I enjoyed your game. When searching for the third key I already had a hunch what might be behind the door. ^^ And I was proven right. But great execution on that.
Liked:
- Atmosphere was great (Sound nice, Movement sluggish = perfect, Light, Cramped space)
- Changing environment (texts appearing later)
- The notes and placement of notes in areas that can only be seen on the way back (or placed close to ceiling)
Could be improved:
- The maze: It is nice for it's atmosphere. But problematic for the gameplay. At some point it is very likely that you are just stumbling randomly around (which if you wanted that effect is nice) searching for the keys. Your placed markers were great for finding the "main way" to the door. But nothing similar exists for the keys. For me it was just applying brute force to all possible ways.
- Static atmosphere: If someone is subjected to certain stimuli like Sound, Light, Environment no matter how scary they are. With time the person will get used to it. This happend with me too. Nothing changes, everything stays the same and you lose the feeling of danger (like slowly checking each corner). Which just breaks the atmosphere.
To improve this you need to change the tension over time. This is already done when having all keys and opening the door. But never anywhere else.
One could introduce flickering of light, reduce light in certain areas, sound that get louder the closer you get to a certain area and then abruptly stops, rising water maybe (would add time pressure too)
- Narration: I like the reveal behind the door. But the narration completely ruined it. The player is not stupid (most of the time :D) Let him come to his own conclusions. I don't need extra narration about poster and notes. Because the notes already give me all the context and content that I need. It felt out of place in this game and felt more like a friend making jokes while I play the game than anything else.
The could be improved part is longer because the good stuff doesn't need much explanation in my opinion. I just wanted to point that out, because what you have is already great.
Cheers <3