Chaos & Confetti

Every Summer, The Great Gotham Challenge hosts a series of New York based challenges for puzzle lovers and adventurers.  Teams crack codes, solve riddles, search for noteworthy real-world locations, and attempt to progress through a several hours long challenge. Last year, we were invited to take part in GGC’s flagship puzzle quest, and this year, they were kind enough to invite us back again to participate in The Great Gotham Challenge: MMXXV.

Last Year:

During our previous outing in June of 2024, we raced around Manhattan discovering the magic of New York’s High Line (something we, as non-locals, never even knew existed).  Using digital and real world clues, we encountered performers, received free food, and found ourselves doing all sorts of unexpected feats like climbing into mysterious delivery trucks, sniff testing perfumes, and pulling a special shirt from a specific dryer in a specific laundromat found in New York. It was exhilarating and crazy fun as we attempted to prove our puzzling skills.

I have to admit though, while we enjoyed last year’s event a lot and did complete the challenge, it took us a lot longer than we expected. The game proved to be a blast, but a small part of me wished that my team had performed better. Out of 65 teams that competed that day, team Chaos y Confetti came in 56th place with a final time of 6 hrs 52 mins and 2 secs. We used 8 clues throughout the event. The number one team that day? 2 hrs 57 mins and 3 secs with a total of 4 hints used. Our skills were found lacking. 

Again, we finished the adventure but we allowed ourselves to get lost a few times and sidetracked by red herrings. I can’t believe how long we wasted on pointless endeavors like trying to get morse code or braille messages off opened windows on skyscrapers, wondering if an actual building evacuation of a local art exhibit was part of the challenge, and attempting to climb into a real delivery truck that was not the one planted for puzzlers. Whoops.   

There was no doubt that we’d enjoy what The Great Gotham Challenge had to offer, but we entered this year’s challenge with a goal of doing better than last year.

Our Team:

For the 2025 challenge, we reassembled our same four person team as last year. Leading the way were myself (Chaos) and my wife (Confetti). We are 30-something year-old parents of a toddler who work in education and enjoy pouring a lot of our (limited) free time into our hobbies: board games, puzzles, and books.  

Rounding out the team were my younger sister and brother-in-law. Also in their 30s, we introduced them to escape rooms and puzzle challenges years ago, and they’ve loved them ever since. We’ve completed several with them over the years, and they provide the important factors of additional brain power, different perspectives, and general friendship.

THE GREAT GOTHAM CHALLENGE: MMXXV

This new challenge took place on June 7th, 2025.  At 1:00pm, our game masters arrived and gave us a rundown of the rules, expectations, and game boundaries.  Each team was given an envelope with some materials they would be throughout the day, including the starting puzzle. With that, we and many other teams began our puzzle-tastic race. We were in for quite the adventure.

Puzzles:

The backbone of The Great Gotham Challenge is the puzzles. They’re what push the day forward and make up the actual challenge of the experience. That means a large part of the day’s success depends on the quality and variety of puzzles players face. I am happy to say, the designers delivered well.

From mental puzzles like riddles and crosswords to visual puzzles including wall rubbings and viewing secret images with carefully placed mirrors, the challenge hit a range of puzzle and skill types.  We needed deduction skills on a lottery ticket and outside the box thinking on a movie poster.  The GGC kept us on our toes all day, and we never knew what we’d encounter next.

The puzzles are delivered through a web-based site that advances a team through clues and scenarios, along with real world locations and props.  Thankfully, the system is easy to navigate and use, so the challenge stays with the actual puzzles themselves.  

I’m happy to say that all the puzzles felt doable, but they also provided a good deal of challenge.  As a team we were able to push forward together, but we did end up needing a few hints.  Thankfully, the hints are built right into the web-based system, and players can choose a hint that fits how far into a puzzle they are.  This makes the hints more valuable and effective, though they do come with a time penalty.

Since the game is so tied to New York, players would be greatly benefited from knowing the local area.  However, the game’s narrative does a good job of filling in gaps, or at least letting players know what they should be Google-ing. Again, the game hits a good balance of achievability and difficulty.

