The early Sierra games with non-interrupting text input were notable for this.
I recall playing Police Quest 1 and if you didn't walk around the car to do an inspection, you'd crash and die. All in the first 5 minutes of the game. I think you could also lose really early by not attending the police briefing that morning as well.
I like the angle Lucasarts took with the genre (no dying), but the absurdity and difficulty of the Sierra games also has a place.
> gets to design her own series of Quest games and faces all sorts of absurd puzzles
Haha, that would be awesome. Leaving for work in the morning? You need to make coffee (not the decaf kind) otherwise you'll miss your stop and get fired. Don't forget your laptop and badge at home either, and you'll need to make lunch. If you bring milk you'll die because it's spoiled (you need to throw it away, and also take the garbage out - if you just throw it away, it'll smell up your apartment and you will fail your date that night).
If you let someone tailgate you, they end up stealing a bunch of stuff, including your laptop.
At that morning's standup, you have to ask george about the feature he's working on, otherwise he'll spend the day playing solitaire and won't be able to help you tomorrow on the presentation.