Also it's not intended to be confusing when things explode--it happens when too much energy is produced (more than 3 in a slot or more than 7 in the center) but with how elements react when you use multiple reagents in the same reaction it can be a bit hard to tell what the end result will be. I had intended to convey that better with vfx particles representing the energy moving from place to place in the circle, but I ran out of time!
Yeah I think VFX could be perfect for this. If elements are reacting poorly like you're saying, you could show some colored particles clashing together before exploding or something.
Also, you obviously do a lot more 2D in UE than I do so you so you may already know this, but I recently learned that right clicking on imported textures and clicking "Apply Sprite 2D settings" or something like that really sharpens them up in unreal. Especially for lower resolution images like pixel art. But this might not even apply here, I just thought I'd mention it because it's something I learned this Jam.
oh yeah that feature is a must-know for 2d games in unreal. i didnt realize it existed until i watched cobra code's fantastic tutorials on the subject.
And yeah, I actually downloaded a plugin to add niagara particle support to widget BPs, but i didn't have time to learn or implement them unfortunately.