Hey Exit!
I have not heard of Elebits. I will certainly go check it out, thank you for the recommendation.
I do actually have a Prologue the player will play before they reach the house that will provide a similar purpose to what you describe. The prologue sets up a few items the demo already hints at:
What happened last spring? Why does the mom keep checking the freezer? Why is the dad paranoid about the breaker box? etc.
I plan to set up the story in a quick prologue while introducing the game mechanics. Think of it like a story rich short tutorial level.
Your version of "starting with a single object" was actually part of my original design and I plan to use some form of that idea in the prologue.