SNL Retreat 2015 Games Explained

I planned a mass escape game for SNL retreat which turned out better received than I expected. After the games, I realised I didn't do a debrief for every puzzle and because groups generally split and delegated work, not everyone knew what every puzzle was or how to solve them. I shall run through each puzzle in this post, and also share a bit about my thought process in designing each puzzle.


Overall Concept
I knew I wanted to make a puzzle-centric game, but I was worried that not everyone might like / appreciate puzzles. I decided to aim for a balance with some tasks ('Objectives') and puzzles, so that there is a greater team-bonding element as well. The trick was then how to weave both together in a coherent and understandable way without being too confusing, and also have some sort of storyline to anchor it. The result is what you guys played :)



#1 - Photograph
This word was given for completing the wefie task from any GM.

#2 - GuyFawkesDay (Difficulty: 1/5)
The phrase 'Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the gunpowder, treason and plot' was written, one word on each poker card, on the whole suit of hearts. If you keyed in this phrase into Google, one of the first results is the Wiki pages to 'Guy Fawkes Night', and if you clicked on it, the first line said '... also known as Guy Fawkes Day'.

The testers actually had some problem with this one, with guesses like Vforvendetta or being fixated on Guy Fawkes Night. But I think most groups had no problems with this, and quickly found the answer when they realised they had to fit the number of boxes provided.

#3 - Sound (Difficulty: 1.5/5)
This riddle was found in the starter pack:

My first is like a donkey
My second is a shape
My third is a magnet
My fourth inverts the third
My last is a musical note.
Together, I bounce off walls
Together, I move in waves

It can be solved two ways - the last 2 lines kind of hints at 'sound' being the answer, since it travels in waves and bounces off walls. The more straightforward one would be to solve each line:
First - like a donkey - ass (s)
Second - a shape - a circle (o) [This is a little harder]
Third - is a magnet - U shape (u)
Fourth - inverts the U (n)
Last - Musical note - a crotchet (d)

#4 - Morse (Difficulty: 1/5)
Stuck on a wall was a piece of paper

#4 .-- .... .- - / .-.. .- -. --. ..- .- --. . / .. ... / - .... .. ... ..--..

If you googled for any Morse code translator, you would have got the message 'What language is this?' - Morse. Straightforward and simple.

#5 - Sheep 

This word was given for completing Szehong's objective

#6 - Noon (Difficulty: 1/5)

Some groups didn't find this, but there was a small picture of a clock stuck somewhere, with the hands pointing at 12, and "(PM)" written at the bottom. What do you call this time of day? Noon!

#7 - Brain (Difficulty: 2/5 after clue, 5/5 before clue)

This was the substitution cypher, which all groups started with:

IU BENOP EO WJ EJOAYP PDWP CKAO XQVV

IU OAYKJZ EO PDA LHQNWH KB EO

IU PDEMZ EO PDA BENOP RKSAH

IU BKQNPD EO SDWP UKQ QOA PK OAA

IU HWOP EO EJZAAZ PDA AJZ.

A substitution cypher is simply a message that has each letter replaced with another letter. This replacement can be a fixed pattern of replacement as in this case  (count backwards 5 letters), or a completely random choice (e.g. A = C, B= Z, and so on).

Substitution cyphers can be solved in 2 general ways:

a) Observing patterns in how frequently some letter patterns appear and comparing with the natural language - e.g. 'The' appears very frequently, so a set of 3 letters appearing frequently may be 'The' (e.g. PDA in this case). Or knowing that 'E' is the most frequent letter, make a guess that the most frequent letter in the cypher is 'E' and see if that makes sense.

b) Using a cypher key - which was what you all got in this case with 'BENOP = FIRST'.

With the clue, all groups realised that the trick was simply to count forward to the 5th letter (e.g. B, C, D, E F : B = F!) and then decode the whole message, which gave a riddle (I put the answers in brackets)

My first is an insect that goes buzz (bee = B)

My second is the plural of is (are = R)

My third is the first vowel (A)

My fourth is what you use to see (Eye = I)

My last is indeed the end. (End = N)

#8 - Bottle

This word was given for completing my objective.

#9 - Post (Difficulty : 3/5)

Four pictures telling the story of a man opening an umbrella in the rain were stuck around the room. Not sure how easy this turned out, but it was intended to be moderately tricky.

