

It is credited with earning Coulton a "cult status." A large majority of video game critics who awarded Portal game of the year mentioned "Still Alive" as one of the game's qualities, while Portal designer Chet Faliszek felt that it was part of why Portal was special. "Still Alive" has been met with significant praise, called "legendary" by USgamer writer Nadia Oxford and identified by Vice writer Jagger Gravning as the most famous lyric-based video game song. He found composing the Lego Dimensions song, "You Wouldn't Know", easier to do once he accepted that he would not be able to make a song as big as "Still Alive" again. out of control," and that the song benefited from the writing and its context in the game. When Coulton began work on a theme for the Portal-connected video game Lego Dimensions, he exclaimed that the song was a "phenomenon. Kim Swift, lead designer of Portal, explained that the song was chosen to play during the credits because they wanted to leave players feeling happy. Coulton found it difficult to get GLaDOS' voice out of his head. The overall process took about six weeks to complete. McLain's singing, which Coulton described as conveying "emotion in a non-emotional way," was modified to sound computerized. As GLaDOS grew more important to Portal 's story, McLain was asked to sing for the game, since she was a trained operatic soprano, given a scratch vocal version by Coulton. By this point, a few months before the release of The Orange Box, Valve's writers had created a large amount of backstory for GLaDOS and other aspects of Portal, which Coulton used to write the lyrics. After discussing what they should do, he and the designers settled on Portal. Coulton was a fan of Half-Life, so he immediately accepted. They asked him if he would like to write music for the company. Ĭoulton was approached by two Valve designers following a concert in Seattle, Washington. On the 9th of December 2022, the Portal 2 Soundtrack was updated, now including this instrumental and the original raw, unfiltered music.

The song itself is also present as a samba instrumental version through in-game radios at certain points in the game. She also exclaims that she is still testing, and references the Combine invasion of Earth in the Half-Life series. However, the song disputes this, with GLaDOS exclaiming that she was still alive and that things were a success. By the end of the game, Chell, the game's protagonist who has been misled and placed in life-threatening situations within the game's testing facility setting by GLaDOS, eventually defeated her. "Still Alive" is sung from the perspective of GLaDOS, used as the song that runs over the game's credits. McLain also provides the voice for GLaDOS in this song, an artificial intelligence and the game's antagonist. The song "Still Alive" was written by Jonathan Coulton and performed by Ellen McLain for the 2007 video game Portal. Jonathan Coulton, the composer of "Still Alive" A rerecorded version, with Sara Quin on lead vocals, appears on Coulton's 2011 album Artificial Heart.
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It was also featured as a free downloadable song for the Rock Band series, originally released on April 1, 2008. It has been featured in multiple venues, including at the 2009 Press Start -Symphony of Games-, a yearly Japanese concert event to showcase the musical works of video games. The song is displayed on what appears to be a computer console, playing after GLaDOS is defeated by protagonist Chell, with the lyrics revealing that GLaDOS is, in fact, "still alive." The song received praise for its humor and the quality of its performance. The song was released on The Orange Box Soundtrack on December 21, 2007, along with an exclusive vocal mix not heard in the game. The song originated in a meeting between two Valve developers and Coulton about him writing a song for the company, which Coulton accepted as he was a fan of Valve's Half-Life series, which is set in the same universe as Portal.

It was composed and arranged by Jonathan Coulton and was performed by Ellen McLain, who voiced the Portal antagonist and subject of the song, GLaDOS. " Still Alive" is a song featured in the closing credits of the 2007 video game Portal.
