Checkpoints#
Week 4 · The Architecture of Mercy#
⚡ Live demo inside — you’ll drive it yourself
Photo: UCaetano, CC BY-SA 4.0 — a trail marker in the Swiss Alps
A checkpoint is an argument#
Every save policy answers one question:
when this kills you, what do you have to redo?
“Punishing” and “generous” aren’t a difficulty slider — they’re two different answers to that one question, and both are defensible.
What the gap actually is#
The same question, answered four ways#
| Game | Checkpoint policy | What death actually costs |
|---|---|---|
| Dark Souls | Bonfires, spaced apart | The walk back, plus every enemy in between |
| Celeste | Instant, per-screen | Seconds — the last few inputs, nothing more |
| Hotline Miami | Instant, in-room | The current room’s execution, restarted clean |
| Arcade classics | Lives + continues | The run — unless you pay (a coin) to keep it |
“Punishing” and “generous” are not vibes#
They’re two different amounts of a player’s time and progress, spent on the same mistake.
Photo: UCaetano, CC BY-SA 4.0
Punishing: owes the whole run back#
Generous: owes almost nothing#
Now feel it — same hazard, two policies#
Try it: two respawn policies, one hazard, at the same time
Punishing — back to the start
Ready
Generous — back to the last flag
Ready
Press Run the hazard — both policies hit the same hazard at the same instant, and only the respawn differs.
Both rows hit the same hazard, on the same click, at the same odds. The only thing that ever differs is where each one wakes back up.
Discussion for this week’s session#
what is a checkpoint actually forgiving — time, or context, or both?
when does generosity remove consequence entirely?
what would a third policy look like — neither punishing nor generous?