14 DAY TRIAL // Google Maps is not only a useful service that allows users to view maps and other imagery captured from the satellites but also the base for other interesting solutions. Take for example a recent mashup of Google Maps that displays Liberty City, a town included in the famous game GTA IV. The results of the design are quite impressive and cover a huge area on Google Maps, including all the locations presented by the game and their matches for the real life. The developers sustain they are updating the product periodically as long as other Internet users reveal in-game buildings and locations that are also real areas. Most of the points are providing useful information about the game as well as their names in GTA. For example, Queens is now as Dukes.
"First we used Google Maps editing kit and dropped in all the known locations that have been seen in the trailer. Then we added the Liberty City/NYC boroughs revealed by the Game Informer preview. Finally we drew a boundary around certain geographical locations that we can imagine serving as useful boundary points in the game - sea, major roads and the JFK airport for example. The results are pretty surprising. The area the map could potentially cover is huge," the developers described the design process.
If you want to visit the Google Maps mashup, you can click on this link and zoom in or zoom out to get more information about the real locations. However, the search giant's product serves as a perfect project for many other ideas, allowing developers from every corner of the world to design their solutions. In the past, some users created their own game for Google Maps enabling visitors to fly over the locations displayed on the product and admire the panorama.