Cluley wrote Jacaranda Jim while studying computing at Guildford College of Technology. He began developing the game in 1987, borrowing liberally from an earlier unreleased game named Herbie. The game "took about 6 months to write, and was finished by April 1988". The game, which was written in Pascal, was then ported to the PC platform with the help of Alex Bull, another student at Guildford. The premise of the game, as presented in promotional materials, is:
