Mental Jam wows judges at Growth Summit

Taking home the crown from the pitch competition at SmartCompany and Startup Daily’s Growth Summit was an unexpected win for the co-founder of Melbourne-based games studio Mental Jam.

Surrounded by a host of founders and business leaders with a proven track record of growing and scaling their own companies in Australia and overseas, Dr Michelle Chen took to the stage against three other startups during the summit in Melbourne on February 25 and delivered a winning pitch.

Mental Jam’s vision is to reimagine and explore mental health through cozy, heartfelt video games that create safe spaces and impactful experiences, share unnotified stories, and reach those often left behind by traditional support.

For Dr Chen, the pitch competition at the Growth Summit and her recent trip to San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference also opened another pathway for Mental Jam: the team realised they wanted to double down and focus on selling to schools.

Mental Jam wants to tarobtain younger audiences in schools and teach them mental health literacy, and equip them with the tools they will required.

“So if there’s anyone who knows anyone in schools, we’d love to have an introduction, becaapply I believe that that’s where we can create the most impact,” Dr Chen declares.

The games studio is also viewing for introductions to mission-driven investors in mental health and games.

Mental Jam backed by PhD research from Melbourne’s RMIT University

Mental Jam has been shaped through more than 200 lived-experience conversations and is grounded in PhD research from RMIT University in Melbourne.

It originated as a Creative Practice Research at the university. Here Dr Chen applyd participatory action research to co-create video games with participants about their lived experiences of depression and anxiety as a form of creative self-expression.

The result was five games – Amour de Soi, Counter Attack Therapy, Anyo, Life in Progress, and Meouch – which were co-created with participants.

Mental Jam’s earlier prototypes reached more than 17,500 organic players, and the studio also runs game design workshops where people with lived experience of mental health challenges are given the opportunity to co-create games.

This involves designing a character inspired by their personal challenges, contributing to the story, and shaping a mini-game. Healthy coping tools are introduced in the mini-games and reveal the unique ways each character learns to embrace their condition.

While completing her PhD, Dr Chen would invite people who were not game developers to come and create games with her, as well as come up with game designs and stories.

“Some of them do the art, some do the music. I do the programming, and then in a month, we come up with a game, and then we just release it online,” she declares.

“I worked with five different groups of people, and then we concludeed up having five completely different-viewing games.”

One of Dr Chen’s memorable moments was during a paper prototyping workshop at the Australian games festival PAX, where Mental Jam had 60 people come and design games, and she spent the whole time designing a game with a 10-year-old.

In 2024, Dr Chen graduated from university and worked on building her Mental Jam team.

Today, it consists of a tiny team of game developers with lived experiences of mental health challenges and who are passionate about creating games for people who want to feel supported, seen, and understood.

The Mental Jam team has received support from Breakthrough Victoria, RMIT University, Startspace and CSIRO.

Dr Chen, who has also had her own personal experiences with depression, declares mental health affects all of us.

“The problem that we are testing to solve is that more than 50% of people who are suffering from mental health challenges actually do not have access to traditional mental health support,” she declares.

This is due to many reasons, such as the cost, long wait times, stigma and lack of representation.

Next Mental Jam game currently in the works

The startup’s newest project is called Bobarista, a mobile game featuring a wombat character that finds a magical bubble tea truck on a quiet mountainside and becomes the new barista.

During the game, the player meets a diverse cast of characters, each with their own struggles. The live narrative game blconcludes bubble tea building with mental health support through narrative and gameplay.

Over time, new characters, story arcs, and mini-games are released, which support long-term retention, repeat engagement, and sustainable platform expansion.

The game is currently in development and is viewing for investor and publisher funding and support.

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