It isn't easy being a zoo animal!
The enclosures are far too small for their needs, the daily routine is boring, and the visitors are completely obnoxious, frequently throwing their trash into the enclosures. After an unfortunate incident, the zoo plans to transfer some of the animals to an even smaller partner park in only eight days. That's the last straw! The animals decide to make a run for it and want to break out of the zoo in the next seven days. But now the question rises how to go about it. Multiple ideas come to their minds and all that trash finally becomes useful, if the animals can gather enough of it. Unfortunately, the zoo keepers clean the trash away every morning. And then there is the even bigger problem: How to make the other animals understand? The monkey screams excitedly, the elephant trumpets loudly. But what are they saying? Which items were they able to gather? Which escape plan holds the most promise? They have to find a way to communicate because it is time to leave the zoo!
In KuZOOka, players begin each round be receiving a new set of item cards which they may not show to one another. Instead, they try to let the others know which cards they have and which escape plan to use by cleverly placing their marker on the game board. It shows the colors of the different items as well as numbers going from low to high. On their turn, a player must either propose a new plan by moving their animal marker to a space farther along the way than the previous player, or end the current escape attempt. In the later case, all players reveal their items and if the color and number of items available match the current escape plan proposal, the attempt is successful. The animals gain experience from every attempt, giving them more cards in the following rounds. Only if they manage to gather enough items and communicate successfully, will they be able to leave the zoo for good. Every animal also has a special ability they can use once per day.
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