Who isn’t fascinated by the past? Treasures emerging from the ground, remnants of past civilizations, exotic cultures that are alien and yet so similar to our own...

Archaeology captures our imaginations.  Unfortunately, for most of us, archaeology is a fantasy. We watch digs on TV, visit museums and try to imagine what it would have been like to live so far in the past; we fantasize about finding, or even just touching the exotic treasures behind the glass. Archaeology is engaging, but inaccessible: it takes years of study of ancient history, culture and language to be an archaeologist.  But what if it were possible to package the archaeological experience in a fun, easy to use, interactive product?  That question is what led me to create Roman Town.

Roman Town developed in part out of shoebox archaeology lesson in a colleague’s classroom. The kids loved the activity and immediately engaged in the multi-disciplinary nature of the project: they were excited to use scientific thinking, math skills and historical knowledge together. It was a great project, but there were a lot of drawbacks.  It was expensive and time consuming to create, it was messy, and it required significant archaeological knowledge from the teacher. There had to be a better way.

What began as a quest to improve a classroom exercise evolved into an effort to reproduce the entire archaeological experience. Calling on my years of excavation experience, I built real archaeological technique into the game. Authenticity was my primary goal.  Roman Town turns the archaeological fantasy into reality.  In this game you find out what it really means to be an archaeologist: players experience the thrill of discovering and interacting with ancient artifacts. They excavate a site, analyze artifacts and report their findings in the same way actual archaeologists do. And since I am also a teacher, the game has built-in evaluations (hidden as fun mini-quizzes) to ensure players are absorbing the information presented.

What’s more, Roman Town allows you to do what you could never do in real life: speak with ancient people to find out what life was really like. You get to learn from the inside what daily life was like for regular people, specifically children, something textbooks often leave out. Again, authenticity was at the forefront of my design: the 3D rendered graphics and in depth factual information in Roman Town present a detailed, historically accurate view of the Roman world in 79AD. The only way to get closer to history is to have been there.

Roman Town truly brings history to life in a way no other product does: talk to ancient Romans, tour Roman buildings, uncover and analyze ancient artifacts.  Roman Town truly immerses you in the ancient world. As an archaeologist, I have been fortunate to be able to interact with history in a hands-on way. Now, with Roman Town, everyone can share that experience.