Early on, the team decided that rather than rely on old "Halo" themes, "ODST" would feature all-new music. "It was a bit intimidating at first," Salvatori recalled, "because in previous "Halo" games if new ideas weren't coming, I could always dust off an old one and give it a new spin. I was afraid that we might hit some writer's block along the way, but that didn't happen at all. Instead, we had the freedom to explore some new musical territory, and the ideas flowed pretty quickly." With the exception of the main player character, O'Donnell and Salvatori did not compose themes to represent characters. While the game's setting in Africa inspired some percussion pieces, the team was interested in a sparser atmosphere, which Salvatori described as "a bit darker and less epic".