The Amazing Race > RFF's Amazing Race: Design Challenge
The Amazing Race: Design Challenge VIII - Final Round Design Show on Page 50!
nrh2110:
--- Quote from: Pi/ on October 13, 2020, 12:42:00 AM ---
nrh2110 - Kyoto, Japan
Show content• Beginning in Japan is a unique twist; it gives more time for teams to be on the ground in Kyoto. I won’t judge the teams you decided to put in your cast, although they seem to be a good bunch. Teams will immediately have to go back to their last race and remember what Pit Stop they were eliminated at. It does play into the “redemption arc” theme of the season and could give us some flashback clips, so I think it’s okay. I also like the cultural tie-in of the manga drawings.
• The “two famous Italians” cryptic clue could make for some way off-base guesses if racers try to think of real-life figures and not the characters, but most should be able to figure it out in short order. We then have our first Roadblock of the Race, and it requires teams to quickly play two game levels. In my view, I’m only so-so when it comes to video game tasks on TAR. They can provide some good moments, but also could be just like watching Twitch, which may not be what people tuned into CBS want. More positively, the location of the task is of course very appropriate; there is a good amount of cultural relevance in this task.
• Teams then go to Ichiime Shrine for a quick doll arranging task. It’s traditional, cultural, uncomplicated, and has some potential for placement changes. Pretty much a perfect ARI task for a first leg, so good addition!
• The next clues eventually lead teams to the pagoda and they find the second red envelope of the leg. I really like how you addressed some of the stereotypes or assumptions regarding geisha, so I like how the task can be a positive cultural moment. Dressing and styling the geisha should be interesting, and dancing is usually fun and won’t be linear with 11 racers participating. The performative nature of the task means that teams will be shaken up right before heading off to the Pit Stop, which is advantageous.
• Kinkaku-ji then serves as the beautiful Pit Stop for the leg.
What I Liked Most: Japan is an incredible place to have elements of both modern and historical culture in one leg, and this leg did exactly that. Kyoto is a city that ought to get a visit and the design included a great sample of the locations and culture of the city.
What I Disliked Most: The segment of finding Kiyomizudera is a solid concept, but it feels like it should have been at the end of the leg. There are three mid-leg non-task clues in a row and while I understand their purposes, it could have been a bit smoother to make Kiyomizudera the Pit Stop- teams have to find their way there by their own volition and are racing there on foot, which could make for a more exciting ending.
Good work overall and good luck if you make it to the final round. :hrt:
--- End quote ---
Tnanks Pi. I think your main criticisms are fair, but I just want to say the main reason I had the placement of the Kiyomizudera task at that point in the leg because it didn't make sense based on the location of the roadblock and the doll ARI before it (if you look at the map provided, that illustrates it.
nrh2110:
--- Quote from: Kamineko on October 14, 2020, 12:32:15 PM ---
Kamineko's Comments
Hi nrh2110, these are my comments to your legs. :luvya:
Premiere Leg [Kyoto, Japan]
Show contentChoosing Kyoto as the Starting Line location and focusing the premiere leg on the same city is pretty daring, I say. I always have high hopes for a Japan leg, so hopefully you can impress me this time.
Love the Starting Line location. I think it fits really well for a Starting Line, especially in Kyoto.
The Starting Line Task is pretty solid I believe. I just wish you included the picture of the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Also, I believe this task fits better if it’s held in the museum, instead of in the Starting Line.
The first cryptic clue is nice. I believe teams would have a hard time to find out that Nintendo’s HQ is located here. But if they’re smart enough, they can just go inside the museum and ask for help from the locals.
The first Roadblock is nicely themed. I just don’t like that there are only four spots to perform the Roadblock at one time.
Onto the next task in Ichihime Shrine (a typo you made right there), which is a Hinamatsuri themed task is fine. I have some issues for this. First, that the shrine is way smaller than the Nintendo HQ but all teams can complete the challenge in one time, but you only provided four spots at the first Roadblock. Also, you used a picture of Ichihime Shrine that is located in Kanazawa, not the one in Kyoto, I believe.
The next location is pretty useless and can be skipped, because teams will only get a clue directing them to Kiyomizu-dera. Perhaps you picked Otani Hombyo because it’s near the next location, but I wonder why you pick the specific location, instead of other nearby locations like (for example) Ninenzaka or Yasaka Shrine.
