Last week, we spoke to Tom Harper, the British Library's curator of antiquarian maps, about new and innovative projects the library is working on. It's impressive to see over 3,000 tagged maps being used in a Flickr project. But the British Library also has a load of other exciting ideas on the go, such as its Off the Map competition, which sees maps being used to help develop computer games.

“The Off the Map project started last year,” explains Tom, “and it involved us sourcing digital copies of historical maps, and making them available to universities and video game students, getting them to build virtual worlds using the historical maps. It was a chance to make our content available, getting people to run with it and to be creative.”

“Off the Map was a tester project,” adds Tom. “It was a small competition involving eight universities. We had expectations for how it would progress, but we weren’t entirely sure what the end result would be. But it’s great to throw stuff out there and see what happens.”

“We let the students create their own virtual worlds, and there really weren’t any limits to what they could use. In the end, not only did they use our maps, they also started using their own photographs, their own soundtracks, their own content. They used whatever they had around at the time, and it shows what really smart people can do with a bit of code.”

And while online, digital versions of its maps help the British Library to reach a much wider audience, competitions like Off the Map also help to get a younger demographic interested in historical maps. Tom adds:

“Reaching younger people is one of the pluses of working with video games. It’s not always younger people, granted, but it generally seems to be the case. We’ve got the collections, we’ve got the objects, but a part of every collection is that it continues to make its material relevant to successive audiences, and to adapt to changing conditions and research.”

What would the original map makers think?

The use of historical maps in video games highlights just how far we’ve progressed, and we spoke to Tom about what the original map makers would think of the results.

“The things you can do with maps and creating 3D visions is just amazing. I’m very interested in the people who made these maps in the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries. These were people who were using the very best tools at their disposal: The best equipment and the best engraving tools. They were pioneers really. It’s amazing to think of what they’d make of what we have today.”

“I think they’d be absolutely startled at the virtual reality we can create in front of us and around us,” adds Tom. “I think they’d be genuinely astonished.”

What about people in the present day though? Tom has his own favourite map when it comes to the Off the Map project, and he highlights a historical creation of 1666 London, just after the Great Fire (shown at the top of this post). “It’s one of the most brilliant pieces of engraving you’ll ever see,” says Tom. “It looks like the embers in the fire are still warm."

You can see out what some of the entrants in the British Library's Off the Map competition have come up with in the video below:

As for the competition itself, the next set of winners will be announced in October, and we’ll be chatting to the British Library again closer to the time to see what the students have come up with.

What are the best maps you’ve seen used in video games? Leave a comment and let us know.