Jatinga Village — Assam, India
From October to November on a relatively small strip of land in Assam, India that’s about 200 yards wide, thousands of local birds plummet to their deaths by flying straight into the ground. They do this at the same time of year, every year, as they have for the last 100 or so years. They never bother to take a year off, and it always occurs between the hours of 7 and 10 PM.
It’s not a specific species that develops a sudden and violent attraction to dirt, as over 44 different species of birds have partook in this “event”. Scientists have no shortage of theories about it that range from the plausible — strange magnetic fields, a monsoon fog that disorients the birds — to the really-you’re-a-scientist-and-that’s-what-you-came-up-with, which attempts to use the lights in the village as an explanation. Because, clearly, this village is the only place on this big beautiful planet that has that sort of thing.
Also, because people are gross, the local government has turned the village into a tourist destination, complete with viewing platforms where you can stand and witness — maybe even record for a future YouTube posting — the mass suicide of countless birds. I imagine this is much like a car accident. If it happens, you’re going to slow down to see what’s up. If birds start falling from the sky, it will get me to pry my eyes from my laptop’s monitor for a minute or two, but it takes a very “special” person (i.e. soulless asshole) to actually go out of their way to watch something like that.
As for weaving a video game around this, I’d rather not focus on the annual mass suicide of our feathered friends (because that makes me kind of sad) and instead center it on the thing that’s causing it. My theory is this whole time the birds have been breaking their necks, literally, in an effort to warn us of the indescribable darkness that lurks under that 200 yard-wide strip of land, watching, waiting.
The game would follow someone who’s sent in to investigate, then some scary stuff ensues and you eventually overcome it all to solve the problem/vanquish the evil — but not entirely, we do have to make room for sequels. Then, as a reward for your remarkable efforts to save all of bird kind, the birds gift you with the ultimate reward and crown you the Bird King.
