In what might have been an extended fit of madness, the British Geological Survey has recreated the entirety of Great Britain in Minecraft. Should you feel a desperate need to wander around Plymouth or Runcorn reimagined in blocky, pixelised form you can download the project for free.
MinecraftGreat Britain was created from data gathered in the 2013 Ordnance Survey, and covers England, Wales, Scotland and several smaller islands just off the coast.
“The Minecraft blocks were produced using data from the BGS’s soil parent material map,” the BGS told Eurogamer. “In the UK, parent materials provide the basic foundations and building blocks of the soil, influencing their texture, structure, drainage and chemistry.”
“By using the parent material data BGS holds it’s possible to get a general understanding of the types of geology found across Great Britain which is then translated into Minecraft blocks.”
Okay, so don’t expect sweeping, grandiose architecture - this is more of a terrain model, with various areas, rare resources and so on represented by different Minecraft blocks. Still, it goes to show just what you can do in the game’s engine. Check out Eurogamer’s walkthrough video below.