Then teams have to go directly to a theater for another Roadblock. The concept is great because I would love to see a geisha-themed task happening. I am confused that teams had to dress a geisha, but followed by learning a dance routine, which was not really related. Perhaps you meant that they have to dress themselves as geisha then learn the routine? Because that makes more sense to me.
Finally they go to the Pit Stop at Kinkaku-ji. Nice location to serve at the Pit Stop.
For my final comments, I believe you highlighted Kyoto pretty well. It’s not a perfect one because I think you were rushed to submit this leg. Also, the latter half of the leg just seems pretty mediocre to me, because at the beginning I was pleased reading on your leg but it’s declining after the halfway of the leg.
Assigned Country Leg [Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei → Rotorua, New Zealand]
Show contentSince this is my assigned country to you, I really hope that you impress me with a side of New Zealand that I rarely see.
I like that you’re starting in Brunei. We’ve never had a leg before in Brunei, so I am really curious about a leg in Brunei as well. I have to say that the location that you pick, which is Rotorua, is not surprising, since Rotorua has some Maori influenced sights and many cultural sights as well in there. But let’s see if you can surprise me with your leg in Rotorua.
The first location is nice and well fit for the upcoming Roadblock. I really like the background story for the Roadblock, and that you took parts of the story as your Roadblock task. I just don’t like that you didn’t explain more about the music that they had to follow and you didn’t include a picture of the geothermal pool.
The next location is also nice. Although you didn’t have any task there, I like that the geyser fits really well with Rotorua.
Then, teams went to a Maori village. Although from the picture it seems to be a tourist attraction location, that's fine.
Your next task is another Roadblock, but it’s fine. I really like the Roadblock task since it fits really well with the indigenous culture there. I had watched this way of cooking in Gordon Ramsay’s Uncharted series, so I can imagine how this task would work, thus I really like it that you used this task.
Finally they go to the Pit Stop. It’s another nice location and really fit as a Pit Stop location.
For my final comments for this leg, I appreciate that you follow my suggestion and avoid the adrenaline activities, but still delivered a pretty solid leg in New Zealand. I just feel that I want to see more task(s) because it seems to be a pretty short leg. Another idea I kinda hoped you included in this leg was a task related to sheep since it’s an animal that fits well with New Zealand and I really love to see more featured in a race.
--- End quote ---
Thanks Kami, just a few things!
1. I think your criticism about having the SLT at the museum makes sense, I honestly wish I'd thought of having them run there for the SLT, so I think that's a reasonable critism.
2. I think four is enough, given how much time they have on each go, and for the players who aren't good, for the first few times their rounds may be shorter because they keep dying. But I'd be okay with maybe a couple more—I think having enough for everyone to play or even most to be able to play wouldn't be as interesting and wouldn't create as much of a staggering of teams that having four or maybe a couple more would.
3. Your criticism is fair about the ARI. I didn't have a chance to visit it while I was there so I didn't realize it was that small (also sorry for getting the wrong picture!).
4. Yes. I chose the Otani Hombyo simply due to its proximity to Kiyomizudera.
5. Yes. I didn't realize that they way I wrote it could be interpreted differently, but that is EXACTLY what I meant—they get dressed and then learn the routine.
6. I included information about both the music and the pool in my notes!:
--- Quote ---The main highlight of the music being played is the flute, and you can listen to an example here. As you can see in this picture, the hot pool isn't deep either, so grabbing the clue at the bottom won't be too difficult.
--- End quote ---
7. Your criticism is fair about the length, but I still feel that it would work for a full hour episode—especially since it's longer than the original Rotorua leg, and the Roadblocks are both multiple-part roadblocks that will take time. I actually considered doing something with sheep but I figured that that was just as expected as an adrenaline task. I really wanted to do a leg that really tailored to the Maori side of New Zealand bc iirc, the only task relating to Maori culture in the visits of TARUS (I may be wrong though, it's been a while since I've watched some of the seasons) was the tattoo one and I think that's something that's expected, so I wanted to do it justice.
Thanks Kami! Hope I get to see one more leg of comments.
georgiapeach:
Please note TAR 32 block 7-10PM tonight. All fine after that! :tu
MikeDodgers:
--- Quote from: Kamineko on October 14, 2020, 12:31:44 PM ---
Kamineko's Comments
Hi MikeDodgers, these are my comments to your legs. :luvya:
Premiere Leg [Miami, FL, United States → Venice, Italy]
Show contentSo you picked Venice, Italy. It’s really interesting since Italy is rarely featured in a premiere leg, so I have a high hope for this premiere leg.
