Through time, we strive to being more ‘in’ the games. Most of the time, we do this using new technology. Better graphics, better face emulation, better voice acting, etc. More and more the making of a game is getting up to pace with the making of a Hollywood production.

Then we have the other camp. The Nintendo Wii, example given. They give you a golfstick/baseball bat/bowling gloves to literally make you ‘feel’ like you’re in your game.

Today we’re going to review the third camp. People who look at the ‘being in the game’ thingie in a whole other, perhaps literal way.

Pictogame – Play Free Games & Make Your Own

The above is featured as the article’s title. But what exactly does it mean? What exactly does Pictogame do?

Make Online Games

You might’ve already deducted it from the title, but Pictogame uses a picture (i.e. of you) to ‘put you into the game’. Do you want to know how handsome/cool you’ll look with a semi-automatic rifle in your hands? Here’s your chance to find out. Pictogames gives you access to 38 adjustable mini-games.

After you’ve modified the game to your liking (either by adding your face in a shoot-em-up game, or by designing the circuit of a racing game), you can post your productions on the site, on your blog, or on your MySpace profile.

Play Games

Besides your semi self-produced games, you can also play other great flash games shared by the users of this great community. Every day new games are added to this catalog of thousands.

Another great feature is the RSS feed you can subscribe to. Every day you’ll be notified of new games.

Make Friends

Pictogame tries to make the community work. You can chat whilst playing, comment on the games and become ‘friends’ with the makers. The site embraces a YouTube-similar community system.

The Pictogame developers are also working on Pictoworld, a community card game, which will hopefully be released soon.

In short,

In short, Pictogame is a hugely promising site. You can bring your personal touch to several mini-games, or browse through the great free games catalog which is supported by the community. This community also expresses itself through chat-rooms, comments and personal profile pages. A site worth checking out.