Very interesting topic!
I’m working solo in RPG Maker MZ rather than Unity/Unreal, but I hit very similar issues once a project grows.
1) Engine / scale:
RPG Maker MZ. Single large hub map representing a rural town, with many buildings fully enterable + lots of interior maps.
2) Default organization pattern:
I split logic by map rather than systems. One “main town” map, many small interior maps, and I rely heavily on consistent tile rules and visual language instead of complex hierarchies. For events, I reuse common events aggressively to avoid copy-paste chaos.
3) Flow killer:
Maintaining consistency as the world grows, especially when revisiting older maps. Small changes (lighting, mood, tileset tweaks) tend to ripple everywhere, and without strong tooling, cleanup becomes manual and time consuming.
I don’t have advanced internal tools like prefab systems, so discipline and naming conventions do most of the heavy lifting. Curious to see how your tooling ideas translate outside Unity-heavy pipelines.