Your Starting Line Task was pretty solid. I wonder if the production threw some red herrings, so letters for, let’s say: ROME, FLORENCE, MILAN, BOLOGNA, etc., would also be included there as well. The teams separation was okay, although I would prefer if you included the flight detail there.
You said that teams would have no money for this premiere leg, which was not good in my opinion. Because the money given was not also used for transportation, but also for buying their needs like food or maps. It was kinda cruel to not give teams any money at their starting leg.
Your first Roadblock task was okay, although you missed many things to explain more about this task. Where were the locations that they had to deliver the silk rolls to? How much would each location pay? Was there a possibility that they didn’t have to deliver to all five locations, but could already collect 75 Euros? Also, once again teams are not allowed to keep the money although they didn’t receive any money at the Starting Line.
Their next task was to search for a letter from a cardinal. I don’t really understand the purpose of this task. Maybe you could provide a link to all of the letters? This task just didn't sound interesting for me to read, let alone watch it on TV.
The second Roadblock just didn’t excite me at all. It’s just another translating task, although in Venice you should have so much more options and ideas for tasks. How should they know how to translate the phrase? Were they given a dictionary or anything like that? I simply don’t like this task, sorry.
Then there’s already the Pit Stop? The location was okay, although all the locations for this leg looked monotone because they looked like the same thing. Also, I believe you should be aware that we asked to make a 2-hour premiere leg, right? Personally, I just don’t think the amount of tasks would be enough to cover the 2-hour timespan.
For my final comments, I believe this time you wanted to do an Italian history themed leg, right? However, I think that you overloaded the leg with so many history aspects that I found them boring in the end. You picked Venice, but I just don’t really feel that you did Venice justice. Also, because this was intended to be a premiere leg, I would be really bored to watch it until the end.
Assigned Country Leg [Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam → Baguio, Philippines]
Show contentBecause this was gamer’s assigned country to you, I will let gamer gives his comments more thoroughly because he understands his country better.
The starting location was the same from TAR 15, so it’s not really new to see on TV. Teams were instructed to fly to Manila, Philippines, and there’s a Double Yield in this leg. We’ve never seen this happen before in TAR, so it’s pretty interesting for me.
The first clue was located in a post office, and there’s also a Fast Forward. I just don’t like the Fast Forward task concept. I know that you wanted a Switchback to the Roadblock back in TAR 12 where Rob & Amber were eliminated, but that task was memorable just because the teams involved were interesting to watch. For you bringing back this task won’t work for me because I find it boring, sorry.
The others should drive to Banaue Rice Terraces, which are located around 395km (± 245 miles) away. That’s too far for a middle leg driving! In Google Maps, it says that the driving duration is around 8 hours, so I just don’t think this leg is feasible at this very point. And it’s just the beginning of some more infeasible driving length, to be honest.
Then teams had to harvest enough rice to fill up a bag. This task was okay and pretty much fitted with the location they were in.
Then, they had to drive to Sagada, around 3 hours away… That’s more than 11 hours after they left Manila.
Your Roadblock sounded dangerous for me. I don’t know whether this kind of task is allowed by the locals since it involves a sacred tradition, I believe. Also, getting inside a coffin while being hung sounds risky if the coffin falls, in my opinion.
Then it’s followed by a Detour. For the first Detour task, were you sure back then to include this task? Because from what I read, teams should find a man or woman who committed adultery, which was just unacceptable. Although you did say that the locals were just action (which means they were paid to act), I just don’t agree with the task concept. I won’t comment more about this task. The second Detour task also sounded dangerous with going inside a cave without any source of light.
Finally they went to the Pit Stop, which surprisingly located around 4 hours away from the Detour location. Which means that this leg would take at least 15 hours of self-driving, and adding a Fast Forward at the beginning was a cherry-on-top of why I think that this leg was just not feasible to do whatsoever.
For my final comments, I think that this is one of your worst legs. But I want to applaud you for trying your best to design two legs in this penultimate round. I also really appreciate your tenacity for making this far and you should be really proud of yourself.
--- End quote ---
What more can I say except that I tried my hardest in this round, Kami. The premiere was meant to be a part 1 of a 2 hour premiere with part 2 being leg 2 (also in Italy).
betheactress:
--- Quote from: georgiapeach on October 14, 2020, 07:03:13 PM ---Please note TAR 32 block 7-10PM tonight. All fine after that! :tu
--- End quote ---
Thank you. I forgot this was even airing!
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