Past4Ward Licenses Rome Reborn For Game-based Education Platform

Atlanta-based start-up Past4Ward licensed from Past Perfect Productions the exclusive rights to use Rome Reborn, an interactive 3D recreation of ancient Rome, as the first module of its game-based supplemental education platform. Past4Ward plans to incorporate the Rome Reborn 3D model into a product for middle and high school students, offering MMO-like gameplay and virtual world techniques designed to map to existing curriculum standards and supplement textbook materials. Rome Reborn's virtual reconstruction includes over 7,000 buildings and covers more than 13 square miles. The project was developed by several educational institutions and and companies contributing their technologies, including UCLA, IBM, and Procedural Inc. In November, the Virtuality Group,, a partnership formed with Past Perfect Productions and entertainment group Parco Colosseo, launched Rewind Rome, an interactive center 70 meters from the ruins of the Colosseum in Rome, based on the Rome Reborn model. In addition to developing a game-based learning platform, Past4Ward plans to pitch the platform to commercial video game developers and publishers who are interested in creating products based on the Rome Reborn model. "We are extremely excited to be working with Past4Ward in providing the historical architecture that will become a new format to teach kids about ancient Rome," says Past Perfect Productions CEO Joel Myers. He continues: "A video game of this nature, used in classrooms, combines a stimulating and entertaining learning process with the strengths and familiarity of communications tools students use in their everyday lives, from PlayStations to the Internet."