The trick was to rearrange the pictures in the form of a story (e.g. He was walking with his umbrella; It began to rain; He opened up his umbrella; He continued walking), and notice that there was one letter hidden in each picture. In the right order, it spelt out P O S T. 

#10 - Bars (Difficulty : 2/5)

There were four fruits stuck around the room - an apple, a banana, a rambutan, and a starfruit.

I think one of the fruits dropped/was stuck in a difficult to notice position so some groups were left confused as to why they only had 3 letters. But basically if you followed the order of the fruits and took the first letter of each, it would spell B A R S. I hope you didn't spell anything else.

#11 - Cobra (Difficulty - 1/5)

A picture of a connect-the-dots cobra was given in the starter pack. I thought some groups may mistakenly put Snake instead of Cobra, but looks like everyone got it right.

#12 - Shuffleboard 

This word was given for completing Leroy's objective

#13 - Melody

This word was given for completing Clara's objective

#14 - Fish (Difficulty - 5/5)

This puzzle was my personal favourite. 

All groups received a series of dots like this:

?? What is this?? Fibonacci sequence? Some sadistic cypher with numbers to letters? How am I supposed to get words from this?

I don't think anyone knew for sure what exactly to do with it until they received the next clue around the 45 minute mark. in fact, I heard some groups massively over-thought it and tried to do all sorts of funny things with this scary-looking number array.

CLUE: "Look carefully at the numbers. Notice any recurring numbers? I'll leave it to you to connect the dots. No diagonals!"

If you had paused and taken a deep breath to examine the numbers carefully, you'll notice some numbers repeat - the numbers 7 , 16, 12, 3, 8, 4. With the clue to 'connect the dots', if you had drawn lines to connect the recurring numbers to each other, you would have got this:

I intentionally made it difficult to see at first glance... but if you look long enough, 4 letters should appear. 

Random trivia - the original version of this puzzle was to have a large picture with many tiny details, and a big caption that said 'Look Closely' 

Then instead of within the picture, the phrase 'the answer is fish' would be hidden somewhere in the words 'Look Closely'. After some thought, I decided this was a boring puzzle, and it was too obvious, thus I switched it up entirely.

#15 - Seasons (Difficulty : 1/5)

A simple riddle was stuck on the wall:

"You're hot then you're cold

Four times a year

Not in Singapore"

Think everyone got it fast.

#16 - Doodles (Difficulty: 4/5)

A series of little symbols and a grid of letters was found on poker cards of the Clubs suit. I don't have a picture of this, but the way to solve it was to realise the little symbols corresponded with the grid and basically spelt out a certain word.

There were two mistakes which I have to apologise for : The last two letters were switched up, something we actually discovered in testing but I forgot to rectify ; the first and fourth letter card was pasted upside down, so many groups had 'EOOELES' and were confused.

Some errors observed by the groups:

- Some groups assumed the number on the poker card corresponded with which letter the word was, and thus stopped looking for more cards at the 8 of clubs, and only had 7 letters. But the Ace of clubs had no symbol on it, so the word actually started from the 2 of clubs.

- One group thought 'D' was an 'O', as they were referring to a picture taken on their phones so it was a little smaller.

#17 - Linked 

This word was given for completing Jono's objective.

#18 - Cone (Difficulty 3/5)

All groups started with a strange number string in their pack. 

321478901236987407415963032145654789

This is virtually unsolvable by itself, unless you have a great sense of mind to automatically put them in a grid. I think it also puzzled a few people who tried to look for some sort of pattern in the numbers.

But if you had done your scouting well, you would have notice the clue tagged as #18 on one of the walls, and a number grid was there.

Further thinking would have led you to trace the numbers as they appeared on the grid - thus spelling out the letters (each separated by a zero) C , O , N, E. Tahdah!

#19 - Tangled

This word was given for completing Sherman's objective.

--

All in all, I thought it went pretty well, apart from the buggy puzzle #16. In designing the overall game, I wanted the game to be sufficiently challenging, but all groups should be able to complete it within the time limit. This way everyone feels a sense of 'closure' and achievement. Thus I decided on the gated release of clues to add a progressive element to the game, and indeed, most groups finished at around the same time. I won't reveal which group took how long so people don't feel bad, but the spread was like this:

66 minutes, 71, 74, 77, 79, 80, 81, 83

I have to take my hat off to Group 8, who completed everything with virtually zero additional clues from me. I was surprised when they suddenly came to me at the 65th minute and said they were done. 

