Presto sought to develop a diverse and logical approach to puzzles and Ages, and worked to make the villain sympathetically multifaceted.

[2] Unlike previous games, which employed a series of still images, Exile uses a "free look" system which gives the player a 360-degree field of view at each node.

For example, the book leading to Voltaic is accessed by aligning beams of light across a canyon; the Age itself contains similar energy-based puzzles.

[8] The player can also pick up and view journals or pages written by game characters which reveal back-story and give hints to solving puzzles.

[3] Exile begins 10 years after the events of Riven,[10] when the player arrives at Tomahna, the home of Atrus and his wife Catherine.

Atrus is a scientist and explorer who has mastered an ancient practice known as the Art: he can create links to different Ages by writing special books.

Following the thief via the book he left behind, the player arrives at J'nanin, an Age that Atrus had written long before as a way to teach the Art to his sons.

Twenty years earlier, Atrus' wayward sons Sirrus and Achenar destroyed Saavedro's home Age of Narayan and trapped him on J'nanin.

[11] A core team from Presto Studios held discussions which analyzed Myst and Riven, then set out specific goals for the third game.

According to Presto founder and producer Greg Uhler, these goals included visual variety in the Ages, a satisfying ending, and a way for players to gauge their progress during the game.

[11] Particular attention was devoted to strong visual styles and mechanics, which a critic described as "a collaboration of Jules Verne, Rube Goldberg and Claes Oldenburg".

[13] Pre-rendered environments, like those in the earlier Myst games, were used, providing what producer Dan Irish described as the "photorealistic ability to present the world in a convincing way.

"[14] Presto used 3ds Max, Areté's Digital Nature Tools, and additional software to generate the pre-rendered visuals as well as dynamic water, character animations, and lighting.

[13] Before any shooting could begin, all the sets were constructed and filled with props the actors could use, costumes for all the characters were fashioned, and each scene was plotted out by storyboard.

[20] After Gores sold GAME Studios and their assets to Ubi Soft in March 2001, the title alongside the Myst franchise as a whole was put in the hands of the company.

"[22] Wall looked at the increasing complexity of games as an opportunity to give players a soundtrack with as much force as a movie score.

[10][33][35] Macworld's Peter Cohen praised Presto for giving out bits of story throughout the game, rather than providing exposition only during opening and closing sequences.

[5][40] IGN concluded their review of the game by stating that Presto had done "a pretty good job with a notable addition to the series".

[35] The Daily Telegraph offered even stronger praise, saying that Presto had crafted the best Myst game in the series thus far,[6] a sentiment that was echoed in other publications.

[33] GameSpot's Scott Osborne noted that due to the frame-by-frame nature of gameplay, it was occasionally difficult to discern where players were allowed to venture and what areas were unreachable.

[9] The Los Angeles Times reported that bugs including a lack of sound, incompatibility with certain graphics cards and system crashes were present in as many as 10 percent of the first shipment of discs.

[61] Following Exile's European release on September 7, it reached second place on the British sales charts, and #1 on those of Germany and France.

[70] Presto employee Michael Saladino pointed to the maverick style of the studio and its inability to develop more than one title at a time as reasons for its folding.