This week’s game of the week Top Eleven is the only title by Serbian developer Nordeus. The bootstrapped company, based in Belgrade and founded by ex-Microsoft employees, was awarded Best Gaming or Social Games Startup at The Europas award, last week. Within the past 18 months, Nordeus grew from three people to a team of over 40 and overtook  EA’s FIFA Superstars on Facebook in June 2011. Most recently, an Android version of Top Eleven was launched.

Developer: Nordeus
Genre: Sports, Manager Games
Platform(s): Facebook, TopEleven.com, Android
Launch: May 09, 2011
Languages: English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Serbian, Greek, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Slovenian, Slovakian, Japanese, Dutch, Czech, Estonian, Thai, Swedish, Hebrew, Croatian, Malaysian, Bulgarian, Bosnian, Arabic, Korean, Finish, Albanian, Hungarian
Monthly Active Users on Facebook: 3,300,000 (November 21)
App Downloads on Android: 50,000+ (November 21)
Monetization: Free-to-play with paid premium currency

What’s inside?
A football (soccer) manager simulation game in which users lead a fictional football club through various contests and compete against other players on Facebook.

What’s it all about?
The goal is to manage a small club and turn it into a champion by controlling tactics, transfers, stadium and infrastructure and finances.

Everything is entirely customizable from players' outfits to stadium facilities.

How to play
The game delivers a classic desktop sports manager gaming experience combined with the social possibilities of the Facebook platform. Players select, train and build their own squad to compete over the course of a 28-day season, with matches taking place once per day. Those at the top of the table get promoted into the next league, facing tougher opponents, more money, better players and the incentive of a Champions Cup. Managers are responsible for every detail of running the club, from developing players careers, picking the best sponsorship deals and building new stadium facilities. For a Facebook game, Top Eleven is astonishingly feature-rich, almost overwhelmingly so. A meticulous attention to detail is part of the game’s allure, so new options and tweaks are added regularly. Thanks to a clean interface and numerous tutorials, players can become accustomed to the controls easily.

The squad's lineup and tactics can be tweaked in every detail.

Top Eleven has a paid in-game currency called Tokens, which are needed for a variety of things: placing bids on players, motivating players, improving players’ condition, or speeding up processes such as injury recovery or construction of facilities.
The Android version utilizes Facebook connect, so users can continue the game with the same account across platforms.

Who’s playing?
The game’s user base is mostly located in Europe, and it comes as no surprise that Top Eleven appeals to a predominately male audience – 90% of players are men (according to data derived from Facebook’s ad targeting engine).