Simple and intuitive system, with a game loop that is already well tested and the magnum opus inspired twist. My biggest problem with the game is that I saw little investment in progressing further. After creating gold on the day side and seeing how the night elements interacted with the base elements I had nothing inside me interested in continuing with the game. It felt like a slog to try and achieve the same thing just with more steps and new elements.
And to be honest I don't know how to solve this problem. Maybe having shorter levels in which you have to make a certain element with a limited amount of gold, and then a sequence of levels each having different items in the shop too would make me feel like advancing in a natural way. Or maybe adding a side loop of sorts, like selecting an element to throw into some random thing? Haha That would be fun. There are many tiny loops like this that are being turned into slay the spire-like combat mechanics. An example would be backpack hero, that uses a inverntory management for combat, or dungeonclawler, that uses a claw machine mini game.
The controls and responsiveness is very well implemented. I love how the coins fit the little stack on the right.
I feel like the left recipe/diagram could be always displayed. I was constantly opening and closing that. I don't feel like memorizing that diagram was fun, so it started to be a distraction and having to move my mouse over there took me out of the flow most of the times.
Great visuals and sound effects too.
Overall nice game! Hope this feedback can help the team :)