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.