Sort 31 games:

The Endless Crisis Of Low Income Living

Realistic poverty isn't a subject that is commonly featured in video games. The medium rarely asks players to balance finances with real-world consequences or to experience absolute economic destitution.

I spoke to Adam Crowley, author of Representations of Poverty in Video Games. He talked about how, instead, many games offer players an experience of poverty tourism, that is -- a chance to go "slumming" in a digital world. Players, Crowley says, can observe the working poor and can wander through disadvantaged communities from a position of privilege in many games. This, he explains, establishes a fanciful relationship with poverty, one in which poverty is experienced as mere entertainment.

While games rarely include "absolute poverty," where you have no access to the things that you need, they do sometimes include "relative poverty," which forces you to consider economic contexts.

This is where we landed for this list. These are games that offer not only a representation of working-class people living on low incomes but invite you to step into these settings. This sometimes comes with the hope of engagement or making a statement about these things, but equally can simply offer the chance to get a better understanding of this way of life.

This list includes 31 games from the last 10 years, with 256 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to work for minimal money.

List Details

PEGI Ratings: PEGI 3 to PEGI 18
ESRB Ratings: ESRB EVERYONE to ESRB MATURE 17+
Australian Ratings: G to R 18+
Genres: Action, Adventure, Battle, Brain Game, Collecting, Communication, Creative, Fighting, Narrative, Platform, Point-and-Click, Puzzle, Race, Rhythm, Role-Play, Sequencing, Shooting, Simulation, Stealth, Strategy, Traversal and World Building
Total Likes: 256

Related Lists

We have other Identity lists of games:

Bury Me My Love

Release Date: 26/10/2017, updated in 2020

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon and Text

Bury Me My Love is a narrative adventure game where you play the husband of a Syrian woman, Nour, travelling to Europe. Play involves receiving and sending simple messages where Nout tells you how she is getting on and you influence her choices. It...

Citizen Sleeper

Release Date: 05/05/2022

Out Now: PC, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon, Dice, Grid and Text

Citizen Sleeper is a role-play game set in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism. You are an escaped worker exploring a lawless space station, making friends, and (ultimately) trying to escape your past. Each cycle you roll dice and decide how to spend...

Papers, Please

Release Date: 08/08/2013, updated in 2017

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS Vita and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Papers, Please is a narrative puzzle game where you play the role of a border-crossing immigration officer in the fictional dystopian Eastern Bloc-like country of Arstotzka. You review each immigrant’s and returning citizen’s passports and paperwork...

Disco Elysium

Release Date: 15/10/2019, updated in 2021

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Disco Elysium The Final Cut is a role-playing game set in the fictional city of Revachol where you play Harrier "Harry" Du Bois who must solve a complex murder. Unusually, your choices and actions not only determine how the story unfolds but affect...

Far: Lone Sails

Release Date: 02/04/2019

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Far: Lone Sails is an exploration adventure video game. You pilot a ramshackle amphibious vehicle propelled by large sails to explore a post-apocalypse world.

This War Of Mine

Release Date: 14/11/2014, updated in 2016

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and iOS

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Day and Night

This War Of Mine is a narrative strategy game inspired by the 1992–96 Siege of Sarajevo, this is a war game where you play the civilian trying to survive during the fighting. You face tough decisions on how to spend time and resources each day to...

Cart Life

Release Date: 25/04/2019

Out Now: PC

Components: 2D Side-On, Pixels and Text

Cart Life is a simulation game where you play one of three street vendors. You attempt to run their shop whilst looking after their health, interests, and families. It has simple visuals, but depicts the realities of the thin-end of life.

Far: Changing Tides

Release Date: 01/03/2022

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Far: Changing Tides is an exploration adventure that follows Far: Lone Sail. You work to keep your dilapidated craft from breaking as you explore the ruins of a flooded world.

Democratic Socialism Simulator

Release Date: 20/02/2020

Out Now: Android, PC and iOS

Components: 2D Side-On, Hand-Made and Text

Democratic Socialism Simulator is a puzzle game where you run for office and then run a country. It offers a flow of questions with a yes or no response. Each answer has consequences in the minds of the voters and the prosperity of the country. It's an...

Eastward

Release Date: 16/09/2021

Out Now: PC, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks and Pixels

Eastward is an adventure game about a miner who meets a young girl in a secret facility. Together you explore the decaying cities and discover the truth about her origins and what’s behind the creatures who are destroying everything. The narrative is...

Sunset

Release Date: 21/05/2015

Out Now: Mac and PC

Components: 3D First-Person

Sunset tasks you with cleaning a large apartment in a fictional 1970s South American city. But outside the apartment, there is unrest and rioting. The chaos of the country and the repetitive daily chores grate against one another to create a meditative...

