The idea of melt leashes to get metal is interesting, like you are freeing the pets.

The controls are finicky. I literally just mash all the buttons. I have managed to find the right combo but still don't understand how to use the crafting table. First I get close to the board, then I press all the buttons in the ASDFGH row, the characters starts to run into the wall, I enter the full-screen mode and exit, and only then the crafting menu appears. It's easy to soft lock yourself, like you can end up getting out of the table with the color palette still in your hands and not be able to do anything.

Some nice animations and a really nicely assembled workshop but I'll admit the gameplay feels really opaque. I'd have liked some highlights or tooltips to better indicate what buttons to press where. Also, I think there might be something bugged - I tried the "GY" combination marked on the chart and it resulted in a brick of gold, but Brumaire still did the "failure" animation.

Also I know there's a pun in play, but...it really does feel like we're smelting dogs into lead for our alchemical experiments ^_^;