I used to teach a comic and cartooning class in the summer, and I needed a sample character to show my students the various aspects of character design, story development, layout, etc. I came up with a way to help students create characters by writing random things on popsicle sticks, color coding them, and arranging them by category. The categories were: Physical Traits, Personality Traits, Occupation, Desire/Goals, Situation, and Creature. You simply take one or two sticks from each cup, and you instantly have a character. I pulled the sticks for my students to show them how it works, and came up with cute, short, naive, musician, wants to be respected, (I forget what the situation stick said), girl, and snail. I drew these out, and had the early version of Shelby. I then designed other characters around her, set the story in an insect high school, and began developing the series.
As far as famous inspirations, I would say Scott Pilgrim, Skyrim, the game Rock Band, and Adventure Time, to name a few...
