Gigantic Mechanic

What Gigantic Mechanic does

Gigantic Mechanic is a privately held game and experience design studio headquartered at 98 4th Street, Suite 207, Brooklyn, NY. Founded in 2009 by partners Mattia Romeo and Greg Trefry, the studio specializes in creating interactive educational experiences through social and physical play, working with museums, cities, brands, and K–12 institutions. Its portfolio spans live-action role-plays supporting up to 100 participants, location-based mobile games, projected street games, and consumer board games, with marquee engagements including the Senate Immersion Module for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, Sharkvolution for the American Museum of Natural History, and the Sesame Street Boxheads game for Sesame Workshop.

The studio's core technology asset is VOXPOP, a web-based platform launched in 2019 via an ED/IES SBIR Award that distributes collaborative, media-rich live-action role-plays to participants using any web-enabled device. VOXPOP is offered in two modules — for Museums (participatory town-hall-style experiences) and for Organizations (classroom and licensed-content use) — and represents a deliberate shift from bespoke service work toward a reusable platform. The firm also produces the Come Out & Play Festival, an annual street-games event running since 2006 under Greg Trefry's long-tenured directorship that functions as both showcase and community-anchoring channel.

The business is operated by a 1–10 person partner-led team that has never disclosed institutional or venture capital beyond the 2019 SBIR grant. Revenue derives from two streams: professional services for custom game, exhibit, and experience commissions for institutional clients, and licensing/commissioning of existing or customized VOXPOP content. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; engagements are typically scoped directly with the founders. The firm also earns modest retail revenue from board games co-designed with Upbounders and sold on Amazon. Customers are concentrated among non-profit museums and government cultural/education entities.

Name

Gigantic Mechanic

Legal name

Gigantic Mechanic

Website

https://giganticmechanic.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Gigantic Mechanic is a Brooklyn-based game and experience design studio that creates interactive educational experiences through social and physical play for museums, cities, brands, and K–12 institutions via custom commissions and its VOXPOP platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Game Design Services

NAICS

Amusement Parks and Arcades (7131)

SIC

Games, Toys & Children's Vehicles (No Dolls & Bicycles) (3944)

akta.pro primary industry

Social/UGC & Sandbox Game Studios (Roblox-like) (MPAFAAAF)

Keywords

• Game design studio
• Interactive experience design
• Educational role play platform
• Museum installation design
• Live-action game design

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Client Projects & Commissions: Gigantic Mechanic works with museums, cities, and brands on custom game and experience design projects. They offer licensing of existing content, commissioning of new content, and fully-customized experiences leveraging the VOXPOP technology platform.
2. VOXPOP Platform Licensing: Organizations can license existing VOXPOP content for use in their space, commission new content, or commission fully-customized experiences using the VOXPOP technology platform.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Gigantic Mechanic is a game and experience design studio that creates custom interactive games and installations for museums, cities, brands, and educational institutions, centered on social and physical play. Its core technology is VOXPOP, a proprietary web-based platform for building media-rich, multi-player educational role-plays for groups of up to 100 participants. The studio's offerings also include bespoke video-game, board-game, projection-game, and live-action commissions, plus the Come Out & Play Festival produced annually since 2006.

Product overview

Gigantic Mechanic is a game and experience design studio founded in 2009 that creates interactive experiences through social and physical play. Their core offering is VOXPOP, a technology platform for building media-rich, multi-player educational experiences through collaborative live-action role-plays, offered as VOXPOP for Museums (turning museum tours into participatory town halls) and VOXPOP for Organizations (licensing, commissioning, or customizing educational experiences). Beyond VOXPOP, the company has created an extensive portfolio of games including Senate Immersion Module (a full Senate Chamber role-playing experience), How Many Zombies Is Too Many Zombies (mathematical modeling game), Come Out & Play Festival (annual street game festival since 2006), board games with Upbounders, and numerous other educational and physical games for museums, cities, and brands. The company follows an iterative development process centered on playtesting with actual players from target audiences.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• VOXPOP: Technology platform for building media-rich, multi-player educational experiences including collaborative live-action role-plays for museums and classrooms.

