Beggar Simulator: Istanbul is a first-person job simulation set on the streets of a contemporary Istanbul. The player controls a man who is not destitute but performs destitution for money, renting a costume and an act each morning and choosing where to work. A traffic junction, a covered bazaar, a mosque courtyard, a nightlife avenue and a metro concourse each draw a different crowd and reward a different approach. Begging is handled through a dialogue menu whose lines are weighed against the passer-by being read, while the act that was rented restricts which lines can be used without breaking character. Municipal enforcement officers, pickpockets and rival beggars press on the working day, and the money earned goes on food, on a place to sleep and on the next day's rent for the act. Hunger, illness and sleep carry over between days.