sometimes pay less than the appraised value if an item is common or out-of-favor.

Each day has a Hot Category; items in that category can be sold/auctioned off for more during that day.

Unlimited Hidden Object

Finding 40 hidden keys among the scenes unlocks an Unlimited Hidden Object mode that lets the player redo each hidden object minigame, timing how long it takes to complete it.