To celebrate what’s been accomplished, what we want to happen in the future and thank you all for your support. So we’re doing a few things.

One, we’re soliciting your pics of folks in their #INeedDiverseGames gear. 

Please email us a photo of you, how you want to be credited (ie your tumblr, twitter, screen name) to whyineeddiversegames@gmail.com so we can show off everyone in their gear.

We’re also going to go back and collate any previously submitted tweets and images for posts.

Two, we just put out a call for stories from you all if we have had any impact on you. 

We’re so happy that a community has formed from a wee hashtag. If anyone has stories to tell us about diversity in gaming, if we have had any impact on you, how you think about games, we’d love to hear it!

Please send your story either by a submission to the blog:

ineeddivgms.info/submit

– Or –

if you want to tell your story but remain anonymous; email us at whyineeddiversegames@gmail.com  with “INDG Impact” in the subject of your email and we’ll post it on our Anniversary, October 7th 2015.

Third and last, we’re doing some fund raising to have a cushion for #INeedDiverseGames to grow up to a 503c Non-Profit Org.

#INeedDiverseGames is almost a year old! We want to do more to serve the community. Doing that takes money, especially if we want to grow into a 503c Non-Profit organization.

We want to be able to take donations and turn them into opportunities for the marginalized folks in the gaming community such as travel grants, covering registration for events such as IndieCade, GDC, IDGA memberships and more.

We also want to be able to assist others in their work outside of the scope of Patreon or other assistance. So this is a one time ask to make a future of assisting the gaming community for a better, more diverse future for all of us.

Thank you for making this year amazing. We couldn’t have done it without you all.

Published by cypheroftyr

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, attendance at the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make the industry better and more inclusive for everyone. She’s part of the Rivals of Waterdeep actual play stream on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep, 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.. 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. She’s the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a Twitch supported RPG and Actual Play stream, airing weekly on her channel, twitch.tv/cypheroftyr. Additionally, she is a Senior Annenberg labs Civic Media Fellow at USC. She’s also the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a new sci fi afro-futurist RPG developed with a team of all POC and Black creators; live streamed on her twitch channel, /cypheroftyr. She’s named as one of The Game Awards Future Class 2020, a diverse group of builders, thinkers and dreamers whose voices elevate and diversify our artform. 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. She was also invited to the Xbox MVP program in February 2021. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021. Tanya is the programming & diversity coordinator for OrcaCon and GaymerX. She also serves on the Board of Directors for OrcaCon and was named the Chair for Take This in January 2023. She often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. 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) Writer Bio for pubs: Tanya is the Founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago. She’s part of Rivals of Waterdeep, an actual play D&D show on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep; the programming coordinator for OrcaCon & GaymerX; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. She’s on the Board of Take This as well as a Stream Ambassador, and was part of the inaugural cohort of The Game Awards Future Class. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021.