Thank you for playing & for the review. :)
I had a few feedback about the potions looking alike.
Initially, I developped the game for fullscreen experience only. The differences are more obvious in fullscreen.
But I had some fullscreen issues with the game maker html5 export. I kept fullscreen available only for Windows.
I intentionnaly capped the browser version to run at 30 fps, because the browser performance was poor on lower end computers.
The Windows version comes with shaders enabled by default & handles quite easily a 60 fps experience with any basic graphic cards.
Unlucky that you encountered that recursion issue. I cannot replicate on 3 different systems though. :/
I'll try setting a fixed depth on the menus once the voting ends, see if it fixes the issue.
The theme of shadow is mainly tacked onto the story / purpose.
The player is imprisoned in a dungeon by an evil entity. The shadow theme is embodied by this malevolent force as the player seeks freedom through the power of alchemy. The player's imprisonment is a direct result of this entity's quest for ultimate power. It seeks to harness the energy of the obelisks, which are bound by the shadows, and only the most potent potions can unlock them. The player's quest to merge potions and activate the obelisks is a fight against the entity's evil control.
From my understanding, there were no requirements to have the themes present only as a game mechanics as we can see in most entries.