The intended path was down toward the lower area, you unlock a way to progress further there. I was banking on the drop in the crystal area to give you that hint, or just natural player exploration. A lot of people didn't get the hint that the jumps towards the potion aren't viable at first and just kept trying till they gave up.
Part of that is natural distrust in a jam game but I feel like i could have done a better job at earning it back in the early areas. The rest is mostly down to you not getting to experience the rest of the game. All the "lessons" I tried to teach through gameplay don't seem to have been effective in your experience, so the rest fell apart.
I knew accessibility was going to be a problem but unfortunately I ran out of time. Thank you for taking the time to document your play through for me. I'll carry those lessons with me into my future projects.