Crytek teams up with British Library for ‘Off the Map’ contest

An unusual collaboration has been announced, uniting UK students, Crytek’s CryEngine 3 and the British Library. It’s for a contest of sorts called ‘Off the Map,’ in which the undergraduate students will be tasked with creating a gaming environment based on hand-picked historic maps.

An expert from the British Library has picked out a selection of documents for the contest, including “a proposed plan to rebuild Stonehenge [pictured], and an important engraving of London made months after the Great Fire of 1666.”

The students will be free to adapt these maps with CryEngine 3 however they please, and it’s hoped that “entrants will use the opportunity to try new approaches and to create interactive environments that push at the boundaries of the definition of what a videogame, and a map, can be.”

There are no specific restrictions or strict rules to the process. Crytek simply wants to be “surprised.” Entries for the competition will be taken up to 28 February and the results are scheduled for October 2013.

You can read more about Off the Map here.