Thanks very much for playing and leaving feedback for our game! I'm sorry you had difficulties with the controls. We had the instructions written on the game page itself but as not everybody goes there to check out the page (myself included) it probably would have been best to also have them in the actual game. We did want to keep the controls super simple though which is why we more or less stuck to a mouse only thing. I'm glad you were able to figure it out! The hand tool let's you work around the workbench and pick up either the glass tube or the torch. I felt that gave it more of a workshopy vibe than a pure image editing thing as you are "picking" something up. I'm not sure if we'll change that too much in the post jam because I think part of it is about tool placement on the table. When you're done with the burner, put it to the side etc... though might adjust sizes to make overlap less likely.
There was definitely a lot of research put into the game. There's actually a neon sign making place near where I live and the we discussed having me attend a class to try get more research. Though that would have taken at least 4 hours so we opted instead to spend those hours working on the jam directly haha. Our game is not the most accurate neon sign making simulator due to a lack of time/unsure of how much we wanted in the gameplay. Some differences are that during bending the glass, you would also be blowing air into it to keep the soft glass from collapsing on itself and maintaining a consistent diameter. We had an idea where the player would need to be blowing into the microphone while bending but for obvious reasons we didn't move forward with that as that would be kinda finicky gameplay and not everybody has a microphone. And that the bending took up enough concentration that we don't want to burden the player to also have to control air flow into the glass. We also didn't include attaching electrodes to the end of the glass tube. There is some discussion if we want to have that step in the post jam version. As for the gas filling mini game, that isn't how you really fill the tube up with gas. However, the gas mixtures we included are real combinations and we kept the facts Mr. Lam says about gas colours and the use of helium in tubes accurate. Nyveon helped keep us honest about it. Initially we wanted Mercury to be one of the gases you fill the tube with. However, mercury is placed into the tube as a drop of liquid that later vaporises, not as a gas initially which is why we went with different mixtures and had Mr. Lam just say there was a drop of mercury already in the tube.
There's a few other neon sign making games in this jam though I haven't seen the same kind of bending if you're interested in checking them out. I might be missing some.:
https://itch.io/jam/amaze-me-game-jam/rate/1096696 (Make a neon light and see them decorated in a city)
https://itch.io/jam/amaze-me-game-jam/rate/1096574 (Management neon light making game. Loved how it costs money when you "draw" out your neon light)
https://itch.io/jam/amaze-me-game-jam/rate/1097218 (Make neon lights by filling out combinations correctly. Hectic game like overcooked style.)
Hopefully you were able to finish our game despite those issues! I'm quite fond of the ending myself which is why we made it so you could skip all the bending glass mini games by hitting "Done" prematurely. Thanks again for playing!