Sara Brooks of Facebook at Casual Connect in Seattle this morning.

Facebook may be known for Zynga’s FarmVille and other laid-back games, but there’s a big opportunity for third-party developers to make more titles on Facebook that appeal to “core” gamers — the types of people who might have traditionally spent most of their time using living room consoles.

“With the improvements in 3D technology, and the hyper-accessibility of our platform, we really think that core is poised for growth,” said Sara Brooks, who manages strategic game partnerships for Facebook, speaking to the crowd at the Casual Connect conference in Seattle this morning.

In the area of core games, Brooks cited War Commander, from Kixeye, as the leading example, but said there’s lots of room for more of those types of games on Facebook.

That’s one of three genres that present big opportunities over the next year, Brooks told the audience. She also pointed to sports titles and casual turn-based games. Although Draw Something and Song Pop have made their mark, she said, there is room for more competitors.

“I really have a challenge for you all on who is going to be the next Song Pop,” she said.

Given Facebook’s large user base and its big role in the games industry, the session was an opportunity for the game companies in attendance to refine their strategies as they look ahead to their next projects. Because of Facebook’s influence, it also provided a hint as to what types of games Facebook users will be seeing over the next year.

Brooks noted that a Facebook exec last year at the conference noted the relative dearth of hidden object games on the social network, and has since seen a boom in them.

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