Random Trivia: The GameMasters who tested the game, but had the advantage of having all the clues very close to each other, took about 30 minutes to complete the puzzles (without performing objectives).

It was a fun experience planning and running this, hope everyone had a good time cracking their heads over this! :D

Crazerk's Mythic Blackrock Foundry Healing Guide

Who is this for?
This guide will be useful to guilds who just began progressing in Mythic Blackrock Foundry (BRF) in World of Warcraft (WoW), to help them to plan and coordinate their healing teams. It will also be useful for new healers who are healing Mythic BRF - there will be pointers on how to approach the healing of the fight, when potential deaths may occur, etc.
I will be assuming you know all the mechanics of the fight, and you're using a typical strategy and your tanks know how to use their cooldowns accordingly.

How is this structured?
For each boss, I will provide 4 bits of information - how many healers you may need, when to use external tank cooldowns, raid cooldowns, and general healing approach and danger points.

Some definitions
I will use some terms throughout this guide which I will define below.

Raid Cooldown : Big 3 minute healing cooldowns that can heal the raid for a large amount. E.g. Tranquility, Healing Tide Totem, Divine Hymn, Revival
[Note: I generally don't like setting Revival as a planned cooldown, because it's much more effective as an emergency heal (a la Lay on Hands). Divine Hymn is also the weakest Raid Cooldown unless well coordinated with other healers]

Raid Mitigation: Cooldowns that can reduce damage taken by a group of players. E.g. Devotion Aura, Spirit Link Totem, Power Word: Barrier

Tank Cooldown: Cooldowns that healers cast on the tanks to reduce/mitigate damage taken. E.g. Ironbark, Hand of Sacrifice, Vigilance, Pain Suppression, Life Cocoon,

Danger Point: Point in fight where people are most likely to die.


---

Gruul
Number of Healers
4-5, depending on DPS. If you are hitting enrage, you need to go with 4. If your DPS is sufficient but it's still a progression boss, 5 healers would provide a better cushion.

When to use Tank Cooldowns
Assuming you're doing a standard strategy of 2 tanks, each taking 3 slices each before swapping, use a Tank Cooldown before every 3rd slice (i.e. 3rd, 6th and 9th). Do note that tanks should be using their own mitigation for the DoT damage after the 3rd slice.

When to use Raid Cooldowns / Raid Mitigation
There isn't a good time to fix raid cooldowns in this fight. If you need to, you can use one in the Rampage phase, preferably HTT as you need to be fairly mobile. Alternatively, you can wait till a smash lands, move into it and start channeling and ask for a Fox.
For Raid Mitigation, you can use it before a slice if you see that the raid is low.

Sample CD allocation:
3rd slice: Ironbark
6th slice: Hand of Sacrifice
9th slice: Vigilance, SLT

Healing Approach/Danger Points
- Tanks need to be kept up at all times, they take a beating in this fight. Watch especially before/after an Inferno Slice - if they mess up their personal mitigation, they may be taken really low.
- For the first 3 slices, try to pay attention in which order which 6 people take the slice damage. You need to establish the pattern and know which is the next group that is taking the slice. This information is important, because the danger point is when someone is low (whether from Cave In, Petrifying Slam) and he is taking an Inferno Slice next. Always watch out for the next group that is taking slice, and top them up FIRST before the cast even starts. The remaining people can be left low and topped up later.
- The above point happens frequently, as Petrifying Slam will be followed up with an Inferno Slice. So always top up the next Slice group after the Petrifying Slam pops.
- Best time to channel mana pot: Immediately after Rampage phase ends.

---

Oregorger
Number of Healers
4-5, depending on DPS. If you are hitting enrage (after 2 Roll phases, at the end of that third 'normal' phase, he will start doing massive raid wide damage), you may need to cut healers. I would generally recommend 5, unless you have a real DPS issue and your healers are solid.

When to use Tank Cooldowns / Raid Mitigation
The success of this fight, as a healer, largely depends on how well you deal with Acid Torrent. There will be 8-9 casts of Acid Torrent (usually 9), and you need a cooldown on every single one of them, whether it is a tank personal CD, raid mitigation CD, or a tank (external) CD.

If you do not have enough to cover all 9, choose a few casts to have no external/raid mitigation, and get the tank to use a big personal CD.