Learning and Exploring

As the game progresses, the puzzles are framed in local history. Players are exposed to noteworthy sites of the areas and given insight into the place’s past and present. While I’d admit that the rush of racing meant that I didn’t absorb everything shared with me that day, I still learned a lot. From New York fish markets to expansive underground VHS collections to Irish hunger memorials and more, I got a taste of New York that felt deeper than what I would normally get on any other tourist visit.

Last year, we explored around the High Line, and this year, our journey took us all over lower Manhattan, from Battery Park to the Financial District, and so much in between. We logged some miles running around, but because those miles were broken up with puzzles and excitement, they never felt too bad. 

I normally wouldn’t step into a seemingly random, tuckaway convenience store or visit a boxing gym during a trip to New York, but the GGC gave me a trip that is absolutely unique.

The Wow Factor

Any good puzzle experience designer knows about the importance of the “wow factor.”  These are the unexpected twists and moments that pop up along the way, the ones that really up the excitement level and leave the most lasting memories. In a normal escape room, that can range from the discovery of a secret passage to another room, a prop with a cool effect, or even a jump scare.  By utilizing the city, The Great Gotham Challenge has the ability to really up their wow factor.

We got to give a secret phrase to an ice cream truck that gave us both a clue and actual ice cream cones to enjoy.  We used a potato and wires to activate an electronic message.  We worked over a punching bag in a basement gym to find a clue in a locker across the room.  Wall rubbing came together to form an iconic villain. I had to barter and roleplay with a fisherman down by the docks. 

The day was packed with memorable and fun moments. 

The Unexpected:

As occasional puzzle and game makers ourselves, we know there are always elements that are outside of any game designer’s control.  That includes the weather.  As game day approached, we kept an eye on the weather report, which continued to look menacing. The day promised heavy rain, and it delivered.  

Shortly after the challenge began, the sky opened up, and we soon found ourselves seeking cover as we tried to decipher the message hidden within a drenched paper map. Then, we had to ascend a small hill to retrieve gold and potatoes as rain soaked through us.  It was a lot, but thankfully we (and it seemed many other teams) brough raincoats and umbrellas.  Fortunately, after the initial downpour, we mostly only had to deal with some drizzle here and there.  It was an interesting way to start the race, but one that the game masters adapted to and worked around, by providing some physical clues digitally (in case rain destroyed them).

The online web portal also helped provide live tweaks as needed.  A typo on one clue could be addressed up and updated digitally with no major hiccups.

The most unexpected moment was when we were trying to solve a puzzle in a train station.  This stage of the game involved carefully following planted sports fans hidden among the real travellers. Their outfits and odd behaviors not only acted as clues, but apparently also drew attention of those outside the game.   I felt close to solving the puzzles when suddenly my teammates were pointing out a digital message from our game masters.  We were being automatically advanced to the next puzzle.  “Are we really going that slowly?,” I wondered, and then I saw that our current puzzle was just shut down by the police.  

Whelp.  The show must go on, and it did.  We moved on to our next puzzle sequence and the day continued smoothly from there.  For any curious, any time teams spent on the shutdown puzzle was not added to a team’s final time.

FINAL RESULTS AND THOUGHTS

*Drumroll please*

Final results:

• 50th out of 83 competing teams
• 4 hrs 1 min and 2 secs
• 3 hints used

1st place team results:

• 2 hrs 18 minutes and 54 secs
• 4 hints used

This year we saw huge improvements in our results no matter how you look at it.  We objectively came in a higher place (50th compared to 56th), but we also beat a lot more teams (33 instead of 9).  Our final time compared to last year’s is almost three hours better, and portionally, our decreased time is a bigger upgrade than what the first place team saw compared to last year’s first place team.  That means there was a smaller gap between us and first place (less than two hours), and we can’t just attribute our better results to an easier challenge.  We used fewer hints, found fewer time-decreasing medallions, and made fewer mistakes.  Our hope to prove ourselves better puzzlers than past-us, and I think we succeeded handsomely.

Overall, our day was a success. Our entire team enjoyed our outing and couldn’t help recounting our favorite parts of the challenge. We hope to take on The Great Gotham Challenge again in the future and definitely recommend them and their many different adventures to others looking for good puzzles and unique experiences. It’s clear a lot of care and thought goes into their planning and designs, and it produces a fantastic experience for those involved. This is a fantastic way to explore sections of New York and get a fun story to share as well.