Build Fujiyama, Fight with Swords, Trick Rulers to Your Side, and Collect the Last Light

As a head's up, I'll let you know that should you wish to back the most expensive option of each of the crowdfunding projects listed below, you would spend at least US$2,178. That price will undoubtedly rise since publishers add more optional expansions to their listings and shipping is often not included in prices — and we haven't even talked about where you'll find room for everything on your shelves! Just keep all that in mind as you take in everything below:

• In Roy Cannaday's Last Light from Grey Fox Games, 2-4 players — or 2-8 players with the expansion — each control a unique alien faction that's competing for the last remaining light in the universe. In this 4X game, players play and reveal action cards simultaneously to explore, mine, gain new technology, and otherwise outfox one another in a race to gain 20 light first. (Gamefound)

• A similarly spacey competition awaits in The Paradox Initiative from Brian Suhre and Elf Creek Games, with players trying to collect spacetime through, among other things, manipulation of a Bejewelled-like grid of discs to gather resources. (Kickstarter)

• U.S. publisher Japanine Games has partnered with Japanese publisher Domina Games on six game releases, and now it's bringing five more to the market from designer Pawn: Blade Rondo, Blade Rondo: Frost Veil, Blade Rondo: Grim Garden, Blade Rondo: Lost Dream, and Blade Rondo: Night Theater.

In each standalone game, each of the two players receives a hand of 15 cards (from a total deck of 40), then chooses seven cards to keep, with which they attempt to knock the opponent's life to 0 points. Each deck also contains separate cards for solo play, and the decks can be combined. (Gamefound)

• In Birds of a Feather: Western North America from Teale Fristoe and Snowbright Studio, you visit a habitat each round and spot all of the birds present in that habitat, whether played by you or others in this round or the previous one. Can you make the rounds quickly enough to spot all the birds in one habitat? To spy rare birds that bring bonus points? (Kickstarter)

• Maul Peak from Eduardo Baraf, Keith Matejka, and Pencil First Games pits a tribe of bears against a huge guardian, and the game can be combined with 2019's Skulk Hollow should you care for more conflict combos. (Kickstarter)

• In Barnyard from Cameron Art and BGB Publishing, two players take turns manipulating a line of animals so that they can corral them in ways that earn points. (Kickstarter)

• In Fujiyama from designer/publisher team ななつむ (nanatsumu), each of the 2-5 players builds a mountain from tiles, but each turn you choose a tile from one of your two neighbors, giving a bonus to the one whose tile you chose. (Obviously the rules differ somewhat with only two players.) This element nicely mirrors nanatsumu's 2019 release 四季折折 (Humble Tea Party) in which you wanted to help others score as many points as possible because the player with the fewest points wins the game. (Kickstarter)

• Designer Leonhard "Lonny" Orgler is publishing 1888-N, a new 18xx title, through his own Lonny Games, with this title being the first in a trilogy of integrable games set in China. (Kickstarter)

• Kaikoro from Alexz Martínez and Rawr Games is another print-and-play, roll-and-write design playable by any number of people, with you using dice to fight kaiju. (Kickstarter)

• For Northwood! from Wilhelm Su and Side Room Games is a solitaire trick-taking game in which you can use allies to win a specific number of tricks to bring one of Northwood's eight rules to your side, with each ruler having an ability to help you win over other rulers since you need to win 0-7 tricks over the eight rounds to claim victory in the game. (Gamefound)

• Cryptozoic Entertainment is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its DC Comics Deck-Building Game by launching DC Deck-Building Game: Injustice – Gods Among Us, which features characters like Superman and Wonder Woman as villains you must defeat; DC Deck-Building Game: Rivals – The Flash vs. Reverse-Flash, which brings a long-standing comics rivalry to your tabletop; and DC Deck-Building Game: Multiverse Box, which is...a box, although it also includes a Crossover Pack expansion usable with any DC DBG. (Kickstarter)

• The Tabletop Find-It Book from Kevin Grote is akin to an "I spy" for gamers in that Grote has photographed more than twenty images that feature dozens of game components and other doodads, then presented you, the reader, with a list of what you should spot in said images. (Kickstarter)

Image from The Tabletop Find-It Book

• For another game-ish related project you can late back, check out Michela Graziani's Ikonthology: The Visual Compendium of Fictional Icons, which consists of a library of more than 4,500 icons that could be licensed for use in games — or whatever else you have in mind. (Kickstarter)

• Hmm, I also missed CoinSides from Charles Ward of EX1ST GAMES, this item being a dice spinner that allows you to emulate a D2, D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, or D20 by spinning the object, stopping it with a finger, and seeing what number is next to your finger. (Kickstarter)