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Thank you for your words, sopu. :)
They are very motivating to me, since I started  developing my second game just few days ago - and I'm both excited and scared.

Actually, I haven't played a lot of top-down action-rpg (as an example, I'm ashamed to admit that I never played a single Zelda).
Nevertheless, I always found very appealing the top-down perspective: so simple yet powerful.
Some have defined my game as a "pixelated Darkwood", which is funny because I swear I played Darkwood for just three hours three years ago (Steam is my witness! :D); it is also pretty inaccurate, since Darkwood is based on procedural and crafting mechanics - which I personally don't like, despite having loved the atmosphere of that game.
As a matter of fact, a couple of months ago I installed Darkwood once again just to make sure I didn't steal something unintentionally: and I was shocked because the intro begins with "I see hatred and fear in their eyes"... :D
Other than that, and the (not very original) finding that also Lockwood is isolated from the rest of the world, "no roads in or out", I don't see many similarities between Darkwood and my game.
(Ok, let's throw in the "-wood" part of name too - ha ha)

In short, I really couldn't say if a game (or more than one) in particular inspired me.
I think that I've tried to put together some atmospheric elements that impressed me (one among all: the intentional vagueness of Dark Souls' lore) with the aesthetic of totally different old-school games that made me dream (without pretending to be philological, as demonstrated by certain not very 8-bit sound fx).

Ok, I've been boring enough, but I have to say one more thing: you should definitely try to make something yourself!
They say the hardest part is starting, but I beg to differ: the way I see it, the hardest part is keeping up. However, since it's also very rewarding, shouldn't probably be hard at all! :)

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That's really great, best of luck with developing the new game! I've had a great time playing Darkwood recently, so it's funny you mention it -- I also don't think it bears that much of a resemblance to Their Eyes, besides having a creepy atmosphere and combining roguelike elements with survival horror (which are two of my favorite things).

I really appreciate hearing some of your thoughts on what you were thinking about when designing the game's atmosphere. I think intentional vagueness in the world's lore / player context can actually be crucial in squeezing a lot of mystery out of very simple elements. And that's I think what I liked so much about Their Eyes -- graphics and mechanics that are simple enough to have possibly been made in the 80s, but executed well and with sufficient attention to detail that it feels super refreshing and clean. You don't need really fancy graphics for a game to look beautiful, feel scary, and give your brain just enough world detail that it starts wandering thinking, "why are these people crazy?" "what happened here?" "what kind of creature broke this door off its hinges? am I even equipped to handle something like that?" etc

Anyway. Thanks for your encouragement! I've actually spent the weekend learning a bit of LÖVE by just starting simple and constructing a snake game from scratch. And it's been super fun so far.

I'm sure it has been fun!
It was the end of July 2020 when I "coded" my first game, following a tutorial to recreate Asteroids in GameMaker Studio 2.
Back then I had no doubt that I would have stick to the lazy drag & drop interface for the rest of my life... Except that it was so exciting that I immediately changed my mind. :D

About the relation between graphics and atmosphere, I guess that less is more.
For my personal taste, the crude volumes of a Gothic's scenery are way more enthralling than many modern super-detailed landscapes with ray tracing and stuff; as well as low-poly models can be scarier then hyper-realistic monsters.
In the architecture of terror, the true keystone is our imagination.
This is my opinion, at least.

Have fun with coding! :)