As soon as I heard "CSS-based physics," I knew I had to play this!  It definitely did not disappoint.

I didn't read the tutorial (nor the item tooltips for far too long) but I had fun playing around and seeing what worked and what didn't.  The physics are a little out of control, in a fun/funny way; I suppose I would have liked to lean into that a bit more and make the potion brewing a little more chaotic, or add a timer or something, because while frantically waving the flask around to mix things was great fun, once I found the right placement for the cups/flasks it was almost too easy to get the right mix to the customer and so I wasn't all that incentivized to play with the physics system.

But regardless of the gameplay, the biggest highlight for me is the art style and the dialogue.  The character work is great here, and everyone's little storylines are funny.  You definitely want to see them through to their conclusion.

I think the sound is the weak point, but understandable for a jam.  The sounds that are there are good, but I think some background music would go a long way.

I did hit a couple of bugs, mostly shark-related and one of which seems to be breaking:

1. Small issue: Early on, the loan shark tells me that "today was $150, tomorrow will be $150" but then charges $250 the next day.
2. Later on, the shark comes back-to-back and takes all of my money, ending my run :(
3. Changing window size mid-run tends to get my flask stuck behind a wall and cause and endless onslaught of clinking sounds.

All-in-all, this was a good time!  Technically very impressive, fun gameplay loop, and incredibly charming (the character art, the storylines, the hand-crafted physics).   Great work to everyone involved!

There's definitely a scaling issue but the game let me scroll up and down so I could play it. Very characterful and nice art! The potion making confuses me but I managed to make a lot of money so I can't complain

That was quite fun! The mixing of the potions is an interesting mechanic and it works quite well!

My gripe is not with the game itself but with the tutorial of the game, it's a fair bit of reading and yet it doesn't actually tell you how to play :P I had to figure out how to interact with stuff and how to add/mix/heat stuff up by myself through trial and error, the tutorial told me I had to do it but not how to do it.

Which is sad because the art is this game is STUNNING!! Why not use some of that art for a dynamic intro that teaches you how to play? Some simple popups on screen that tell you what to do for the first customer or something?

In the end I had to give up because I am fairly certain I made the right potion but I cound't figure out how to pour it into a cup and give it to them because the game didn't tell me how and nothing I tried worked! I am also pretty sure I managed to push a cup and vial out of bounds at the bottom of the screen. lol

With a few tweaks this game can be really really good I think! The mechanics are solid and it's actually pretty engaging, I wanted to/would've played quite a bit more if I actually managed to figure out how to! So I hope you don't fully drop this after the jam and make some improvements on it cuz I see the potential it has!

Took me a while to figure out how to actually play the game. But after that it was quite fun to play!

The Visuals are really good. Sound Effekts are good, would have loved a bit Backround Music though

Got sharked back to back UnU
Had a great time though!

I especially relished the ability to reject any weirdos I didn't like, despite knowing it may spell my doom. If I don't like you, you ain't getting your potion bucko!

Plus, all the characters had really solid designs, the item descriptions were fun to read too, and dragging the items around like physical objects was a nice touch!

Loved the Visuals, the character design is so fun!

The mysterious potion brewer was just a dorky chem nerd mixing random stuff huh? That was quite a fun experience.  Really liked the dialogues, the item descriptions (still wondering if "burging" is an actual thing) and the process of mixing ingredients, adjusting the heat, and shaking the contents till you get the right colour. Recipes with the egg were my faves because I love crashing stuff into walls. You'd just need to adjust the physics of the flask (would fling way too much for light swings imo) and perhaps reinspect the story 'cause I seem to have hit a soft lock there (see image, I click "next" and nothing ever happens). Good job on that 👍 

It's simple, it's enjoyable, the lines are funny, nothing more to add. Great submission!

Good game, not much to say besides the art being beautifully quirky and the core gameplay loop being generally fun! I think the tutorial and player onboarding could have used some work, an interactive tutorial would've worked really well for this kind of game, and limiting the item selection to begin with would've helped as well - although I know those aren't easy to fit into the constraints of a jam game.

I also ran into a couple of bugs. The page had some scaling issues for me, in fullscreen I needed to either zoom out or scroll up and down to be able to see both the ingredients required and the actual ingredients panel, and on the second loan shark interaction, the text box was empty and clicking it did nothing.

UPDATED RATING AFTER REPLAYING THE GAME:

Enjoyment: 4/5

I somehow completely missed the cup part in the tutorial the first time </3 that's my bad. The game is actually very fun once you get the hang of things! I wish there was a bit more variety in the gameplay, the little conditions are cool, but I feel like there could be more impactful ones, maybe even having different ingredients be prepared in different methods rather than just being heated up.

Creativity and Theme: 4/5

My opinion on this aspect didn't really change. Spinning the potions is cool but the fact you end up just being able to shake them instead is a bit odd.

Visuals: 4/5

Same as what I said earlier, they're good, but some little animations would make them even better!

Audio: 3/5

Again, no BGM hurts this a lot, but that's understandable from what you've told me.

Seriousness: 4/5

Ok yeah, the game has more serious elements that it initally met my eye, bonus seriousness point!

FINAL RATING: 4/5

Cool entry! I feel like it lacks a bit of gameplay variety, but it has a strong idea. Thank you for letting me know what i had originally missed and pushing me towards giving the game a 2nd chance! :D

Seems like an interesting entry, but I just couldn't understand how to progress for the life of me </3

Enjoyment: 2/5

It took me over 10 minutes just to understand how making a potion worked, and even when i had a potion ready I couldn't understand how to actually give the client the potion, so I never got past the first guy in over 15 minutes of gameplay. I think the  game REALLY needs a more interactive tutorial (mine has the same issue, so don't let yourself down for that lmao), as I pretty much wasn't able to play the game at all.

Creativity and Theme: 4/5

Spinning the potions to mix the ingredients is a fun take, although you can technically just shake the flask randomly instead of spinning it, which kind of breaks the point of it.

Visuals: 4/5

Visuals look pretty nice, at least from what I was able to see.

Audio: 3/5

The audio is very very basic, but it works. No BGM is kind of a bummer though.

Seriousness: 3/5

Moderately serious.

FINAL RATING: 3/5

I wish I could've understood the game better, but alas, I still tried to enjoy the aspects that I could enjoy as much as I could. I like the idea, but you really need to guide the players a bit more in the beginning. Still, I feel like it's probably a fun little game if you understand how to actually play. :)

Very unique take on the theme!

The idea was fun, the art is nice but I couldn't really play the game because I got many bugs I dont know why