Make your own mobile game with Pocket Pal

Often the quirkiest game ideas come from companies you've never heard of before. Such is the case with Pocket Pal, a life simulation that's been developed by Finnish firm Ironstar Helsinki.

In itself, Pocket Pal is a fairly basic collection of mini-games. Its big innovation is that you actually create the game yourself on a website before downloading it.

Well, almost. What you do is customise your character, decorate their apartment, and choose what mini-games you want to be included. Only then do you download the game to your phone, with all your chosen options.

It's an intruiging model – sort of like when Burger King decided you could decide whether to have onions or double relish with your burger. Well, a bit.

Once on your phone, you can make your Pocket Pal character do all manner of activities, including play the mini-games. I played an indoor gardening one at E3 that seemed quite good fun, and there's also a simple Pong game on your character's computer.

Ironstar plans to include all manner of community features too, letting you go online to solve puzzles by collaborating with other players, and even a TV-enabled text-message chatroom. I didn't quite understand this last one, but hey, it sounds suitably cutting-edge.

The game is due out this autumn in Finland, but Ironstar plans to launch it in other countries too: the game already works on over 200 handsets.

If it comes off, Pocket Pal could well be a piece of connected gaming with wide appeal. Click "Track It!" to keep in touch.