Jonathan Coulton on the character and the voice behind Portal’s GLaDOS

Songs help express the emotions present in the ending of a game – especially if the ending is a creepy one. Meet the people who helped bring Portal‘s (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) GLaDOS to life as musician Jonathan Coulton talks about what it was like working together with Ellen McLain and Erik Wolpaw on Valve Corporation‘s puzzle game.

Meet the crew after the jump!

If the eerie song that played during the ending credits of Portal (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) struck your fancy, then you may want to know a little bit about the man behind the music, Jonathan Coulton. In a recent interview, Mr. Coulton shared what it was like working working with the people behind Portal.

When asked what working with Ellen McLain (the voice actress for GLaDOS) was like, Mr. Coulton remarked that it was a pleasure working with McLain because much of GLaDOS’ voice seemed to BE McLain. Mr. Coulton also thought that Erik Wolpaw (Portal writer) did a great job developing the character of GLaDOS over the course of the game.

According to Mr. Coulton,  the creepy Portal ending song of was basically a fitting musical expression for a character that players had come to know really well over the course of the game.

As Coulton himself put it:

We know how to tell stories in movies, but we’re still learning how to do it in games. And that’s why this marriage of song and game succeeds: by the end of the game you’ve developed a relationship with a very complicated character. So when she starts singing, it feels almost natural.

If you want to know more about how Coulton got into the business of writing “Still Alive,” as well as what qualifies as a “nerdcore” song, feel free to visit the source link for the full interview.