I had the plot of Out Of Order, together with a number of the puzzles, kicking about in my head for years before I finally managed to turn them into the game you now see before you (or which you're currently downloading, and will see before you as soon as it's finished). Originally, "The Fantastic Adventures of Hurford Schlitzting" was a text adventure built in BASIC. It was never finished.

The original version of Out Of Order was put together using a system called PACkAGE (standing for Point And ClicK Adventure Game Editor) which was written for a final year computing project while I was at university. The problem was that however clever the editor was, it was a pig to use. Neither this version of the game, nor a fully functioning PACkAGE system, were ever finished either.

I later took up the challenge of getting the game written once again, using a new Hungry Software developed language. There were a few major drawbacks... firstly, that it was only going to be for DOS as before and secondly that it refused to work, and so it was scrapped during the early stages - some would even say before it got that far. Throughout this time, there was always the option of using a third-party engine for the game... however, none seemed appropriate and even fewer still seemed, in all honestly, to have been started. Yes, we're talking SCRAMM here.

Later still, in 2000, I gave it yet another go. Powered by SLUDGE (a "Scripting Language for Unhindered Development of a Gaming Environment") development started on a high resolution, 16-bit colour, Win32 version of the game. And, in a shock turn of events, this time the game was actually finished. All of which would be a pretty pointless story, if it weren't for the fact that you can spend a few minutes downloading it and finally play the damn thing. I hope it was worth it.

- Tim