I used the landscape sculpting walls to physically bar the player from going certain places. By mimicking mountains, I can entirely halt the player from going out of any area I do not want them, while simultaneously creating an engaging land scape. I also used props to guide where the player went. They added a sense of going through a living area, which . Paths are merely suggestions, and as such are much better suited for games that do not need to be entirely linear. I still used it here, less so as a guide and more so as worldbuilding (environmental storytelling?). These all serve as immersive, diegetic ways to make a player go where the developer wants them to.
I largely made my checkpoint the same as the one in the video. Instead of a dining table, I put my checkpoint next to more of a sheltered bench. It also has a flag next to it representing the colour of the checkpoint (when it is pressed, there is not a yellow flag): blue. To make the scene a little more immersive, the area surrounding the checkpoint is furnished. I placed a few haybales and a crate of watermelons, a house, and some fences surrounding farmland. These create a lived-in impression. The extra bits add the atmosphere that this mystery game needs; it makes the player ask where the people have gone. It also just looks nicer than having nothing else but trees.
Checkpoints can add goals to a level, somewhere to go next. They can also alleviate challenge by giving players a way to save some of their progress. Checkpoints can make the player feel like they are in a safe space. Checkpoints in the valley level, I have to admit, seem fairly useless. The only way to die as of yet is not only not implemented, but at the very start of the game where no real loss is likely to be incurred. However, checkpoints are not usually added to a level without reason.
checkpoint area
path through the game