my %desc;

$desc{'room'} =<<END;
some text here, probably something
a few lines long
END

$desc{'wall'} =<<END;
another text here, probably something
a few lines long [sometimes with braces]

sometimes with a few paragraphs
END

##</code><code>##

__DATA__
[room]
some text here, probably something
a few lines long

[wall]
another text here, probably something
a few lines long [sometimes with braces]

sometimes with a few paragraphs

##</code><code>##

my %desc;
my $key = 'error';
for (<DATA>) {
    if (/^\[(\w+)\]\s*$/) {
        $key = $1;
    }
    else {
        $desc{$key} .= $_;
    }
}
die if defined $desc{'error'};

##</code><code>##

my $data=<<ENDS;
[room]
some text here, probably something
a few lines long

[wall]
another text here, probably something
a few lines long [sometimes with braces]

sometimes with a few paragraphs
ENDS

%desc = grep {$_} (split (/\[(\w+)\]/, $data));