Remember last week when the news broke that Frogster’s free-to-play title Runes of Magic had recently surpassed the 1 million registered user mark?  How about that partnership with BitRaider for North American players to get them up and running within a matter of minutes?  Remember how I predicted that Frogster and Runes are running at 1000 miles per hour, and could very well give both Maple Story and WoW a run for their money?  Well, I’d love to think that Frogster was listening to me personally, as they’ve recently announced that they’ve secured the services of top illustrator and concept artist Eva Widermann.  She’s charged primarily with shaping the future of game elements.  Another way to read that is, ‘she’s been hired to make the game look wicked!’

One of the common complaints we still hear about F2P titles is their rather drab, if not copy cat graphics and color palettes of other highly successful MMORPG’s (can you say WoW?).  The folks at Frogster have obviously recognized this complaint and have decided to step up to the plate and nip it in the bud, as they further continue to refine the title for Western Markets.

If the name Eva Widermann doesn’t jump right out at you, chances are her artwork already has at some point in the past.  With an extensive resume, she’s worked with some of the biggest hitters in the industry, including NC Soft, EA Games, Wizards of the Coast (Dungeons & Dragons), and Peter Jackson Games.  She splits her time between Karlsruhe, Germany and Cork, Ireland, consistently working on concept art and illustration work.

“For a long while things have looked rather bleak for concept art in Germany and I belong to the majority of illustrators who have seized their opportunities mainly abroad. And so I’m all the more delighted about the cooperation with Frogster and the up-coming projects.” Says Eva
Her first concept piece is show below, and is already in the works via production house Runewalker.  This new art will soon be implemented into Taborea.

“We are continuing to work consistently to tailor Runes of Magic to western markets. Eva’s superb concepts help us in going a long way to bringing this precept into reality.” Said an evidently pleased Andreas Weidenhaupt, Chief Licensing Officer of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG and CEO of Frogster Online Gaming GmbH.

Again, if Frogster’s breakneck speed at reaching 1 million users wasn’t enough to make you sit up and take notice, perhaps bringing in a top level concept artist, as well as the companies unwavering commitment to reaching AAA tier status with a free-to-play title might just do the trick.

Tags: Andreas Weidenhaupt, ea games, Eva Widermann, Frogster, illustration work, Peter Jackson Games, runes of magic, Runewalker, Taborea, western markets, WoW

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 12:02 pm and is filed under industry news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.