The basic idea of the game is in the description on the submission page, and the NPCs all give hints on how to progress / make potions. Part of that era of games for me was exploration and experimentation. Initially, the only NPC was Granny and she didn't say much. After some playtesting, I added way more NPCs to give hints on how to proceed. Granny / NPCs all give players almost all of the recipes but leaves out at least one ingredient. The descriptions of the reagents also give some more hints.
Either way, thanks for playing! Looks like I need to add more directions...