Omni becomes first tabletop title to win Best Social Game award at Game Connection Paris

A tactical combat title that makes use of a unique magnetic controller to move and attack with miniatures has become the first board game to win the Best Social Game award at video games industry show Game Connection Paris.

Omni allows two or more players to play as a ranged archer, hammer-equipped berserker or armoured guardian represented by low-poly models on a modular board created with hexagonal map tiles.

Each player also has one of the magnet-powered controllers, and shifts tokens around the magnetised dial to signify whether they wish to attack, move or perform a special action. All players’ dials are revealed simultaneously and combat is resolved. HP and Omnidralin, which is needed to pull off special moves, are tracked using separate character sheets. The last player standing wins.

Created by Zifan Games, Omni launched a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year, but only raised around kr16,860 (£1,537) of its kr265,000 (£24,159) goal – less than 10% – leading the crowdfunding run to be cancelled.

Omni saw off competition from games including mobile title Clapper, FMV effort Late Shift, console title Space Ax and arcade title Caveman Warriors to win Best Social Game at the annual industry event generally frequently by video game developers rather than board game designers (via Reddit.)

Although the project’s outlook looked uncertain after its crowdfunding bomb, hopefully this latest win means that an improved version may be able to make it to full production in the not-too-distant future.