Welcome to my latest adventure!

This is the first post of my new adventure! Welcome to AirportSimulations.com, the official home for a (yes, pretty darn amazing) side project. I recently discovered the modern world of game engines and was blown away by the breadth of possibility. My career has moved through data analysis, data science, decision science and now business analysis, but the constant thread has always been software: creating things that did not exist before. I love the blend of creativity and problem‑solving in code, so it was love at first sight when I started exploring game engines.

Creativity Engines

I don't really consider myself a "gamer" first. I do enjoy games and I'd still pick a good game over a movie, but my main passion is creating. Spending an evening making something that persists feels meaningful. Game engines amplify that: they let you build anything you can imagine on a screen. I love the breadth of disciplines they touch—graphics, world building, audio, visual effects, code scripting, UI—you name it. That wide canvas pulled me in a few years ago and never let go.

Blender & Unity

My first 3D steps were in Blender—free, open source, and fantastically capable. The real spark comes when those static creations gain interactivity. Unity was my on‑ramp: relatively lightweight, expressive, and with near‑endless possibilities. It's a great place to learn foundational concepts of game development, so I dove into GameDev courses on Udemy. From 2D to 3D they provided just enough structured practice to start building my own things. And I did.

From Game to Airport

I began with playful prototypes—things mainly built to laugh at and show off. But I kept seeing how these tools could model complex, real systems. That’s where the bridge to airports formed. I’ve worked at a large airport for nearly a decade and I still love its sprawling logistical ecosystem. Every day reveals something new. My first "serious games" were tiny slices of that puzzle: visualising airplanes and passengers, animating movement, simulating queues, rerouting flows. After experimenting for a few years I realized: this is what I most want to build. So—time to share it.

AirportSimulations.com Is Born

I grabbed the domain on a whim during a bus ride to the airport. I genuinely have no idea where this adventure will lead. For now the plan is to use this site as a public journal of my main side project: a complete simulation of the airport—this time in another amazing engine: Unreal. Why switch? Read on.

Unreal: What’s Next

Unreal Engine is simply brilliant. Sure, the trade‑off is hardware demand, but when it runs smoothly it exposes a rich collection of thoughtful systems. It looks great out of the box, and there is a deep well to learn. I’m leaning toward investing most of my time here now—features like Mass AI (and yes… Blueprints!) push it over the edge for this project.

Blueprints? Really?

Yes—really. I was skeptical at first because typing code feels "cooler", but AI tooling made it too easy to lean back and let automation obscure understanding. Blueprints force me to visualize process flow and internalize engine concepts. That deliberate pace accelerates real learning. So that’s the path while I build an airport simulation.

Stay Tuned

Drop by now and then to see the latest challenges and wins on the path to a living airport simulation. Maybe one day I’ll build something for you. The sky is the limit—reach out if you like.

Enjoy!

Rein