Egyptian dice game Ominoes rolls onto Kickstarter

Ominoes, the Egyptian-themed dice-rolling game designed by Andrew Harman, has hit crowdfunding site Kickstarter.

The two- to four-player lightweight title of tactics sees players rolling dice to manoeuvre their symbols around a grid and complete sets of hieroglyphs to score points. As well as the four player symbols, there’s a symbol to re-roll and another to allow movement of any die on the board.

The 15-minute game is interesting in that dice are used both as player pieces and for conventional movement, and are only removed from the board once a set is completed.

Harman claims that the title is based on a 6,000-year-old game uncovered by his great-great-great-grandfather 150 years ago during an exploration of the Ominus Valley in Egypt – a place that doesn’t actually exist, but it’s a fun story all the same.

Harman is looking for a modest £2,500 towards the game on Kickstarter; £25 grabs the standard set with £30 buying a deluxe edition in a tin, both of which are due out in January.

Tabletop Gaming’s own Rob Burman played the game earlier this year and found it to be “a fantastic filler game with hidden depths”, but did add his wish that “the theme was stronger to ensure classic status”.