First off, I must say- great minds think alike! Our entry also utilized a very physics-based approach to the brewing section with specific recipes to follow to produce certain results, and it's a lot of fun to screw around, throwing peppers and other objects all over the place.
One thing that I found quite difficulty to play around however, was the lack of non-physics storage in the game. That is, places to put items that didn't make them pile up and flood the countertop. I quickly found myself having to sort through piles of peppers every time I wanted to brew something, and the money adding on definitely didn't help, and I never found myself needing to spend it because I was able to simply grow the secondary and tertiary peppers instead of cross-breeding. My one recommendation in that regard would be to make money be more of a UI element where it just subtracts from it when you make purchases, and make some kind of storage system that is independent of the physics system (look at how our ingredients were stored for reference)
I absolutely loved the bit of humor in the letters you would receive, like how the organization got extra adjectives added to its name every time, but they too I wish could be stored/trashed without relying on a secret mechanic (which I actually found out about while writing this. I saw the letter that hinted at burning them and even tried the candles during day, but had entirely not noticed they became lit at night, even if it makes sense in hindsight). The sound effects and music were also very well done.
Other things that could be done just as a quality of life thing would be to make it possible to "bookmark" a recipe so that it can be viewed without opening the book again, as I found myself reopening it every couple peppers to ensure I had the steps in the correct order (although this wasn't an issue for yours as an incorrect potion would just spit the ingredients back out. Although, the problem WAS exaggerated when my items started to pile up too much, causing ejected items to fall back into the cauldron immediately), and allow players to skip to any point in the day by clicking that point specifically. I found the game would lag greatly to the point of freezing if I tried to spam click the calendar, so waiting it out and then clicking again got tedious after a bit.
All said, I'd honestly call it a solid 9/10 game! Only quality of life issues to account for, but a really good entry.
Viewing post in Pepper Hermit jam comments
Thanks a ton for the detailed feedback! It’s super helpful, and I especially appreciate the candidness.
Coins definitely pile up. I quite like the physical aspect of them, I think having more things to spend them on would alleviate much of that issue. That and the slow tedium of passing time was definitely more of a progression balance design that I’m less adept at, and didn’t have a lot of time to refine before the submission date.
A robust non physical storage system would alleviate that too, like you said, and could be extended to both coins, peppers, potions, and the letters. I couldn’t quite think of an elegant way to make something in time, but I quite like how you did it in your game!
Things can definitely pile up, and the chaos can add to the charm since it depends entirely on how the player organizes their workspace, though I’ll admit the options for such organization are quite limited! We tried to add shelves and baskets and made sure the countertop was large enough to help, but only so much.
Regardless though, I’m so happy you enjoyed it enough for a 9/10 despite the flaws! And it’s cool how similar our entries were :) I’m sensing some shared inspiration from Potion Craft! (If not, I’d recommend trying it!)