I wish someone'd make a good SimCity-style airport/airline simulator. There've been a few attempts, including one looking a bit like Prison Architect, but none that have been super compelling to me.
I also tried "Another Brick in the Mall" but also made it only ~30 minutes in. I think I'm trying Timberborn next.
When Paradox bought Prison architect I hoped they were going to use the engine to build similar games with different settings. Instead they killed the game with buggy expansions and stopped to support it a few months ago. At least they (slightly) teased Prison Architect 2.
That is strange. The only thing I can think of is that EA isn't terribly motivated since they aren't trying to keep a broader "Sim" brand alive, just The Sims and SimCity (and it's not clear how invested they are in SimCity anymore).
Poking around U.S. trademark database, EA may not have a general "Sim" trademark— as Maxis' appears to have lapsed [0]—and maybe "SimAirport" is distinct enough from "The Sims" and "SimCity" trademarks EA has to not be worth suing over.
[0] https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74300602&caseType=SERIAL_...
I tried it years ago - I think even before Prison Architect and Rimworld (another great game, that spoils you for other games mechanicswise) - but could not get into it, because I felt very "disoriented". And a feel of disorientation is difficult for me to work through in games.
I do feel the space is wide open in transit based games. Transport Fever, for example, leaves a lot to be desired while still being awesome too.
Here’s a downloadable source. I haven’t tried it. Not sure if it is safe: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/airlines-2-iky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_Tycoon
It was a _little_ buggy and felt like some feature's were about 80%, but overall pretty fun.