The Great Gotham Challenge was founded in 2014 as a small event for friends by Ryan Patch and Jon Seale. In the years since, it has grown into New York’s premiere puzzle company, hosting a series of annual events for the public, New York’s most epic team building experience, and the creation of our parent company Gotham Immersive Labs which handles custom immersive advertising activations.
"Great Gotham Challenge’s hunts haven’t given me a burner phone yet, but every year I’ve played has had at least one moment that I can’t stop talking to people about, because of the sheer audacity it took to craft the moment…especially for an event whose tickets are priced on par with many 60-minute escape rooms in the area."
- ARGNet Review of GGC:MMXXIV (2024)
"CTRL/ALT/DECODE Chapter 2 was so well executed that upon its completion – in full disclosure – I immediately hired the creators to run a team-building event for my group at work. The puzzles were clever and challenging and made excellent use of their medium (the internet)."
- Room Escape Artist Review of Control Alt Decode (2020)
"For a few hours, you get to feel like a secret agent as you traverse the mundane real world with a VIP pass for curated wonder."
- Room Escape Artist Review of GGC: MMXXIII (2023)
"Central Park Sprint was a polished and impressively accessible entry point to Great Gotham Challenge’s signature style of site-specific experiences."
- Room Escape Artist Review of Central Park Sprint (2024)
“We’d always heard (and read) that GGC’s biggest strength is in creating wonder in everyday spaces (iconic or not!) through puzzle and interaction design. In this regard Terminal Time Trial was emblematic of GGC.”
- Room Escape Artist Review for Terminal Time Trial (2024)
"The Great Gotham Challenge knocked it out of the park yet again with their eye-opening annual puzzle adventure through the streets of Manhattan."
- Room Escape Artist Review of GGC:MMXXIV (2024)
“Anybody can hand out a bunch of crosswords or other word puzzles. I’ve done it myself. But if you are running a day-long or weekend-long event, you are implicitly promising something epic. That’s a tough thing to deliver. Well, the Great Gotham Challenge delivers.”
- Eric Berlin Review of GGC:MMXXIV (2024)
"We intentionally make decisions to do things that will bring our customers the most delight, which often means we’ll increase delight by 10% and increase our work by 100% just for that extra moment of amazement and elegance."
- LinkedIn Games Interviews GGC Cofounders Ryan Patch and Jon Seale
“Rises above a traditional scavenger hunt. We didn’t just visit local landmarks and areas, but we also interacted with them in entertaining ways. During our journey we met actors, climbed through hidden passages, ate treats, gave secret messages, and more.“
- Chaos y Confetti Review of MMXXIV (2024)
"Many at-home games that mail you physical objects promise a collection of keepsakes, yet most props end up sitting in a box or tossed after the game. The Crate Gotham Challenge: Holiday Edition actually delivered on this promise, with numerous usable and/ or displayable objects."
- Room Escape Artist Review of The Crate Gotham Challenge (2022)
"An annual puzzle hunt that uses the landscape of NYC as its playground, what struck me participating in this year’s GGC: MMXXIII was how expertly GGC captures the exact fantasy that they’re going for. A mixture of live actors, custom clues, and clues built around pre-existing and famous structures in New York lends the event a sort of glam DaVinci Code energy."
"We had high expectations and they were far exceeded. The challenges were difficult, extremely creative, and completely customized to our group. Suffice it to say our group couldn't have possibly had more fun. Thank you for making me look great!"
"I'm always very skeptical of these "team-building" events, but this one was over the top. They successfully handled our 120-person team, with puzzles that were really challenging. The whole experience couldn't have been more engaging!"
"One of our directors told me it was one of the best organized online challenges they've done."
"[The challenge] shattered any expectations I had. For a fully remote event, I expected a bit of cheesy fun, but the production quality is unbelievable. I absolutely recommend everyone to try it."
"To quote one of my teammates: "This [challenge] was mean and hard, and resultantly perfect." Thank you for the stellar experience, service, and fun."
"For a few hours, you get to feel like a secret agent as you traverse the mundane real world with a VIP pass for curated wonder."
"A mixture of live actors, custom puzzles, and clues built around pre-existing and famous structures in lends the event a sort of glam DaVinci Code energy."
Great Gotham Challenge is a once-in-a-lifetime event that starts at $2000 for our most basic, 2-hour in-person experience. However, most of our events are several times that scale - If you're dreaming big for a custom event, so are we!
For advance notice on public events and special early bird discounts, please sign up for our communique below: