The Art of Game Design

The amount of time decoted to listening as an important skill for game design is pretty unsurprising. No matter what else you can come up with, if you aren't taking in new inspiration and feedback there is only so far you can get. Effective communication will always be one of the most important parts of creating a game, telling your audience what they're in for as well as figuring out why they might be interested to begin with. Listening to the game is more interesting, though I would argue it goes a bit further than just knowing the specific engine you're working with. The genre/concept for a game will help shape what you want to do with it, whether its a 2d platformer or 3d farming sim.