Products and services

• VOXPOP A web-based technology platform for building media-rich, multi-player educational experiences through collaborative live-action role-plays. Facilitators use VOXPOP to guide groups through immersive role-plays using any web-enabled device.
• Picnic Panic A board game for kids 6 and under designed in collaboration with Upbounders, celebrating cultural and ethnic differences.
• Block Party (Board Game) A board game for kids 6 and under designed in collaboration with Upbounders, based on the cooperative puzzle concept where players coordinate placement of falling pieces.
• Custom Game and Experience Design Services Bespoke game and interactive experience design commissions for museums, cities, brands, and educational institutions, delivered through an iterative design-build-playtest methodology that engages target audiences in playtesting before launch.

Quantifiable outcome

• VOXPOP awarded Best Civics Game at 2022 Games for Change Festival

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• DoSomething.orgminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Mattia Romeo serves on the Mobile Advisory Board of DoSomething.org as the board's resident game design expert.
• NYU Game CenterminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Gigantic Mechanic partnered with NYU Game Center to help sponsor public gaming events.
• Institute of PlaycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInstitute of Play collaborated on designing curricular materials and working with teachers for the Senate Immersion Module. Also collaborated on PlayBrave and Everyone's A Critic projects.
• ESI DesigncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerESI Design and Edward M. Kennedy Institute brought Gigantic Mechanic on to design the core experience at the Institute - the Senate Immersion Module.
• Marco WilliamscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDocumentarian Marco Williams partnered with Gigantic Mechanic to develop The Migrant Trail game to accompany his film The Undocumented.
• UpboundersminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerWorked with Upbounders to design Picnic Panic and Block Party board games for kids 6 and under.
• Rhode Island Department of StateminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerWorked with Rhode Island Department of State's Education and Public Programs office to develop the Dorr Rebellion historical role-playing experience for high school students.
• CS4AllminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with CS4All to develop the 2020-2021 Hack League curriculum for middle and high school students.
• Kaboom!minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAwarded a grant from Kaboom! as part of their Play Everywhere initiative to create sidewalk games with third graders at PS 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
• Sesame Innovation LabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with Sesame Innovation Lab to create Sesame Street Boxheads game for kids.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Local Projects: New York-based experience design studio building interactive and narrative-driven installations for cultural institutions, museums, and cities. Comparable on customer base (museums, civic institutions), project format (custom commissioned experiences), and emphasis on participatory storytelling.
• Ideum: Designs and fabricates interactive touchscreen tables, exhibits, and immersive installations for museums and education markets. Comparable as a studio delivering custom-built interactive experiences to museums and educational institutions, often via mixed hardware/software delivery.
• Filament Games: Educational game studio building learning games and interactive experiences for K-12, museums, and cultural institutions. Comparable on customer segment (museums, schools), focus on educational outcomes, and productized multi-player game design.
• PlayGen: UK-based serious-games studio developing simulations and games for civic engagement, policy education, and social impact. Comparable on serious/civics game positioning, institutional sales motion, and live-action role-play-adjacent experiences.
• Design I/O: Creative interactive studio building immersive, multi-player installations often using phones as controllers. Comparable on technology approach (web-enabled devices powering shared, location-based group play) and museum/cultural client base.
• Gamelab: New York-based serious and casual game studio where co-founder Mattia Romeo previously served as Senior Game Designer. Comparable as a peer NYC game design house with civic/serious-games expertise and a long operating history.

Broad incumbents

• ESI Design: Established experience design firm creating branded environments and exhibits for cultural, civic, and commercial clients; a documented Gigantic Mechanic partner. Comparable as a broader incumbent offering related exhibition and experience design services to similar institutional buyers.
• Control Group: New York-based technology and design firm building interactive software and installations for museums, civic spaces, and brands; a documented Gigantic Mechanic partner on the Senate Immersion Module. Comparable as an incumbent working in the same museum/civic-tech delivery space.

Others

• Institute of Play: Non-profit advancing play-based learning; a documented Gigantic Mechanic co-development partner on SIM, PlayBrave, and Everyone's A Critic. Comparable as an adjacent education-and-play ecosystem actor rather than a direct competitor.

Emerging players

• Thoughtquarry: Boutique serious-games and simulation studio. Comparable as a small specialist studio working at the intersection of games, learning, and civic/social outcomes, often in custom commissioned formats.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/gtrefry
• Xx.com/giganticmech

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Gigantic Mechanic