As a long-time gamer of various types of games and having seriously considered a career in the game development industry, I find myself running into the issue of scope creep in my game ideas.

Much of the work I have completed on various games (using Unreal Engine) has been a solo endeavor. The issue I find myself having with these projects is wanting to do “too much”. The abundance of developer forms, tutorials, and video references for features and ideas is a great resource for someone new to the game development scene, but these sources are often specific to individual features rather than the “big picture” of a game.

My question is this: is there a tried-and-true design process I should be following to help keep my projects consistent? How can I go about implementing the “correct” set of features for a game while both staying true to the “style” of the game and also not leaving the game too boring to play?

It's okay to over-design your game. Words are cheap. But you do need to identify and clarify what exactly is the heart of the game, what is the core gameplay. Figure out the MVP (minimum viable product) to launch, and design that. Write more features into your design, too - but categorize them as “also would be nice," or “provide as update,” or “desirable as permitted by budget/schedule.” Only you can figure out what's essential and what constitutes scope creep.