Thank you so much for the trying FearMe: The silent!
One of the things that I love the most in making these games is the music and the sound effects!
So, I make it my mission to make the sound one of the most important parts of my games, I make the music and a lot of the sounds in the game, and even with some stock sounds I still try to edit them, so it all fits the narrative and atmosphere.
I try to gamify the experience as well, remembering oldschool game sound ques from the NES such as "The Portopia Serial Murder Case" and even games like Zelda.
Inspirations for game design include things like PC98 games, "Policenauts", "Snatcher", "Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk"
Anime and mangas that inspired me include some like "Serial Experiments Lain" and most works by "Tsutomu Nihei". They aid me to recall the forbidding and creepy tones as well as the psychological aspects of the story.
I will also include in this list Hayao Miyasaki is collection of work's which are awe inspiring, let's not forget one of my greatest inspirations in horror Tim Burton. His collection of works is a drove of inspiration by using horror more as a medium to communicate ideas.
As for software I utilize to make my projects I mostly use Clipstudio Paint to make the pixel art and animations, for sound editing I use LMMS to make the music and Audacity to do the editing.
Hopefully this answers some of your questions!