This is such a delightful, relaxing time! I didn't realize how long I'd been sorting books until I was halfway through and glanced at the clock haha. Some notes, though, in no particular order, since you're still working on the game and planning for a Steam release (already wishlisted!!!)--
- It would be cuter if the first letter of the book were the letter it gets sorted into (i.e. Agricultural Techniques would be A: Farming), or if you gave the books authors with the appropriate letter (to make it feel more like sorting real books). That said, that may make localizing to different languages more difficult and it's not a big deal!
- Some of the categories/titles are a bit tricky (e.g. does "Measurements for Engineers" go in math or engineering?) and inconsistent (e.g. some of the measurement books go in mathematics, some don't). Also, some of the categories overlap a lottttt--does the planting book go in plants or agriculture? No, it goes in calendar haha. This isn't too much of an issue because the game tells you if it's in the wrong place but is a little irritating in an otherwise very smooth, chill game. I think you could go two directions with it: 1) less obvious titles (but still more consistency in the rules), so it's a puzzle to figure out where they should go, or 2) more obvious, straightforward titles for a more zen vibe.
- I was a little disappointed to discover when starting over (wanted to do a no-spells run!) that the book appearances and titles aren't randomized. I expected they would be because the art doesn't really seem to go with the books (the baking bread book is a tree, the stick insect-looking book is about tigers, I think? etc.), and they don't appear to be arranged in any particular way on the shelves. I guess there's potential to get *really fast* if you memorize the books, but I think there's generally more replayability if each replay you get to rediscover where each book needs to go. What ended up happening as-is is that on playthrough two I ended up sorting the prettier, more distinct books first because I remembered where they went, and was left with a slog of the grey/black/blue gradient/stripe/etc. books in the second half. Not as much fun.
- Noticed a bug on my no-spells playthrough--some of the books share the same exact title and location? I'll comment a screenshot under this.
- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE rework the UI so it doesn't overlap with the books. It was so so annoying to have to hide the UI to see the books at the bottom left, and even more annoying to have to hide the UI to click on the VISIBLE books that were behind the invisible coin boxes. You could move the book box to the top of the screen, or just squish it a bit to make it fit, and move the coins to the top or to where the book box is right now. Alternatively (but less good), you could add a keyboard button toggle, or move the toggle ui button to one of the bottom corners (which is where the player's eyes and mouse are going to be when they need to toggle the UI).
- Visuals could use some reworking--they're not terribly cohesive right now. The books are fine (very chaotic and some look a lot better than others), but they don't look like they exist in the same space as the shelves. The level of detail and lack of a cohesive palette makes it feel off. Also, using a more fitting font would be great!
- The gif of the butterflies on the page is so charming, but then all my robots were just kinda bland robots. Made me not want to get the robots honestly haha. The spell icons could be more interesting, too. I had a hard time remembering which did what because they looked so samey.
I had a great time with this--all the best as you keep working on and polishing this towards a full release! I can't wait to see where you go with this delight! :)
