Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers, including attendance at the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helping assist attendance at other industry events, and other initiatives.
Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming and wants to make the industry better and more inclusive for everyone. She was part of the Rivals of Waterdeep actual playstream on Twitch through which June 2023 when it ended. (All VODs are available on the Rivals of Waterdeep YouTube channel.) Tanya is also a partnered Twitch variety broadcaster and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics online, at conventions, and as a public speaker.
As the creator and creative director of Twitch-supported sci-fi afro-futurist RPG Into the Mother Lands, the game is live-streamed on Tanya’s twitch channel. She’s also contributed to publications at Green Ronin, Paizo, and Monte Cook Games and is the co-developer for the Fifth Season RPG based on N.K. Jemisin’s three-time Hugo award-winning Broken Earth trilogy. Additionally, she is a Senior Annenberg labs Civic Media Fellow at USC.
Tanya was named as one of The Game Awards Future Class of 2020, a diverse group of builders, thinkers, and dreamers whose voices elevate and diversify the art-form. It recognizes individuals around the world who represent the bright, bold, and inclusive future for video games. She was also named as one of Gamers of the Year 2020 by Kotaku along with three of her contemporaries, and was invited to the Xbox MVP program in February 2021.
Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective—an initiative started by Queen Latifah.
Tanya is the programming & diversity coordinator for OrcaCon. She also serves on the Board of Directors for OrcaCon and was named the Chair for Take This in January 2023. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications. She’s the editor of Game Devs and Others: Tales from the Margins (2018, CRC Press) and contributed to The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox (2019, CRC Press).
On May 1, 2023 Tanya joined Monolith Productions as a Senior Writer on the Wonder Woman video game.
You can follow Tanya DePass on Twitch as cypheroftyr, Instagram as @cypheroftyr, Bluesky as @cypheroftyr.bsky.social, Tumblr as cypheroftyr, and TikTok as @cypheroftyr.
© 2025