i've been talking with simon carless and matt wegner of the igf triumvirate and they have handed down a pretty exciting decision: games created with game maker are now eligible for the main and student competitions of the independent games festival.

game maker games had previously been disallowed because of a technicality: in order for a game to be eligible, the authors must be capable of commercially distributing it. because there's a cash prize for the competition, you see. well, the igf committee did their research, and it turns out game maker games authors are totally able to sell their games. hence, they are eligible.

the deadline for entering the main competition is on october first, a week away. there's also an obscene usd95 entry fee. i think it's important, though, to show that games can be made by people who are not coders. i think it's vital to the medium, in fact, that lack of programming experience not be a barrier to a person producing the game she's envisioned.

so show these folks what you've got, kids.