Miller Zoo

About this board game

Miller Zoo is a cooperative family board game for 1–6 players that takes about 30 minutes to play. Together, you become the team responsible for running one of Canada’s most interesting zoos, caring for its animals and welcoming new ones to their home.

Every player acts at the same time, working with the team to overcome challenges, unexpected situations, and crises. The goal is to meet all the animals’ needs before the card stack runs out, making communication and coordinated decisions central to the experience.

Each game follows four phases in order:

• Dawn: Each teammate draws a hand of four resource cards.
• Morning: Each teammate draws a need card and places problem tokens on the animals according to the cards.
• Afternoon: The team is free to play its cards in any order.
• Evening: The team manages the crises created by problems that were not solved during the afternoon.

This shared structure gives the team a clear rhythm while leaving room to decide how best to use available resources. Unresolved problems carry consequences into the evening, so players must work together to respond to the zoo’s changing needs.

Miller Zoo also includes six envelopes to discover. Each envelope introduces new animals and new challenges, allowing the game to evolve as the team explores more of what the zoo has to offer. These discoveries add fresh situations to the cooperative task of keeping the animals cared for.