Unlike most other Facebook games, you can also play with people not in your social network, which opens up the possibility of meeting new friends, and expanding your network. But as you'd expect from the makers of Desktop Tower Defense, the strategy game aspects of Backyard Monsters are incredibly well-balanced and polished, yielding hours of fun figuring out the best arrangement of offensive and defensive units.Ī friend of mine used his defensive wall blocks to write this message - then launched a sneak attack on me!Īnd as you'd expect from a game integrated with Facebook, you can play Backyard Monsters with your friends on the network, helping them build their own fortress, giving them gifts, or (why not) attacking them too. It plays like a leisurely, whimsical version of Starcraft or Command & Conquer, but there's as much emphasis on creativity and the Zen garden pleasure of enhancing and perfecting your fortress. (See below.) The premise: You create a miniature fortress of towers, walls, and a monster-making factory in your backyard, then attack neighbors' enclaves with a savagely cute horde of beasts, while defending your own territory from meep-meep invasions. Backyard Monsters is a real-time, resource management strategy game reinvented for Facebook, and it's a very compelling answer to the question, "What comes after FarmVille?" While that game still dominates the category of social games, there's been a steady evolution in the quality and complexity of smaller Facebook games, and in my opinion, Backyard Monsters is in the vanguard of social games that will make this a true, sustainable genre.īackyard Monsters is from the developers of Desktop Tower Defense, the insanely viral epic Flash game, which means I can proudly say I had a small, very indirect hand in its creation.