"Many of my apprentices have complained about having to do too many chores and not enough key forging. They are skeletons now They are probably right."
Don't worry- I'm still optimizing my puzzles, and I plan to scrap as much of the tidying up as I can without harming the story. Rest assured that Days 2, 3, 4, and 5 (?) will have a lot less crate pushing than day 1 (the assumption is that after 16 hours of back-breaking work the workshop is a lot cleaner moving forward, leaving the apprentice free to tinker with keys, locks, and the other mechanics I have planned.)
I'm glad my tutorial levels are in better shape now. Thanks for your feedback and I'm glad you liked my game!
The only advice I can really give for storybuilding is to read a lot of fiction. I read almost nonstop as a kid and so I have a strong intuitive sense for stories and writing. Once I came up with the concept (making keys from metal fragments) and made the connection to games like Enter the Gungeon and Hollow Knight which have identical single-use keys, the rest flowed easily from there.