Hello everyone! I'm Thomas Konkel, one of the developers working on Contingency Plan. I had a neat idea to make some meet-the-developer posts to keep you fine folks with something to sink your teeth into between now and the 7th (when we release!) So let's get started!
I graduated from High School in 2022 with a distinguished academic diploma and as Valedictorian from College in 2024 with a Bachelor's in Game Development and a Course Director's Award. I'm also an Eagle Scout. So basically if the term nerd had a physical manifestation, I would probably be it. My favorite subjects were, and still are, engineering and physics.
In my spare time I usually just play games - but I also enjoy tinkering with the hardware and software of computers and other tech, and would consider myself rather fluent in most related subjects; if not, then I am eager to learn. I also like bowling -- couldn't figure out where else I could stick that.
My main development tasks in the game were flight controls for the ship, the shop system, the ship-mounted turrets, and the ship docking system, as well as a few other minor things. If you have any issues with them you can complain to me, but I can't wait for you all to get in there and try them out.
We recently hit a big milestone - our game is currently in the top 10 free-to-play, popular upcoming VR games on Steam! Yes, it's a very specific genre but this is still such exciting news to see our game recognized in such a way. Thank you all for wishlisting and following our game.
I'd like to take this section to recognize a few people. I couldn't have gotten to where I am without the incredible support of my parents. To all you young adults and below out there: recognize the incredible efforts of your parents more; give them a call, tell them thank you... we don't do that enough. While I know that this is sometimes not the case, I can only wish that all children have the incredible support of great parents/guardians. I'd like to thank my friends and family for their support and companionship throughout the years. I would like to specifically mention my incredible high school physics/math/computer science/life teacher. I won't mention your name here - but know that I would consider it to be an honor to one day be compared to you. I actually used some of your lessons for some components in this game and in some previous projects, so just know that you're still making a difference even 2-3 years later. I would also like to thank the rest of the team here at Big Gaming. While this is a student project, the team is also good friends; one of the developers has been with me since middle school through thick and thin. As we have progressed through our degree program, we have all been excited for this moment, but we are thrilled to have the opportunity to share it together.
After 5 months of development, the team is eager to finally be nearing launch. This is a huge milestone in our careers. We are a small 4-student team that built a way over-scoped game because we thought it would be cool, and couldn't be happier with the result. Thank you for playing.