Hey there,
My initial thought is, usually a randomised system hints on replayability. If you expect most of your users to only play your game once, but just want to randomise it for uniqueness, it might add more complexity than it’s worth.
At the start of each new game, the world would generally retain the same pool of ingredients
If you do that, you really need to balance it right. Will one player be able to randomly mix a very strong potion early on, while another player will have to wait until the end of the game?
Worth keeping in mind that, making a game balanced takes a lot of time and effort. Making said game random, makes it even harder of a task.
The idea is to challenge the player in a captivating way.
I think I see what you are going for. Trying to create an experience that the user can enjoy, and that they can’t predict too much what’s going to happen, or they can’t use a guide, as a lot of the core mechanics are randomised. This is a neat idea, but it does add to the complexity of an otherwise already complex game.
This discovery process will involve experimentation with various ingredient combinations
I like this idea, however from personal experience, if a game expects me to mix ingredients, but only a small combination of ingredients work, that discourages me from experimenting. I can’t tell if that’s an opinion a lot of other people have or that might just be me.
Does this concept resonate with you as an engaging and enjoyable game mechanic, or does it strike you as potentially frustrating?
To be completely honest, I’m just not sure you’ve added enough information to answer this. I can picture a game using the concept that is fun to play, but I can also picture a game using this but being boring. I’m not entirely sure if this is a very innovating idea, I feel like I’ve played games that have experimented with similar gimmicks, although no specific title comes to mind.
Having said all that, if you go ahead with this idea, a randomised game gives a unique experience not only to each user, but also on the same user playing the game multiple times. Making the game in such a way that it needs to be replayed multiple times to reach the end might show more of that content to users.
Sorry for the wall of text. Needless to say these are all my personal opinions, so feel free follow only the ones you like :)