This game puts the player in the holey shoes of a street person, navigating the intersections and back lanes (with keyboard arrows) of a simplified urban grid for one day. In the sort of narrative twist only possible in video games, things might just turn around for you over the course of that 24-hour period, if you can effectively manage three factors: Esteem, which you want to build, and the double antagonists of Hunger and Bladder (which, if left unchecked, you can well imagine negatively impacts on self-esteem.)
While much of the town is off-limits for the homeless, there are still sites to visit in order to manage your meagre affairs as best you can: dumpsters and recycling bins can yield bottles for return at liquor stores or goods that can be pawned at open-air street markets; church-run soup kitchens can take the edge off your Hunger for free, while restaurants and all-night coffee shops will only silence your growling gut in exchange for hard-earned nickles and dimes. Public bathrooms are a good place to vent your Bladder, but as with most of these businesses, it’s closed and unavailable all through the night.
If enough successful scavenging is conducted to allow the player to tame their tormenting impulses with regular access to food and toilet facilities, their esteem grows to the point that they presumably give up street life and pursue the long, slow route back up through a shelter, a welfare case worker and job training programs. But that’s a whole other game!
