hanks so much for playing!
I didn't do a great job with explaining the game, the core of the game has to do with guessing the correct ingredients based on the cauldron steam color (blue is means you match a potential recipe and green means that the ingredient doesn't match with a given recipe) with the books supporting the deduction to help cross reference once you discover a recipe (the guesses are just there for your reference to help you remember, I'll be replacing them with a visual indicator in the next version)...
I'm going to overhaul the difficulty curve and several systems after the jam to make it more intuitive and approachable.
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Also, I love the minimalist art style in your game, it looks amazing! (And high five on literary references haha)