I figured it out! (Lore and inspirations) (Patreon)

Hello. I solved nearly all the problems I had with the game's objective, and this has allowed me to get things rolling.

(Here is the current elevator model, made by my friend Zenonclaw.)

I won't go into depth describing what the game's concept is now, but I will say that I recognized the "I Spy / Whack-a-mole" horror gameplay of I'm On Observation Duty as one of the inspirations. Besides mechanics, the beautiful short Magnetic Rose has also been an aesthetic influence, as well as the corporate secrecy of SCP (and its wonderful premise of containing fairy tale creatures and ghosts within science-fiction.) 

With all this, I'm starting to find out what Lethal Company is, and I discovered some lore; my game mechanics were starting to feel very contrived without some justification in the world. And lore is cool.