Well I've got to be honest, I personally prefer BN to this one. Although I like the concept of this game (look for thing to escape) and I did have fun with it, I found two problems with it.
The first is that there are no stakes, there's no failure state or anything to make tension, you just hope around until you find the knife/phone and after a while this became boring. The second is that the maps too big so after a while it became a chore to hope across.
I doubt there's anything that can be done about the size of the map but I was thinking, just like the bag in BN could you implement something like that in this game? Or maybe have some goons lurking around that you have to avoid? Of course if you do ether of these then please for the LOVE OF GOD PUT THE HINTS BACK ON. Even if you only limit them to three I feel that this will make it fare for new and old players, it would also aid in the later bits with the keys.
Alternatively have you considered making a room escape game? Where you could interact with objects to slowly untie yourself or somehow aid in your escape (i.e. get the coat hanger to reach the key to unlock the draw with the door key ect..ect.. similar to tripleQ's or Imoutoid escape games)?
Still a good game and I look forward to whatever comes next be it update or new game. And finally have you considered a patron page?