Exile

Our Story

Exile was created in 2019, on a whim, in a fugue state, on a bad day, out of one person’s frustration with bad games, and as an escape from difficult things. What was born was an oddly compelling game of disastrous striving against the odds.

Thus was Exile’s heart created, doomed to sit on a hard-drive for six months, forgotten, unloved, an unplanned child, with no future, finally pushed out into the world as a mere precaution against accidental deletion. That was March 2020, the moment the world shut down. A difficult game was born for difficult times.

Shut down and locked in, Exile saw a few more updates, dreamed, sputtered, fell over, and died. But in that slow halting birth-death, Exile had gained some fans. This mess of bugs. This half-built trash. What a joy. What an oddly compelling little game.

A new developer stepped up. The mess of fanciful ideas, experiments, and failures started the slow process of being made sensible and functional and whole. Slowly a team of contributors gathered. One by one. Exile began to grow, and to thrive.

It seems fitting then, that this story is also the very experience you might have, if you choose to play Exile.

How to Play

Mechanically speaking, Exile is a voxel game. The basic set up will be familiar to players of other voxel games (you know, like Minecraft). But, Exile can be a bit different. You will find some unfamiliar mechanics. As one youtuber put it, "This aint your landlady's Minecraft". The in-game tutorial exists to help you learn the basics.

But what about Exile’s heart?

Exile is a difficult game for difficult people. But it’s not that hard. Just remember: never ever wander off in the middle of the night, in a snowstorm, with no plan, while naked, in an attempt to make pottery, while drunk. This ends badly.

The game-play is intended to be challenging, and to reward experimentation. The sense of accomplishment that comes from overcoming challenges is one of Exile’s core features. Yes, Exile is a survival game. You’ll need to find shelter, warmth, rest, food, water, and more. But how? Ah! Well, that part is up to you. You are only limited by your creativity.

Where Can I Get This Game?

Option 1 (recommended): Exile requires Luanti to play. The easiest way to install Exile is to use Luanti’s inbuilt installer. Run Luanti. Find the “Install Game” function. Search for Exile. Click install. Exile will now be available to play. Easy!

Option 2 (for experts): Exile can also be installed manually. The main reason for a manual install is to run the latest development version. Download the Exile files from the source code repository. Copy the files into Luanti’s games folder. If you are trying to run the development version you will likely need to download additional dependencies, and may encounter bugs. Check for a pre-release version if you’re having problems.

Option 3 (optional): Exile can be played on multi-player servers without needing to be installed locally. Just search under Luanti’s "Join Game" feature for servers running Exile. If you’re finding Exile too hard, other players are often happy to help.

Development

Exile is being actively developed by a team of enthusiasts. The game has enough content to be a full experience. That said, Exile is technically in “alpha”. We have major missing features we’d love to add. You probably won’t notice that gap, but we do. What you might notice are some rough spots from new or incomplete features.

Do you like the game and want to contribute? Check out the source code repository. Familiarize yourself with the open issues and the code base. Be sure to look at the documentation in the doc folder. We are always happy to see new people.

Player feedback is also highly valued. The team also accepts donations.