Draft:American Arcadia (2023 Video Game)

American Arcadia is a 2023 platformer adventure game developed by Out of the Blue Games and published by Raw Fury. The game follows 28-year-old Trevor Hills (Yuri Lowenthal) as he attempts to escape from the titular fake utopia of Arcadia with the help of activist Angela Solano.

Plot
The plot of American Arcadia is presented as a documentary. The game starts with an episode of the TV show Architects of Tomorrow, in which Elijah Walton talks to animated dog Comet about the plans for a new city called Arcadia. Trevor recollects about his old life in Arcadia, describing the events that led to “That Dreadful Day”. Trevor mentions that before the aforementioned day, he worked at INAC with his best friend Augustus Rainey, or Gus. After a conversation, Trevor goes home, where he sees an advertisement for the “Edge Travel Grant”. After another quick interview section, the game cuts to nine days before the “Dreadful Day”. Trevor repeats his routine, but notices that Gus is gone when he arrives at work. After asking his coworker where Gus is and working for many hours, the player must enter CCTV mode, where they must turn off all the power in Trevor’s office, and a snippet of a song plays that states, “They’re lying to you, don’t be a fool”. Next, the game skips forward 3 days, where it is announced that Gus has won the Edge Travel Grant, and is now in Fiji, which is most likely a reference to The Truman Show. When Trevor returns home, that same snippet of music plays through his TV. Then, another time skip, now 4 days before the “dreadful day”. When Trevor walks into work, the same song plays again.