The engine is the foundation upon which the content runs...but engines in and of themselves aren't content. In the case of most game engines, the two are well-

The engine is the foundation upon which the content runs...but engines in and of themselves aren't content. In the case of most game engines, the two are well-separated. In the case of Dwarf Fortress, I imagine the content and the engine are heavily coupled - if not one and the same. Separating the two will be an enormous task for Tarn, who likely has other priorities in DF development and is uninterested in the inevitable bikeshedding that will result should he open the whole project open up to others. He's a mathematician, not a software engineer or project manager. > You gotta respect people's desire to control their baby, doesn't mean it's unproductive, though. While I agree, you'll probably find that his notions of "unproductive" will be wildly different than yours.