When to use Raid Cooldowns
If an Acid Torrent is coming up and some members of the raid are below 60%, you should use a raid cooldown. Otherwise, it's good to use one just before entering the Roll phase (if necessary), and towards the end of the Roll phase (around when he has 2 collisions left, can start a channel) just to stabilise everyone for the transition. (Note that unless you start the channel quite early, the same person won't be able to use a 3min CD for both end-Roll phase)

Sample CD allocation
Torrent 1: Ironbark
2: Hand of Sac
3: -skip-
4: Devotion Aura
5: SLT
6. Vigilance
7. Pain Suppression
8. PW: Barrier
9. -skip, with Raid CD after-
First post-Roll phase: Tranquility
Second post-Roll phase: HTT

Healing Approach / Danger Points
- It is generally beneficial to have a Mistweaver to stand with melee this fight, as many strategies have the healers out of range / LoS melee for some parts of the fight. If melee can avoid taking damage from exploding shards, then this won't really be necessary.
- Prepare to top up the raid fast after every Acid Torrent.
- Danger points in this fight: Blackrock Barrage from missed interrupts just before Acid Torrent, people taking more than 1 tick of Wretched Blackrock damage just before Acid Torrent. Be sure to top the lowest HP up quickly when these happen, otherwise it's sure death from Acid Torrent.
- Assuming you are doing the strat of one group covering the perimeter and one taking the inner crates for Roll phase, send the more mobile healers to cover the perimeter and the others with the inner. I usually do it with anyone else as a Druid. Not really necessary to be super mobile, just slightly easier.
-Best time to channel mana pot: Immediately after rolling phase ends, or immediately after moving from a Wretched Blackrock. You should have time to finish before the next Acid Torrent comes.

---

Beastlord
Number of Healers
4-5, depending on DPS. The temptation is to bring more healers due to how much damage the raid takes in the final phase, but the final phase is really a DPS race. You need to kill him before he tantrums a 3rd time or before you run out of room. 5 should be ok for progression, unless your DPS is weak, then run with 4.

When to use Tank CDs / Raid Mitigation
Not really needed for this fight, but you can use them for last phase as insurance.

When to use Raid Cooldowns
The first 7 minutes or so of the fight is largely irrelevant, healer wise. You can just DPS if you want and 2-3 heal it. The real damage starts in the Dreadwing/post Dreadwing stage.
You generally want a Raid Cooldown for the Tantrum he casts immediately after he dismounts Dreadwing. Then the compulsory Raid Cooldowns are in the final phase, for the two Tantrums he casts (use minimally one each).

If you want to pad meters, the latest you can afford to use a healing CD to have the same CD up for the last phase Tantrum#1 is about the start of Dreadwing. If you are on Tantrum#2, I think somewhere in the middle of Dreadwing is ok. The person who uses the Raid CD after he dismounts Dreadwing won't have it up for final phase (maybe only towards the very end).

Sample Raid CD allocation:
Post-Dreadwing Tantrum : Divine Hymn
Tantrum 1: HTT + Devo Aura
Tantrum 2: Tranquility + SLT

Healing Approach / Danger Points 
- While the first 7 minutes are generally easy, the main danger points to look out for are: people who take two stacks of Rend and Tear (definitely need regular attention, can also HoP them); Tantrum when people are 50% and below.
- After he mounts Dreadwing, another danger point comes when people take 2 or more stacks of Inferno Breath, or a big chunk of players (e.g. >5) takes Inferno Breath damage. Be watchful and try to dispel those with 2-3 stacks of Breath, on top of dispelling Conflagration.
- The Tantrum after he dismounts Dreadwing hurts. Heal hard, if you don't have a Raid Cooldown.
- Many deaths can happen during Fautline phase if people take multiple hits of Cannonball Barrage. Try to keep the raid topped to avoid deaths from this.
- In the last phase, be mindful of stacking up to minimise Rend and Tear damage. Assuming you got the Raid Cooldowns for Tantrum covered, it should be manageable if your DPS doesn't take too long to kill the boss.
- Best time to channel mana pot: Two here - immediately after Faultline dies, or after the post-Dreadwing Tantrum.

---

Hans'gar and Franzok
Number of Healers
4-5.  I generally prefer 5 as accidental deaths are very probable in this fight. Otheriwse, it is doable with 4.

