How do I design a game for players instead of just myself?

Right now you design for the player you know best, yourself, and then you're surprised when other people play differently. That's not a failure of talent. It's the most natural trap there is. You can't easily see past your own head, and everyone starts exactly where you are. The leap is realizing that your players don't share your knowledge, your instincts, or your assumptions. What's obvious to you is invisible to them. What you find fun, they might find confusing. Good design isn't about making the game you'd love to play. It's about learning to see through eyes that aren't yours, and that only comes from watching real people, not imagining them. So watch someone play what you made, and say nothing. Don't explain, don't guide, just observe where they get stuck or bored or lost. It will be uncomfortable, and it will teach you more than a month of theory. The gap between how you play and how they play is the whole job. Watching closes it.