What are the Key Skills for a Gameplay Designer?

Hello everyone,

I am a 21 year old aspiring developer who is looking for some tips that could help me flesh out my skillset for the industry. After considering the many specializations in the games industry, I decided that being a gameplay designer would be of the most professional interest to me. In this thinking, I began to research job listings and forum posts to get an idea of the primary skills required of this position. I found that the skills required of a gameplay designer are quite varied and it inspired me to create this post. I made some real progress in my understanding of the position requirements, but now I am turning to the community for further discussion.

So I ask the question: What would you consider to be the key/primary skills for a gameplay designer? If you were looking to hire someone for that position, what skills, both, soft skills and technical skills, would you expect them to have? I feel like this is a very interesting topic to discuss and I would like to hear what other developers have to say about it. I think that gameplay designer is one of the less concrete jobs in the industry as there are so many different aspects that go into designing the core mechanics of a game. It is a specialization that requires a carful balance of communication, technical, and creative skills, which makes discussing the most important of those skills a fascinating prospect.

I look forward to your responses. Thank you for taking the time to read.