We want our character to be cartoonish. We looked at Chuckie Finster from Rugrats for inspiration.
We started with a simple model for the proportions. This model was very rough and we were not satisfied. It did not look like a person. His head was too round, so you could only know what the front was, by looking at his feet. The second iteration looks more like we want our character to look. The inspiration is clearly visible, but not overdone.
We gave our character detail to stand out against the background. With more vibrant colours, the player will be able to identify the character quickly.