I do like the approach of making the mechanics mysterious / visual only. I don't think I struggled with any particular mechanics but the biggest one I'd look at is the 'walking in / out of the woods' options. They both look very similar and it's hard to notice the difference or the changes it's making on the gauge on the left. It may also be hard to notice its flipping mechanic because it seems like a completely free pick you want out of the top row immediately ... My suggestion would be to have a clear UP/DOWN arrow and have that arrow turn when it flips so it's clearer about what's going on there.
It's also not immediately obvious when you're prevented from progressing further into the woods, which feels frustrating seeing some sort of 'checkpoint' that you're prevented from reaching ... Doubly so when you avoided some camp cards to get there, and now you're stuck waiting until camp comes again.
It's also weird that 'moving back towards the campfire' has no clear connection to when the 'you can now camp' cards come up.
Because the top and bottom slots of the staff work differently, some of the mechanics need to be better visually indicated to show they aren't bugs. For example a 3 dot potion in the bottom of the staff while there's a 1 dot of the same potion on top seems to discard the one on top, despite the fact I've never seen this happen at any other time. The fact that the top slot also wastes all its charges instantly versus the bottom slot only consuming some of its charges is also... There's nothing that shows that it's acting differently, even though the slots act differently in that regard. I originally thought these were bugs.
The different slot mechanics are probably a good thing, though. It's more enjoyable that you're trying to not waste potion charges but you have limitations that might make you waste them.
The 'store threat for later' bottle is easy to forget about, having it react more when dragging a potion over it (something you'll do naturally) would help remind the player it's there, or giving it a clear slot for a potion to go into.
The most frustrating thing I've found is that by the time you reach the deep part of the woods, if you've been saving up mushrooms, you have no space for the fancier plants which will now sit in your inventory and... Apparently, it's not counted as being held by you. If the inventory is going to be strict like that instead of letting the player hold onto plants at the expense of inventory space for potions & such then it should have a clear indication of when you're reaching max capacity... or that sending one plant into your inventory at a time is a bad idea.
Though, the question is, 'should I be concerned about getting better plants so I can get better upgrades to proceed further into the woods' since the progression seems to be tied to a counter when you camp instead, and there's no indication of a boss or threat or anything time-critical looming on the horizon.
The biggest thing I feel is missing is a sense of 'travelling', and that sense of something bad on the horizon that you need to prepare for that's worth foraging more cleverly/in the deep forest for. The 'not us' is introduced but when it's introduced it poses absolutely no threat, it simply exists. It may be better to withhold the visual or make it look like a recall/memory than a thing that the player is looking at, something to say 'this is a threat, but not right now'. If there's no end to the current demo, I think it'd be good to have the last leg of the journey be the player starting in a dangerous part of the forest so the player should have upgraded their potions/forest helpers by then to survive and make it through. Just my thoughts, not sure what the intention truly is yet, I made sure to at least fill the 'Forest' / day counter to full.
Yeah, sorry, I ramble a lot.
In any case, love the art / ambience. Keep it up!
I agree 100% with everything you've said. And I personally don't think it's rambling at all with the paragraph separations, and considering if it were my game I'd appreciate the feedback.
I didn't even realize there was a second section to the staff until the stronger magic/monsters started appearing. And the forest flipping mechanic I didn't realize until near the end, especially since earlier on it just blended with the drawing new cards and as you said it seems like an easy grab to avoid damage.
The tutorial part at the beginning could definitely be expanded upon to explain these. Perhaps the difference in the 2 staff positions could be noted or reasserted after you unlock the first level 4 potion, since that's when it starts to make more difference due to the bottom being limited to 3.
I also thought at first once the gems all greyed out I'd be dead, not at all clear that it revives them with one less until after it's happened once, which really changes the strategies you might employ when almost at the end.