Character Design can sometimes be tricky, challenging but it's always a fun thing to work on. Whenever you design a character for a video game or an animation or a movie, you have to put in mind one thing. What's the feeling of your audience about it? After all, you're designing a character for them to like and maybe identify with. You know you've done your job successfully when they interact with the character emotionally (love, hate, joy, anger...), whether it's a hero or a villain, cartoonish or realistic. So here's some tips I learned in my long career in character design :
1- Never settle for one design, Try sketching as much as you can
2- Think outside of the box, Don't be afraid to go crazy and experiment with your sketches
3- Never fall in love with your design, it affects your creative judgement
4- Don't wait for inspiration, just put your pencil on the paper and sketch mindlessly
5- Allow yourself to make mistakes
6- Most importantly have fun