Change: A Homeless Survival Experience

Release Date: 01/05/2020

Out Now: Mac and PC

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Change: A Homeless Survival Experience is an adventure narrative game where you play a homeless person trying to make it against the odds. It's intentionally hard to do well as you explore an endless city that's different every time you play.

Dot's Home

Release Date: 22/10/2021

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

Dot's Home is a narrative game where you play a black woman in Detroit exploring the impact of racism in the past and the results of it today. You travel through time and interact with the characters you meet, learning about redlining, gentrification...

Going Under

Release Date: 24/09/2020

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Going Under is a satirical adventure game where you play an intern in a failing start-up company. The game proceeds like other dungeon adventures with enemies to defeat and quests to find items, only here it's all in aid of keeping your boss happy while...

Not Tonight

Not Tonight (Series)

Release Date: 17/08/2018, updated in 2020

Out Now: PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Not Tonight is a tongue-in-cheek role-play adventure where you challenge the political establishment in alternative versions of Post-Brexit Britain (in the first game) or capitalism-run-rampant America (in the sequel). You take on a time pressured...

Sludge Life

Release Date: 28/05/2020, updated in 2021

Out Now: PC and Switch

Components: 3D First-Person, Hand-Made and Open World

Sludge Life is an open world adventure where you play as Ghost, a graffiti artist determined to put his tag all over Sludge City. You play in an adult world full of lived-in locations and intriguing characters. It requires some caution, but beyond the...

Dustborn

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Dice

Dustborn is a road-trip adventure set in America 2030 where all information has been lost. You and your misfit friends must cross this divided world to deliver a package from California to Nova Scotia. It's unusual not only because of the setting but...

Luck Be A Landlord

Release Date: 06/10/2020

Out Now: Mac and PC

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Luck Be a Landlord is a simulation game where you collect symbols to build the ultimate slot machine, win lots of money, and defeat capitalism. You choose the tokens like deck building games, then have repeated attempts to win money like a rogue-like...

Talk to Strangers

Release Date: 19/04/2019, updated in 2023

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Day and Night and Pixels

Talk to Strangers is a narrative adventure where you play a struggling door-to-door salesperson selling mysterious wares to the neighbourhood. You talk to the residents in an effort to convince them to buy your goods while simultaneously using your...

VA-11 Hall-A

Release Date: 21/06/2016, updated in 2019

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS Vita, PS4 and Switch

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action, to use its full name, is a narrative game about a futuristic bar "VA-11's Hall-A", known locally as Valhalla. You serve drinks and talk to customers, to learn their stories and piece together the daily struggle...

Flat Eye

Release Date: 14/11/2022

Out Now: PC

Components: 2D Overhead

Flat Eye is a narrative strategy game where you run a gas station in the near future. Play is a matter of making money from customers by adding products and streamlining efficiency. But what really stands out here is the web of corporate and management...

Scrap Riders

Release Date: 09/01/2023

Out Now: PC and Switch

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Scrap Riders is an unusual mix of point-and-click adventure and brawling game where you play Rast, an outlaw biker making his way through the wastelands. You play as a smuggler, by taking on fights with various enemies. But also you need to talk to...

This is a True Story

Release Date: 22/03/2022

Out Now: Android and iOS

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Hand-Made and Weather

This is a True Story is a narrative adventure based on actual events and interviews. You play a woman in Africa on her daily journey to go and collect water for her family and witness the events that play out on the way. The simple gameplay and...

Landlord of the Woods

Release Date: 17/03/2021

Out Now: Mac and PC

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Landlord of the Woods is a point-and-click adventure where you play a disaffected 25-year-old who starts working as a woods keeper. Play involves getting the woodland houses ready for each tenant who has specific requirements.

PixelJunk Scrappers Deluxe

Release Date: 10/04/2020, updated in 2023

Out Now: Apple TV, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Hand-Made

PixelJunk Scrappers Deluxe is a futuristic fighting game with a twist. You are not only battling the bots but fighting to manage waste as you traverse the city streets and take out the trash. You can play the game on your own or in a team of four...

The Last Night

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: Mac, PC and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

The Last Night is a narrative game set in a neon-bathed, hyper-advanced future where you are a second-class citizen wrestling with your place in the world. As you traverse the Blade-Runner-style city districts, you talk with characters, evade constant...

Citizen Sleeper 2

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon, Dice, Grid and Text

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector continues the role-play adventure with a new story about an escaped corporate-owned android with a price on its head. Each cycle you roll dice and decide how to spend them, on repairing your ship, on trading or on...