When to use Tank CDs
You will need one on your tanks for Crippling Suplex if their personal ones are not up. They have to let you know. If you have many to spare, it may be a good idea to just throw one on the weaker tank every time you transition with movement (e.g. Smart Stompers into Random Stompers), as healers may not be able to heal while moving into position.

When to use Raid CDs / Raid Mitigation
- Second Smart Stompers - your raid may take significant damage at the start of this phase, due to consecutive Slams. It is generally good but not compulsory to have something prepared here. For channeling CDs, either ask for a Fox or start the channel the moment you move to the next Plate, and just interrupt it when you need to move on.
- First Random Stompers - HTT is generally the best CD to use here, due to the movement in this phase. Save it for some time mid way in the phase when Slam/Aftershock damage gets a bit unbearable, but don't delay it too long! If you cast it near the end of the phase, it won't be up in the final Random Stompers phase when you really need it. If you don't have enough Raid CDs, you may want to use a Raid Mitigation here instead.
- Third Smart Stompers - Around the 2nd or 3rd Plate in this phase is when the bosses would have jumped around and Body Slammed your raid up abit, so another raid CD some time here would be good.
- Final Random Stompers - Stagger whatever remaining healing CDs you have in this phase, when damage gets considerably higher as the bosses leap around more often.
-- To summarise, schedule Raid CDs during the Random Stompers phases, and if possible, during the 2nd and 3rd Smart Stomper phase. If you don't have enough CDs, use something like Rallying Cry / Amplify Magic for the Smart Stomper phases to get the raid up.

Sample Raid CD allocation:
2nd Smart: Revival
1st Random: HTT
3rd Smart: Tranq with Fox
Final Random: HTT, SLT, everything else left

Healing Approach / Danger Points
- The only real danger points should be Slam / Aftershock damage, if the bosses do it twice in a row, as the main mechanic is one-shot (i.e. Stamping Press). Be prepare to heal hard for those situations when boss does consecutive Body Slams (or as mentioned earlier, to have a Raid CD planned)
- Tank deaths are possible if your tanks do not use their personal CDs well to manage Crippling Suplex, so pay special attention when the boss casts that
- The general advice for progressing individuals/guilds is to aim to stay alive before healing others. Deaths come sudden and abruptly in this fight, so save yourself before saving others.
- Best time to channel mana pot - During Searing Plate phase - wait for a plate to appear in a lane, move to the safe lane, and start channel. You shouldn't OOM in this fight though.

---

Flamebender Ka'graz
Number of Healers
4. If you want you can bring 5, but there isn't a real need for so many.

When to use Tank CDs
When the wolf is Overheated and taking Charring Breaths, he may need an external if he isn't managing his personals well.

When to use Raid CDs / Raid Mitigation
Schedule one big raid CD for each Firestorm. If you have extra, you can stagger the second one after the first CD ends during Firestorm. For Raid Mitigation, you can use them either when the 4 wolves spawn (wait a few seconds so people are actually taking damage) or during Firestorm.

Sample Raid CD allocation:
Firestorm 1 - Tranquility, Divine Hymn
Firestorm 2 - HTT, Devo Aura
Wolves (if necessary): Revival, Spirit Link Totem, Amplify Magic

Healing Approach / Danger Points
- Firestorm is easily managed with Raid CDs, but try to throw a HoT or two on those people staying out due to Blazing Radiance.
- Watch out for players with slow reactions whenever a sword or fire line spawns. Those who take more than one tick will die on the 3rd tick, so top them up.
- Watch Molten Torrent CDs, and prepare a simple AOE heal if you have one to top up the melee after Torrent lands.
- The main Danger Point comes from the wolves - players are likely to die if they get Fixated by 2 wolves and stay still. Otherwise, the Fixate targets still need some quick and heavy direct heals as they get pounded by the wolves.
- Best time to channel mana pot - After the 1st or second firestorm, after Magma Monsoon ends, wait till she casts any of her abilities (Sword, Fire Line, Molten Torrent), and if it's not you, drink.

---

Kromog
Number of Healers
4. You should most likely need to bring only 4, as the DPS requirement for Stone Pillars is quite high, even for a well-geared group.

When to use Tank CDs
No real fixed moments, maybe when tanks are slightly low and a Stone Breath is incoming.

