Minecraft is a hugely popular game, the hugest even, and a large part of its popularity comes from the ability for players to create almost anything within the game world. Crafty players have made castles and cathedrals, to playable adventures and musical arrangements, familiar starships and elements of other games, and even working digital computers using nothing more than blocks of various materials.

Some truly ambitious players decide that even this isn't enough, though. Take YouTuber N11cK and his collaborators, for example: They have been working on a project to recreate the entirety of the Grand Theft Auto 5 map in Minecraft and are documenting their progress online.

Grand Theft Auto 5 wasn't exactly a small game, and recreating its full map is going to take some time. The map was started on January 10, 2015, and as of the time of this writing has been in development for one year and 10 days. The team has posted 175 updates on its progress (as of January 20, 2016), keeping fans and subscribers in the loop so they can follow the map's development.

According to N11cK's YouTube channel, the project is intended to be a 1:1 recreation of the entire GTA 5 world; it's estimated that the final map will be approximately 7,500 x 7,500 blocks in area. The team plans to recreate everything, including the game's skyscrapers and mountains. Video update #175 showed a note hidden in a tunnel that was used during the first story mode heist in GTA 5, indicating that underground areas are being recreated as well.

Maps like this exemplify the greatest things about Minecraft. Even if you've never been able to design anything amazing in the game, you can hit YouTube and see the awe-inspiring feats that others are pulling off on their servers. Being able to follow along with the development can be pretty inspiring, too, and may even teach you a few tricks that you can use when working on your own maps.

Of course, there are probably those who think it's silly to put this much work into a map for Minecraft. N11cK and his cohorts don't seem to have many detractors, though; looking through the comments of his videos mostly just shows people who are excited about the project and want to tell him and the team what a great job they're doing. That might be the most amazing thing about some of the Minecraft projects like this: they can even get the comments section of YouTube to be nice.

Next: Microsoft Unveils Minecraft: Education Edition

Minecraft is available on all platforms including, most recently, the Nintendo Wii U.