Referring to previous dissertations/projects to move forward

After coming across some dissertations from previous students on blackboard, it helped me to get a better idea of what is required. However, at this stage I am still a bit torn between two ideas, one is exploring character art, and I really want to do this to improve my own skills and to grow in my creativity for character design. I also think that this would be very beneficial to me, as I could branch out and improve my 3D, and learn Zbrush properly and become adept at both 2D and 3D character art. This would also help my portfolio. The other idea is to explore interactive narrative, following on from last year's Spatial Constructs module. I really enjoyed it in some way, despite not being an environment artist, I was very pleased with the outcome. I would love to develop a fully realised interactive story. I was thinking to create a completed interactive version of Othello, following on from what I did last year, however, introducing characters as well. There are a lot of games which I came across and some anime that also showed the kind of thing I wanted to do, which is have the environment, and then introduce the characters to the scene, including basic animations. An example of this I found recently, that  perfectly illustrates my vision, is Code Geass: Nunnally in Wonderland (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dRDhWE1ECc). Examples can be seen below of how the animation elements.

I really like the idea of doing something like that, and it feels like a complete project that is self-contained and can be presented as an interactive piece, however after uni I would really like to specialist in character design. So perhaps I should leave this for a side project and concentrate on developing my artistic skills further, improving my designs and furthering my learning. 

I will do this through practice, drawing as much as possible to improve my existing skills, as well as trying to develop my own style, which I feel has been somewhat a little lost lately, as I concentrate on realism. Case studies, looking at existing character art and analysing them to see what works well and what doesn't, along with trying to find out what makes for a good design. Establishing any patterns or what makes these characters particularly stand out. I could also carry out a form of research based on my designs, by posting them online in various places and getting responses/ critiques from others. Despite taking examples and inspiration from games I could also refer to people on the street with interesting fashion sense or paying particular attention to how they carry themselves, which will feed into their character and give an impression of the person. 

After reading a bit of Robin Ward's dissertation on the "relationship between form and function in creature design", it definitely helped me to form questions about my own project and get more perspective on areas to address and generally how to move forward. But, again, the question is more specific than just creature design, and this is something I need to address with my own question on character design.