Roman Town by Dig-It! games - TOS Review

 I don't think my girls have ever been as excited for a review as when I told them we were doing another from Dig-It! Games. We did their Mayan Mysteries game last year and the girls loved it. This year we got the Roman Town (iOS App) which is a investigative game-based learning app for the ipad that requires iOS 8.0 or later to run.

Dig-It! games is the brainchild of Suzi Wilczynski who has a background in Mediterranean archaeology and teaching. She has managed to create an amazing series of archaeology games that my kids love.

Once I downloaded the app, I let the girls loose - Lilly and Sunflower both started playing individually but soon had a helper each with Tulip and Rose joining in.

Roman Town starts with the discovery that Ladrone, the master thief, is at it again and It is up to you to track the villain whilst exploring and learning about Roman culture. You start playing (as either Charlie or Fiona) by visiting with tourists in Pompeii. Each time you talk to a different character there is a pop-up voice bubble that shares information and sends you off to complete tasks (games and puzzles) and gain clues. There are 4 different scenes in Pompeii; the Street, House of the Vettii, the Baths and Temple of Jupiter. 

There are various mini games or challenges which include identifying artifacts, translating Roman numerals, memory games, pipe puzzles, Calculi (a Roman board game), code breaking, knuckle bones, jigsaw games, dots and boxes, mazes etc. The great thing is you can try each game as many times as you need until you have 'won' and got the clue.

I loved that the mini games were great for developing problem solving and critical thinking skills but my favourite aspect was how historically accurate the information is and how much knowledge the girls have gained just by playing   : )

I felt the game was brilliantly designed and provides a great depth of knowledge as it is packed full of historical facts and information. It is a fun way to encourage a love of history and I can see most children really enjoying this method of learning through play.

The app provided the girls with several hours worth of fun learning and they seem to have retained loads of information. Lilly's favourite game was the artifact match and code cracking activities while Rose really enjoyed converting Roman numerals into numbers and playing 'five in a row' otherwise known as Calculi.

Rose even said it was the best game she had played this summer and she would happily play this again (always a good sign that it went down well).

Roman Town is designed for ages 9-11 but Rose (6) and Tulip (8) both enjoyed playing with a bit of help. The best news is the app is free although there are some in app purchases.

You can see what my crew mates thought of this and some of the other Dig It games over at the TOS Blog