The American Dream: Past Due

The American Dream: Past Due

About the Game

American Dream: Past Due is a gritty, realistic decision-making simulator. One sudden layoff is all it takes to rip away the comfortable illusion of your middle-class life. You are 40 years old, the weight of your entire family rests on your shoulders, and your only income is a measly federal unemployment check.

Your wife’s questions, your kids’ expectations, the crushing pressure of mounting bills... do you pretend everything is fine, or come clean? Whatever you choose, you must juggle your family's finances and emotional well-being, pay a never-ending stack of bills, and hustle to find a new job. Can you get your life back on track before you lose it all?

Caught between dignity and survival: Experience the suffocating reality of a broken system.

Swipe to Survive


Your kid needs new sneakers—do you yell at them to save money, or pay up?

You're sick—do you go to the clinic, or pop some painkillers and tough it out?
Every daily struggle, unexpected emergency, and moral dilemma boils down to a simple swipe left or right!

Your Worst Nightmare: A Pile of Bills

Utilities, student loans, the mortgage, insurance, medical bills...

They loom over you like the Grim Reaper. You have to walk a tightrope, balancing your health, wealth, dignity, and family.

To pay tomorrow's bills, you'll have to make tough calls today.

Being broke breaks the best of us.


Selling blood plasma, becoming a human guinea pig for drug trials, pawning your wife's jewelry or your kid's baseball cleats...

What horrific things will you do just to make ends meet? Gangs, loan sharks, smuggling—when bankruptcy knocks at your door, will you cross the line into the criminal underworld?

Find work before you go under.

"Yeah, I'm secretly dealing prescription pills, but it's just to scrape together enough cash for a decent suit for next week's interview..."

Key Features:

  • The Harsh Reality: Over 3,000 random events and 10+ different career paths let you experience the true struggles of a family on the brink of financial ruin.

  • Scraping By: Utilize 200+ everyday items to survive. Sometimes, the most common objects can be absolute lifesavers.

  • A Living World: 50+ unique character portraits. You might just recognize some of these folks from your own life.

  • The Cutthroat Job Hunt: Navigate grueling, multi-stage interviews. Hustle to upgrade your skills and polish your resume while dodging debt collectors. Sabotage your rivals if you have to—do whatever it takes to land the job.

Back on your feet, or out on the streets? The choice is yours!

Initial Release