Arcadia

Arcadia is a peer-to-peer game distribution platform.
It lets developers package their games into encrypted torrents and lets players download, verify, and launch them with full ownership.

Unlike existing storefronts, Arcadia is decentralized:

• No revenue cut — developers keep 100% of sales.
• No central servers — games are seeded via BitTorrent.
• No gatekeeping — anyone can publish and anyone can play.

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How it works

1. Developer signs & encrypts

   • Build your game into an .arcpack.
   • Arcadia generates a developer signature (Ed25519) and per-player license (RSA).
   • Output: .arcmanifest, .license.json, .torrent.

2. Game is seeded

   • The encrypted pack is seeded over BitTorrent.
   • Manifests and licenses can be shared over HTTP or any file channel.

3. Player installs & verifies

   • Player runs arcadia get with the manifest.
   • The torrent downloads the encrypted pack.
   • The manifest + license are cryptographically verified.

4. Player launches

   • Arcadia decrypts the pack into a temporary .run/ folder.
   • The executable is auto-discovered and launched.
   • Decrypted files are removed afterward (unless --keep-decrypted is set).

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Usage

Developer workflow (Windows)

REM Run from project root
test_windows.bat

This will:

• Generate dev and player keys (if not already present).
• Pack and encrypt the game from example/game42/.
• Write output to seeds/:
  • game42-1.0.0.arcmanifest
  • game42-1.0.0.license.json
  • game42-1.0.0.torrent
• Start seeding the torrent and serving the files over HTTP.

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Player workflow (Linux)

./test_linux_client.sh   http://<DEV-IP>:8080/game42-1.0.0.arcmanifest   http://<DEV-IP>:8080/game42-1.0.0.license.json   ~/.arcadia/keys/player_rsa_priv.pem

This will:

• Fetch the manifest and license.
• Verify the developer’s signature.
• Download the encrypted game via BitTorrent.
• Install it into ~/.arcadia/games/game42-1.0.0/.
• Decrypt and launch it.

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Current status

Arcadia is in Phase 2 of development:

• ✅ Encrypted packs (AES-256-GCM)
• ✅ Developer signing (Ed25519)
• ✅ Per-player licenses (RSA)
• ✅ Cross-platform testing (Windows → Linux)
• ⚒️ Work in progress: SQLite library, reproducible builds, structured logging
• SQLite library migration
• Deterministic packaging & reproducible torrents
• Structured logs + doctor++ diagnostics
• Robust networking fallbacks (DHT, NAT)

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Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• libtorrent (Python bindings)
• cryptography (installed from requirements.txt)