When to use Raid CDs / Mitigation
Grip Phase - You need to exit Grip phase with the raid at least above 60-75% HP. If you are unable to do so, you need one Raid CD during or near the end of the phase to top everyone up. This is because the boss sometimes casts a Stone Breath immediately after the Grip phase.
There are about 3-4 Grip Phases in total, so plan your CDs accordingly. If you use a 3 min CD in the first grip phase, it will be up for the 3rd grip phase. If you have spare CDs, you can stagger two in a grip phase.
Breath + Slam / Double Breath - Occasionally, the boss may Slam and immediately follow up with a Stone Breath, or even do two Stone Breaths in a row. This is fairly random but quite painful when it happens. Try to save a Revival or a Rallying Cry or any raid CD for when this happens.
Final Phase - You generally want one Raid CD for every Stone Breath if you have enough to go around. Otherwise, save the Raid CDs for when the Stone Breath is paired with something else or really hurts and players are in danger of dying. You will need to communicate and call these out. Having an addon to track raid CDs really helps here.

Sample Raid CD allocation:
Grip 1 - Tranquility mid-phase, with a Fox prepared in case Druid is freed early
Grip 2 - Healing Tide Totem mid-phase, with a Rallying Cry prepared  if a Breath happens after Grip
Grip 3 - Tranquility mid-phase, with a Fox prepared in case Druid is freed early
Grip 4 (if it happens) - Healing Tide Totem mid-phase, with a Rallying Cry prepared  if a Breath happens after Grip
Final Phase - HTT first, then Revival, then Tranquility, then Spirit Link Totem.

Healing Approach / Danger Points
- Breath+Slam / Double Breath are pretty random but may happen. Fix a healer to save his CD for this occasion particularly.
- Danger Points: If anyone is 70% or below just before a Breath starts, you need to spot heal him up (includes immediately after a Grip phase). If anyone is stuck in Grip for a long time and a Breath comes out while he's still in it, he should need spot heals too. During Rune of Trembling Earth phase, you need to spot heal people who take 2-3 hits of the ground rubble, as they may die to the next hit.
- Prepare an AOE heal (if applicable) for every stone breath. You may want to assign 2 healers to cover melee+ranged, and 2 healers to cover ranged+tank, to ensure everyone gets topped up.
- Best time to channel mana pot - During the second/third Call of the Mountain phase, get behind a pillar, and if he targets any other pillar besides yours, start drinking immediately. You will have more than enough time to finish for him to Call, target another pillar, and smash. Otherwise, when you dodge to the next pillar, start channel immediately. You should be ok unless you eat 2 Reverberations

---

Will add more bosses as we down them...

My Proposal Story

I decided to start blogging again, simply because I want to have memories to look back to in the future. This is the story of how I proposed to my girlfriend, Lee Sze hong :)

Brainstorming

I got the rough idea of what I wanted to do some time near the start of 2014. I watched a proposal video online of this guy who filmed a music video / movie trailer thingy for his girlfriend, and showed it to her via a TV at a restaurant, and proposed with that movie trailer. I thought it was a really cool and cute idea so I decided I wanted to do something like that.

After brainstorming a bit and tossing out some ideas, I eventually decided to film something with the girlfriend's best friends clique, her Cedar clique. I drew up a script and began approaching each of them, and to my relief, all of them agreed to help.


The Concept and Preparation

I decided I would rap, sing, and dance. The rap part was written pretty fast, as I have a knack for rhyming and writing nonsense like that. It just took a few rounds of practice to get the rhythm down and I was recording-ready.

The main problems were the song and dance.

For the song, I had no idea what song to sing, and I was drawing a blank when I tried to compose. I also didn't know how I wanted to deliver it - should it be recorded in a studio? Performed live? A mixture of both? A music video? Ultimately, my poor singing ability led me to the decision to just perform it live (poor singing on record sounds really bad unless I have super audio editing skills)

For the dance, I knew some of the dances that szehong liked at that time, so I went to look them up. After some thought, I decided to do a medley of 3 songs - Fantastic Baby by Big Bang, Fiction by Beast, and Wedding Dress by Tae Yang. The last of which was a dance solo... which was much harder than I thought.

I'm not very good at learning choreo, so I spent about 1-2 hours each night in my room going through the dance moves on Youtube tutorial videos, and painstakingly learnt each of the dances. The last dance, Wedding Dress, took about over a month to learn because of how complex the deceivingly simple dance was (for a newbie) - the moves required very sharp and precise and well-timed moves.


