How can I realistically start development?

always get hung up on with either the minutia or the very specific details of any game engine. What can help me get going?

My best advice: Have better scope.

1) If you don't 100% know how you are going to do something before you start typing and drawing (not saying that you can't be wrong, and some curve ball might come up,... but, if you know 100% HOW to do it, and what tools you have in your skill toolbox), then I would cut back the scope until you do; or learn more about whatever engine you are using more and getting a skill set that has all the skills you need to accomplish whatever game you are working on.

2) Shoot for simple and done. Yes, you might have all the wondrous ideas in the world, we all do,... but, you got to come to grips that you can't compete all by yourself against huge teams of skilled people all working around the clock. Game development takes a lot of time, and you can always add more into a game, but if you can easily misjudge how long something will take to complete. The good news, is you don't have to compete with gigantic projects if you don't want to. Shoot for one or two major gameplay functionalities, and make something within your KNOWN skill set, and make it quickly with the fewest moving parts. The key is making whatever core mechanic simple and limited, and adding polish onto that one mechanic - that is going to give you the biggest bang for your buck (aka: time/result)

3) Learn to kill your babies. If something is not working, scrap it; And see point #1.

So in short: Know what you are building and how to do it, shoot for something manageable, and don't get hung up on something that isn't working.

And that's solid advice that I wish I had taken when starting out as a hobbyist; I did the absolute opposite: I didn't know what I was doing and learned along the way, I shot for the stars with next level gameplay mechanics, and I never left a good game concept behind no matter how impossible and impracticable it was to implement... and I still haven't finished that damn game a decade later and have long since gone onto better things and done the opposite with great success... ~~but i'm just at port readying my crew, i'll be back for my white whale... ~~

/r/gamedev Thread