Spencer Yao is a robot protagonist in SportSlam. He is one of the main characters alongside Apollo and participates in an underground fighting circuit.
Power: Ice generation limited to creating hockey equipment
Trope: Fighter
Spins: Ice/Hockey
References Used: Spencer Foo, Iceman (Mega Man), Big Boss Man (WWE)
Design Goal
Yao is a fighter first, with ice and hockey acting as spins on that basic character trope. I wanted his design to communicate all three ideas while still having elements that came specifically from his story.
His power helped narrow down the concept. Yao can generate ice, but he is limited to creating hockey equipment with it. Instead of simply making him look like a hockey player, I wanted hockey and ice to influence different parts of his design.
Spencer Foo
Hockey player Spencer Foo was one of my references for Yao and also inspired his first name.
Foo represents the hockey part of the design. Using an actual hockey player as a reference gave me a starting point grounded in the sport before I began combining it with the other influences.
Iceman
Iceman from Mega Man represents the ice part of Yao’s design.
The biggest influence is Yao’s cold-weather appearance. His fur-lined winter hat and ear flaps visually communicate cold and ice even when he isn’t using his powers. The blue and white in his design also help reinforce that theme.
Big Boss Man
Big Boss Man from WWE represents the fighter part of Yao’s design.
Yao participates in an underground fighting circuit, so I didn’t want the hockey theme to completely take over his appearance. He still needed to look like someone who belonged in a fighting story.
This influence also helped with the heavier, oversized clothing and overall silhouette.
His Mother’s Uniform
One of the most important parts of Yao’s design doesn’t come from any of those references.
The SPD uniform belonged to Yao’s mother, who was a police officer. She was killed by Nike, the mob boss who now runs the underground fighting circuit that Yao participates in.
That gives the uniform a narrative purpose. Yao isn’t wearing it simply because I wanted a police influence in his design. He’s wearing something that belonged to his mother.
It also visually connects Yao to Nike before the audience necessarily knows their entire history. Nike isn’t just the antagonist controlling the fighting circuit. His actions have already directly affected Yao and his family.
Combining the References
The final design is a fighter filtered through ice and hockey.
Spencer Foo provides the hockey influence. Iceman provides the ice and cold-weather influence. Big Boss Man provides part of the fighter influence and silhouette.
Then Yao’s mother’s uniform takes those outside references and connects the design specifically to Yao’s own story.
I don’t want character design to simply be about combining existing characters that I like. The references give me individual ingredients, but the character’s history, powers, and personality have to determine how those ingredients are used.
What I Like
The winter hat is one of my favorite parts of the current design because it immediately communicates Yao’s connection to cold and ice without requiring him to use his powers.
I also like having his mother’s uniform incorporated into the design. It gives something that could have just been an aesthetic choice an actual reason to exist within the story.
Most importantly, I think I have a recognizable foundation for Yao that I can continue developing.
What I Want to Improve
This is still an early character design.
I want to clean up the clothing and continue figuring out how the fighter, hockey, and ice elements work together. I also need to further develop the hockey equipment Yao creates when using his ice-generation ability.
As I continue developing SportSlam, I’ll see which elements of Yao’s design remain and which ones evolve along with the character.