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor

Release Date: 16/09/2016

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Cartoon and Open World

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor is an intentionally dull (and weird) adventure game about picking up trash as a Janitor. You work to find garbage for the incinerator (or to sell) with the thin hope of leaving the planet for a better life. It's a bizarre...

The Big Con

Release Date: 31/08/2021, updated in 2023

Out Now: PC, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon

The Big Con is coming of age adventure game where you break the law to make your way in the world. You play a curious high schooler who ditches band camp to go on a cross-country road trip to save her mum's video store.

Dead Pets Unleashed

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Dead Pets Unleashed is a narrative rhythm game about a struggling punk band wrestling with life and the challenges of getting older. You play the songs in rhythm-action elements, while also getting to know the locals and managing the progress of your...

Resistor

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Resistor is a racing game where you use tricks and dirty tactics to win races, in an effort to take down the dystopian establishment. It draws its racing from Burnout, but between each event there threads a narrative about power and money. This...

Curated lists:
Game genre:
Style of Play:
Components:

How long to play:
User-generated content:	No
Accessibility features:	Yes

Controls
Gamepad:
Mouse And Keyboard:
Touchscreen:
Motion:	Motion Aiming Motion Pointing Motion Tilting Motion Gesture Motion Camera
Remap Controls:
Button Combinations:	Holding Down Buttons Optional Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional No Simultaneous Buttons
Controller Vibration:
Sensitivity:

Getting Started
Onboarding Before Play:
Assistance Getting Starting:	Tutorials Practice Area View Control Mapping Assistance With Controls Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Adjust Speed No Jump Scares
Assistance For Progressing:	Guaranteed Progress With God Mode Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints Assisted Progress With Boosts Assisted Progress With Hints Assisted Recall for Characters Assisted Recall for Narrative and Dialogue Save Progress Anytime

Reading
Reading Level:
Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text High Contrast Text
Subtitles:
Captions:
Voice Acted:

Navigation
Clarity:
Head-Up Display:
Menu Navigation:

Visual
Contrast:
Interactive Elements:
Visual Distractions:
Audio Cues for Visual Events:
Narration for Visual Elements:
	Motion Sickness Friendly
Colour Options:
Play Without Sight:
Violence:

Audio
	Balance Audio Levels
Audio Events:
	Play Without Hearing

Communication
Player-to-Player Online Communication:
Online Communication Assistance:

Difficulty
Difficulty Options:	Simple and Full Version No Memorisation Advantage No Hidden Information No Deceit Advantage No Colour Advantage No Mathematics Advantage No Weighing Decisions

Getting Started
Assistance Getting Started:	Clear Manual Electronic Version of Manual Electronic Version of Manual for Screen Readers Getting Started Video Digital Version Reference Aid
Assistance Progressing:	Play Order Tokens (Or play order doesn’t change) Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Low Impact Catch Up Rule

Reading
Reading Level:
Necessary Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text on Board (Or no text required) Large Clear Text on Cards (Or no text required) High Contrast Text (Or no text required) QR Code For Text (Or no text required) Primary and Secondary Text Distinguishable (Or no text required) Information Orientation Clear Icons

Physical
Pieces:	Components are Distinguishable by Touch Components are Replaceable No Non-Standard Dice (Or No Dice) No Tiny Pieces No Paper Money No Sprawl
Cards:	Large Card Size Standard Card Shape Limited Hand Management No Excessive Card Shuffling No Right-Handed Advantage
Placement:	No Unbound Placement Player Components Not Shared No Fiddly Placement Easily Verbalised Actions

Visual
Printed Visibility:	Colour Blind Friendly Design Double-Coding Colour High Contrast Colours
Component Identifiability:	Outline Key Elements No Busy Backgrounds Easily Verbalised Game State No Close Inspection Disadvantage Playable Without Sight

Audio
Communication:	Audio Cues Mirrored Visually (Or no critical audio signals) No Pressured Reveals No Pressured Communication Playable Without Hearing

Search:
Type:

Minimum age rating:
Age of player:

In-game purchases:
Cost:
Released:

Difficulty
Difficulty Options:
Adjust After Setting:

Gender and Sexuality
Gender and Sexuality Choices:
Gender Representation:
Sexual Orientation Representation:

Search by game

Search by interaction

Refine for your family

Video Game Accessibility Filters

Controls

Difficulty

Getting Started

Reading

Navigation

Visual

Audio

Communication

Board Game Accessibility Filters

Difficulty

Getting Started

Reading

Physical

Visual

Audio

Diversity and Inclusion Filters

Gender and Sexuality

The Endless Crisis Of Low Income Living

List Details

Related Lists

Subscribe to our free newsletter