Exile - Hints for Programmers   
by Jeff Vogel

     This document contains information about Exile which may be useful to aspiring game programmers: descriptions, examples, and such. It also contains advice from me, a Successful Shareware Game Programmer (TM). I've never been one to avoid soapboxing about game programming, and I think some of the things I've learned may be useful to you. If not, well, I tried. And, you can tell me where I went wrong using any of the E-mail addresses given in the game. I love talking to programmers, players, or anyone who spends time writing me.

     The next section contains a tour of the resources in Exile, using ResEdit. I point out a lot of cute tricks you can use, and several mistakes you can avoid.
     Before I start the ResEdit tour of Exile, however, there are a few common misconceptions people have about game programming. I want to dispel them, in order to talk you, yes you, into trying to write games. This platform needs all the good work it can get:

Wrong Thing 1:   It takes lots of experience to write a good game.  Exile was my second Mac program. The world editor for Exile was my first. I'm now making my living off of it. Believe me, you don't need a world of experience to make games. Speaking of which...

Wrong Things 2:  You need a lot of in-depth hacker knowledge to write a good game.  This is true if you're trying to write yet another Doom clone, or something like Apeiron, with very intricately done animation. For the vast majority of games, however, straight toolbox calls will do. Nothing fancy. Again, you can do it.

Wrong Thing 3:  It will be a lot of fun.  This is half true. There will be a lot of fun involved. However, if you're going to do something real, something people will really want to play and pay for, it's gonna' hurt. It will take a lot of work, and a lot of playtesting. Hundreds of hours of your life. Exile took 1000 hours, so far, and I got off very easy. 
      However, I don't regret a minute of it. 

Wrong Thing 4:  I need really fancy graphics and sounds!  No. Look at Exile. The graphics are good, but nothing to bounce up and down screaming about. The most important thing, really the only important thing is...

The Play's The Thing.

     Make a good game, a fun game, a game your heart is in, a game YOU would want to play, and you can make money. Nothing, not good sounds, not good graphics, not excellent distribution, not a nice review in MacUser, nothing will make up for a lousy game. I promise.

     Now then. About Exile. Trot out a copy of ResEdit, every programmer's friend and right arm. Open up Exile with it. In the next section, I'll discuss some of the clever tricks that you can use, and several mistakes you should avoid...