Nazi German soldiers occupy Paris. France has no hope of military victory, and signs away the proud sovernty of her citizens in return for survival. But the French spirit of ’Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité’ will not be easily supressed, and the French Revolution is born. Freedom will triumph, but it requires heroism, determination, and cunning. La Femme de la Résistance tells the story of an unsung hero who turned the tide in the battle for liberty.

Dures (pictured) is the main character of 'La Femme'. She is middle-aged landlady of Chien Noir, a popular bar in the Latin Quarter, Paris. Her bar survives even during wartime though Dures's diplomacy skills, and it is now a popular hangout for German offices. Unknown to the German patrons, the bar has a double function as a French Resistance stronghold.

Dures is clever, sympathetic, and has a strong rapport with both the German occupiers and the French Resistance. Although she has grown to know and like several regular German customers, her loyalty is fiercely French, and she uses her influence to extract information useful to the resistance. Dures' sharp wit, unassuming appearance and ability to capitalise on alcohol-loosened tongues make her a valuable information source for the French Resistance.

Early in the game, Dures is drawn out from her diplomatic role, and into the battlefield. As a woman she is often treated as being harmless and is under-estimated. Big Mistake. Dures is adept at sneaking around during a battle (pulling up her skirts as she moves), gaining information, assisting soldiers, and directly engaging in conflict when necessary. For more information of Dure's abilities, go here.

Her weapon of choice is a two-piece pool cue. The dismantled thicker end is used as a club, the whole cue is used by her to fetch or damage distant objects. She carries the dismantled cue under her skirt. As a silent weapon it suits her way of solving problems and matches her occupation as a bar owner.

French Resistance

The French Resistance featured in La Femme is the small cell of soldiers housed in the secret underground barracks below Chien Noir, Dure's bar. The player will be able to interact with a small set of soldiers, each with their own name, personality, skills and preferences. As the player acquires more funds, Chien Noir will expand it facilities and barracks, so more soldiers will be able to join in operation. The leader of this cell is Philippe, Dures' son.

German Officers

A set of German officers frequent Chien Noir, and see Dures as a trustworthy, motherly figure. La Femme features four individual Officers which the player will relate to on a personal level. Each of them has favourite items of contraband, areas of German intelligence (which can be exploited), and varying degrees of individual conscience.

German Soldiers

German Soldiers are the principle enemy is La Femme. German Soldiers' duty is to maintain the order in Paris, and will not attack unless provoked. However, the soldiers will gun down any member of the French Resistance, or anyone acting suspiciously. While the player is sneaking around the mission, they will overhear conversation between certain soldiers. Each will be presented to have their own personalities, needs and desires where appropriate, to demonstrate that soldiers are people, not just killing machines.

Philippe

Philippe is Dures' son, and the leader of the Chien Noir cell of the French Resistance. Philippe helps around the bar during the day, and relates well to the regular German Officers, while secretly plotting their downfall. Philippe's specialty is turning Dures' intelligence into workable plans to destabilise the occupation, complete with detailed maps, which players use to navigate the battlefield.

A major aspect of the game is the relation of Dures to other people in the world. The game will feature around five to 10 members of the Chien Noir cell of the French Resistance, and four German Officers.

Each person has a loyalty value towards his or her “leader”. For example, all German Officers start with a varying degree of loyalty towards Germany’s military command. German Soldiers are loyal toward the officers. On the French Resistance side, the members have strongly loyal to Dures and Philippe.

The loyalty value divides all people in the game in the two groups “Loyal to the French Resistance” or “Loyal to the Germans”. The latter group also includes all French people, who are scared of suppression and therefore submit to German command. They will have a very small loyalty value towards the Germans, so can be easily turned.

A major element of the game is winning or losing people from and to the German side. People may change sides as a result of actions taken in the game, experiencing extreme situations, obtaining background information or unfair treatment of their commander.

People have special characteristics and skills. Many of these skills are needed for solving a mission in a clever way, that’s why the player should make good friends with those people and try to win their loyalty.

All these people may appear in missions and are a major element for building up the storyline. People are controlled by AI in missions and can be interacted with.

La Femme features a unique pictorial representation of Paris. The rendering is completely realistic, but it is processed through a special filter to give the look of an French impressionist painting, which dominated the art scene prior to World War II. Throughout this document you will find many pieces of concept art from our talented concept artist to give a good indication of the styles of the characters and location.

For further reference, interior locations such as the bar Chien Noir will be presented with a high level of detail, similar to that in Shenmue. Battlefields will be gitty urban outdoor areas, shown in a state of disrepair akin to those in Full Spectrum Warrior. The impressionistic filter acts full screen on the frame buffer, like the film grain effect seen in Silent Hill 2. This means the artists will concern themselves with creating realistic depections, and the post-processed effect creates the impressionistic feel. To round out the package, High Contrast Lighting, similar to that in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will be employed to mimick the grainy impressionistic light depiction.

German Officer Hans Fritz had been drinking heavily, when Dures subtly extracted the location of a large ammuniation cache from him. Her son Philippe worked for two days non-stop on a plan to claim this prize from the French Resistance. Just after Philippe’s cell departs on the mission, Officer Fritz is again frequenting the pub, when he makes the offhand comment:

“Let those French Resistance buggers try to claim our weapons. We have snipers of the rooftop around the clock. Not a single soul will come home alive.“

Dures excuses herself, and heads out into the field, to reroute the mission and bring her son’s cell to victory. She must organise the French fighters to complete their mission safely, and act as the only form of communication between squads, as their plans fall apart in the chaos of battle.

Instead of trying to simulate or incorporate all major locations in France, the game will feature only the struggle of the Chien Noir cell in Paris, with periodic updates from the other cells around France to enhance the story. This concentrates the gameplay, and ensures the player relates to the cast of character on a personal level.

The game follows the exploits of the resistance cell over one year – January 1941 to January 1942. At the end of the game, Paris is liberated from Nazi occupation, largely due to the cells actions. This is not historically accurate, but provides a compelling gameplay story.