Michelle Chen
Founder, Game Developer & Creative Practice Researcher at Mental Jam
👋 Hi, I'm Michelle Chen and I'm a Dr. in Video Games 🩺🎮 I co-create video games about mental health 🧠💜
🎮 Professional Experience
- Game developer with 15 years of experience in programming, design, art, and production
- Founder of Mental Jam, a platform for sharing lived experiences of mental health struggles through video games co-creation as a form of creative self-expression and alternative to arts therapy
🎓 Academic Achievements
- PhD in Design at RMIT in Australia
- MSc in Video Game Enterprise and Production at Birmingham City University, UK
- University Certificate in Psychology, University of Derby, UK
- BS Computer Science at De La Salle University - Manila, Philippines
📖 Presented research and games at various prestigious events:
- Games for Change Festival - Asia Pacific
- Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP)
- Games Symposium for Oceania and Asia Pacific
- Freeplay
- ArtsIT
- Big Anxiety Festival
- PAX Australia
- ACMI + RMIT Audience Lab
🏆 Awards and Scholarships
- GameIndustry.biz 100 Future Talent
- Xbox Women in Gaming Game Changer
- IGDA NextGen Leader & Scholar
- Museums Victoria Culture Maker
- Finalist, International Student of the Year - Research, Victorian International Education Awards
- 7th Winner of Toptal STEM Scholarships for Women
- Nominated for Extra Mile Awards: Student of the Year
- Student Award winner at the European Women in Games Conference 2017
🌟 Community Involvement
- Women in Games Ambassador
- Making Space board member
- Volunteer at game industry events
- Teach kids coding and robotics
- Formerly in BAFTA Crew and STEM Ambassadors in the UK
💌 Ask
- I'd love to meet with mental health organisations and companies for collaborations, sponsorships, financial support and grants
Key moments
Jump straight to the part of How to Pitch Growth to Investors and Revenue to Publishers you want.
- 2:10 Michelle’s origin story: from PhD research to startup
- 4:10 Why Catalyzer mattered for a migrant founder
- 5:20 Two audiences: investors vs game publishers
- 6:05 Should you build two pitches? Alan’s answer: yes, tailor
- 8:05 The 6 deck framework: teaser, pitch, leave-behind for each audience
- 13:05 Ideal slide counts: teaser 3 to 5, pitch 10 to 15, leave-behind as needed
- 14:00 Why founders accidentally read slides and lose the room
- 15:00 Video call tip: pin the person, not your slides
- 16:15 Michelle’s pitch: Mental Jam and Boba Rista
- 23:15 Alan’s feedback: scripting, emotion, and the first 10 seconds
Connections
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correction Updated 20 June 2026
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