Beware, "game" is a bit strong for my submission haha.
For yours, I think it could have been solved with a quicktime event, such as something falling to block off the small entrance / exit. Or perhaps that raised wooden area could have had a box on which the player had to push off to jump off onto the starting side; this would then create a platform for them to get up to re-enter that second area. Just a couple of ideas off the top of my head - I'm no level designer by any means so don't take this as gospel haha!