Preparation and Filming

The dance aside, I had to meet up with the Cedar clique to film their parts. The original plan was to find somewhere in NUS to film in, but Michelle offered her tuition centre so we went over there instead. It turned out pretty good, as we had a private room and could film there.. albeit with a light humming noise.

The skit part went relatively well, though we did have quite a few bloopers.

The hard part was filming the dance.

So I had filmed a dance rehearsal earlier on, and after consulting some people, I decided to create the illusion of a group dance. I went to google how to do it and ended up learning Adobe Premiere Pro, and spent hours playing around with the software.

I figured out what I needed to do, and filmed it subsequently with the help of Eri. It was a very tough few hours, as it wasn't easy to get the shots perfect. After many many takes, I finally had footage that I think would suffice.. and went home to do the hard part... editing.

Then I discovered a big problem I had. To give the illusion of the group dance, you need to film 3 separate shots on the same background. However, if one of the shots have a different lighting from the others, it becomes very obvious it's not part of the same scene and looks ugly. So the problem I faced was that because time passed after each shot (obviously), the sun was at a different position and lighting for each shot was slightly different. I had to spend hours trying to balance the light conditions and use effects to get them to all look like they are in the same scene.

I think by some time in July 2014, I was ready with the video. Now all that was left was to time it well.

Location

Apart from choosing the right timing, I had to think of a place. What place would allow me to screen a video, and perform guitar live? Should it be a public or private place? I subtly teased the girlfriend's preferences out of her over the next few months, to try to get the ideal setup.

Eventually, I decided to do it in NUS, as it was the place where we first met, and also because I had a good friend Eri who was still doing Masters, and could help us secure a room.


The Proposal

I decided to execute the plan one day after Valentine's Day. The other alternatives were on her birthday or on Vday itself, but i thought this would be too suspicious. I manage to persuade her to come down with me to NUS, to help Eri perform a Psych experiment.
This was fairly believable as we had previously went for a couple study before when we were still in NUS.

On the day of the proposal, I was so nervous! We went to watch a movie (i don't even remember what show it was now), then headed over to NUS after that. We also had a gathering with my relatives in the evening, so time was rather tight.

Honestly, at that point of time, I had no idea whether she would say Yes. I was thinking maybe she would think it's too early... maybe she wouldn't want. I don't know. I guess every guy who has ever proposed will have these doubts also no matter how sure they are already.

The 'experiment' started... we talked about random things... then the video started.

I wish the live camera recording our reactions didn't stop after 2 minutes :( But I think most of the memory is etched in my brain, and if I forget I'm penning it down now to remember :)

She didn't know anything was off until the opening credits showed 'for Sze Hong'... it was then which I think she realised it was a proposal. She kept going 'what is this!!'

I recall I kept glancing over at her throughout the video to gauge her reaction - is she smiling? is she having an awkward face which would indicate she was going to reject me? how do we have a smooth exit if she rejects me? Oh crap?!

But turns out she was smiling throughout, and squealed occasionally as she saw her best friends appear one by one in the video. And at the part where I danced, she went 'waaaa' as I guess the dance moves were executed to some level of decency (very hard ok!). I think she was impressed. I think.

Then came the live song.. it turned out a little differently from what I expected, as she wasn't really paying attention to the lyrics lol. I had a slideshow running of old pics of us, and they were mostly quite funny shots so she was whacking me more for picking unglam shots of her than listening to me trying my best to sing to the best of my (lousy) ability. But oh well! The song ended.

Then the video entered its final scene, a Ryan Higa-inspired 'revelation' moment, and the video cuts to me live - I took out the ring, went on one knee, and asked 'Lee Sze Hong, will you marry me?'

She said:

.
.




 'ok'.


..
.

HAHA YES. SHE SAID 'OK'. Then I was like, 'WHAT OK??!! WHERE GOT PPL SAY 'OK' ONE!'

She had a silly grin pasted on her face and she quickly corrected herself 'Yes!' and my heart fluttered, and I got up and put the ring on her finger after giving her a tight bear hug. Woo! Success!


The rest of the night went fairly well - we headed over to my relatives' gathering, and I think that silly smile never left her face. I was very happy - seeing her happy makes my stomach warm. I don't know why. I'm glad I infused joy in that little heart of hers, and I hope to keep her smiling like a silly fool for a long time to come.

--

Proposal video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njZ90zSth9c
Bloopers and BTS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAAHe-_ff8c