Thank you very much, good sir! You have no idea how much this comment just made my day :)! I agree with the anti-aliasing, the brush I use is too fuzzy for this scale. I think I'll stick with remaking it into 640x480 though... I was making it low-res mainly to be able to draw fast, if I can spend more time on it, I think a higher resolution suits me better.
I'm *really* happy someone finally appreciates the empty rooms! :D I got the sense of exploration you describe from the old games I was referencing before (KQ, QfG, Kyrandia...), so that's what I was trying to emulate - really glad it worked as intended at least for somebody!
As to expanding the game and trying to put it up on Steam - you're onto me! :) I'm not 100% committed to it just yet, but it looks like what you suggest (plus adding dialogue choices) is pretty much exactly the plan for the game right now. We'll see how it works out...
Thanks again for the positive feedback and encouragement!