Killing Fields is the second sketch in the “The 5th Commandment” series, a cycle of short games that address the nature of war and killing. Throughout this series various forms of classical core gaming mechanics are altered to take a focused look on the nature of war and killing throughout the ages. While The Fallen employed a mutation of the First-Person-Shooter mechanic to tell about the war in Eastern Ukraine that started in 2014, Killing Fields will look at the My-Lai Massacre that happened during the Vietnam war on March 16th in 1968. Killing Fields wants to focus on the story of the victims, not the perpetrators.
The player will take on the role of a villager that are returning after nightfall at the site of the massacre and have to bury the dead before sunrise. The game will initially not reveal the background information, but information layers will be gradually peeled open.
The task is at hand: You need to conduct the necessary first rites to grant their dead relatives and neighbours peace. Every soul laid to rest will trigger a piece of memory. That could be a name, a face, scene from the village life, but also moments from the massacre. Slowly the village’s past will come to life, from its peaceful moments to the shocking end.
