Ever wanted to blow up the centre of Bradford and re-design it yourself?

A new computer game will let you do just that by "zapping" any building you like - from much-loved landmarks like the Odeon to brand new developments like the banana-shaped block in Centenary Square.

The city's architecture is to be the basis for one of the most complex computer games ever made to help people feel part of the regeneration.

Steve Manthorp, special projects officer for Bradford Council, said: "The idea is to give people pride in the city and an interest, and a way of expressing that.

"Some people find themselves unhappy with the way the city is and, hopefully, this is a way of allowing them to do something about it."

Buildings have been reproduced in 3-D for the new game - called Plasticity - and players will be able to walk, run and possibly drive around them in cars or wheelchairs on screen. They will even be able to "swim" in the masterplan's city hall lake.

Players will have different "wands" at their disposal to alter buildings by growing, shrinking, stretching, squeezing or retexturing them by painting them or replacing bricks with stone. Buildings can be removed completely and replaced with fantasy structures.

"There will also be an 'Alsop wand' which will only operate on certain targets," said Mr Manthorp, referring to Will Alsop, the architect behind the city centre masterplan.

"Using it will spectacularly transform the current features into the Alsop vision of the city.

"Rather than a cold, passive fly-through, Plasticity will allow players complete freedom of movement in real-time, with models and textures rendered in high resolution.

"Having created the City Lake for themselves with the Alsop Wand, they can walk around it or even swim in it."

Mr Manthorp said the personal level of interaction with the masterplan would make people feel part of the regeneration process.

When it is ready, the game will be used in schools and media centres across the district to generate debate and interest in the development of Bradford and to provide data that will be used by regeneration bodies, architects and city planners. Mr Manthorp said the final city created by each playing of the game would be saved and all the ideas pooled to create a "democratic city".

He said: "This is going to be one of the most complex games that has ever been made and it seems that it can only run on high-end (the most powerful) machines so there is little point in making it down-loadable, but it is still our dream to put it on the Internet, it is simply a question of how it is going to be done."

The computer-generated images have been modelled by Austrian computer games artist Mathias Fuchs, who is a senior lecturer at Salford University, and a team of three gaming experts: Kelvin Ward, Umran Ali and Vera Schlusmans.

Plasticity is the first project funded by the Lightwave project, which is a collaboration between Bradford Council, the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, the University of Bradford and the Learning and Skills Council for West Yorkshire.

The project's aims are described as being to pioneer and promote new forms of creative industry content, develop new models of participatory learning, inspire fusions of grass-roots and expert cultures, foster innovation and wealth-creation through collaboration, to drive a regeneration of cityscape and life.