Game-based coping-skills course for teens, run by school counsellors
TL;DR Mazewalk is a six-to-eight-week course for students aged 13 to 17 that teaches cognitive behavioural skills through a story game, translated into Indian languages. School counsellors assign it, track progress and see a risk flag that routes a student to real help. Private schools pay a fee per student each year.
India's mental health gap is wide at every age. The National Mental Health Survey found about one adult in ten living with a mental disorder, and roughly five in six of them getting no care, with fewer than one psychiatrist per 100,000 people[1]. Those adult figures are the best national data I found, and I couldn't locate a comparable public figure for teens this round.
Schools are where you can reach most teenagers, but a single counsellor may serve hundreds of students. Talking therapy one by one doesn't scale, and students who are struggling often won't book a session at all.
What it does, in regulatory terms: guided self-help skills education, not diagnosis or treatment. Mazewalk teaches coping skills and screens only to route students to a counsellor or helpline. It makes no claim to treat depression or anxiety. Claims like that could pull the software into medical-device rules, so confirm the boundary with a regulatory adviser.
Each week a student plays a short chapter in which a character faces exams, friendships and family pressure, and practises one skill - noticing unhelpful thoughts, problem-solving, planning activity or calming the body. The counsellor's dashboard shows who finished, who is stuck, and who answered the built-in mood check in a way that needs a same-day conversation. Parents give verifiable consent before any data is collected, as the DPDP Act requires for children[2].
The seed pitched AI-driven digital therapeutics, and I've reframed it. The best evidence for game-based therapy in teens comes from a fixed, well-designed course rather than personalisation[3], and an AI chat with distressed minors adds risk without proven benefit. I'm not comfortable with that trade at all, so the product stays fixed and human-supervised.
Students use it but schools pay. The test price is a yearly fee per enrolled student, which is my assumption until schools are interviewed. Private CBSE and ICSE schools with a counsellor on staff are the first buyers. Parents may pay for a home version later. The free alternative is SPARX, which New Zealand offers at no cost but in English and built around local culture[4].
The evidence base is now old enough to trust. SPARX was tested against usual counselling in 2012 and found no worse[3]. A 2026 analysis argues that India's mental health gap can only close through lay workers supported by digital tools[1]. Schools are a natural setting for that model.
No public figure exists for school spending on mental health programmes in India. The adjacent context - the national survey's finding that five in six adults with a disorder get no care[1] shows the size of the gap, not a budget. Treat buyer demand as unproven until schools sign.
SPARX in New Zealand is the closest model, a free CBT game built with young people and University of Auckland clinicians[4]. A US prescription-only game treats ADHD in children aged 8 to 17[5]. Mental health chatbot apps cover everyday support[6]. None of them sells a counsellor-run course to Indian schools in Indian languages.
| Difficulty | Moderate (44/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹60 L–1.2 Cr |
| Time to launch | 9–12 months |
The game itself is a content project, with clinical psychologists, writers and designers working together and then testing with real teens. The harder parts are child safety, which means handling a disclosure of self-harm at 11 p.m., and selling to schools, which buy slowly and worry about parents.
No licence to sell a skills course, but the product sits close to a regulated line, so set it up carefully.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
AI should never talk to a distressed student or decide whether a risk flag matters. A trained adult makes that call, every time.
Want to work out the AI layer for Mazewalk? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
This is a good fit for a team pairing a child clinical psychologist with a game designer who has shipped to teens. If you want to build an AI therapist then skip it. Prove first that at least 60% of students in three pilot schools finish the course and that counsellors act on every risk flag within a day.
Plan for roughly ₹60 L–1.2 Cr, most of it for clinical psychologists, writers and game designers building and testing the course.
Not for a skills course, but you need parental consent under the DPDP Act, and any claim to treat depression could pull the software under CDSCO medical-device rules.
Yes, schools everywhere are looking for this. Check your local children's data law and whether your claims would make it a medical device there.
The free Mazewalk validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the child-data and safety checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for schools and counsellors, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Mazewalk or something close to it? The make-or-break work is a risk-routing process that schools, parents and clinicians all trust, and I'm happy to help you think it through. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.