What could be built in a zoo?

Gift Shop
Movie Theater (they have IMAX and such in some zoos)
Snack Shop
Restaurant (bigger than a snack shop)
Amphlitheater

I know these are mostly bigger things, not sure if that helps.

-- Matthew

A completely different angle you might think of using is the idea that the more "exotic" animals, though more successful at attracting the public, also require more elaborate or expensive housing.

Alternatively, you could think about having gradations of quality in housing. For example, in some zoos, you might see a lion in a cage. In another, there might be a large, open-air enclosure. At the "Animal Kingdom" theme park at Walt Disney World, you can see them in a several-acre savannah. It might be interesting for a game to allow you to invest more in a more elaborate home for the animals. I know that when I go to a zoo, while it's cool to see the animals, I leave with a bad taste if they are kept in small, cramped conditions. That might be a neat subtlety for a zoo game to try to exploit.

My main concern is that building the "most valuable zoo" will lead to a game that is very similar in concept to a game about "building the best city" or "the best theme park" or "the best salt water taffy distributorship", and I personally feel that all these games are functionally quite similar, with only the "chrome" varying from implementation to implementation, and of course maybe some special buildings whose functionality differs. I personally would rather see a game that wasn't just about "building the best zoo", but a game that quantified the "best" zoo in a unique way. I encourage you to explore different metrics by which one could say a zoo was "great", and create mechanics that flow from those, rather than simply having buildings that pay out various VP values or trying to have the "most of each of 4 kinds of animals", which could just as easily be the "most of each of 4 types of buildings" or "most of each of 4 flavors of salt water taffy".

All that said, in the context of your actual question, you might also consider "attractions" -- animal shows, etc. You might also have a petting zoo, an "educational" building, a vet, a train ride, amusement rides, zoo-themed playground equipment, a butterfly enclosure, all of which I've seen in zoos.

Best of luck!

-Jeff

Make sure you check out ZooSim on the BoardGameGeek. Your game sounds pretty similar, both thematically and mechanically, to ZooSim, although ZooSim is a pure blind-bidding game. You might want to make sure it is not too similar to ZooSim.

Anyway, good luck with it.

- René Wiersma