What do you do if you want to master game mechanics and create engaging gameplay?

I can not stress enough how important it is to play all kinds of games, if you want to work in the deeper end of game design. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you get into designing stuff, if you already have a good library of game mechanics in your head to reference.

Regardless of genre, ask yourself, "why does this work/fail?" - look at the mechanics they've chosen, how they combine with other design elements (AI, level, environment, etc) to create a particular experience. Consider your favorite games, games that are exceptionally popular, and games you find yourself drawn into. Ask why, and try to find the pieces that work together. Ask yourself as well: what could be done differently? Are there choices you might have done differently? Try to explore in your mind how certain changes might alter the gameplay experience.

If you really are into design, you probably won't even find reading or listening about theory stuff boring or hard to understand. Quite the opposite; the more you learn about the hows and whys of the inner workings, the more you can get fired up to go design that first iteration of an awesome mechanic in your head.

Design something immersive. Better animations and better response of each animation with a quick trigger in gameplay is necessary. Gameplay becomes better with quick and accurate player input and proper feedback as a result of this input. This is primal for gameplay. Keeping this basic rule in mind can in turn help to design an increasingly immersive gameplay.

One software I turn to is GameMaker Studio, renowned for its versatility in creating diverse game mechanics across genres. By exploring its features like drag-and-drop functionality and robust scripting language, I gain hands-on experience in implementing various gameplay elements. Additionally, I study successful games on platforms like Steam and itch.io to analyze their mechanics and player engagement strategies.

Iteration is super important, but so is also to know when there has been enough iteration. Kind of like how painting, songs and statues can be improved upon forever, so can be done to a game mechanic. And keep track of what you have changed between iterations as you might want to backtrack at some point to the one part, when the mechanic seemed most fun/engaging/functional.