My favorite game when I was growing up was definitely Chrono Trigger.  Lucca, an inventor of sorts, and Robo, a robot from the dystopian future, were great characters with meaningful interactions that have left a lasting impression on me throughout the years.  It wasn’t until college that I starting drawing robots and human characters juxtaposed together in my sketchbooks.  There’s something about cool machinery matching the aesthetics of a fashionable person that I find fascinating.  Early on in my career, I started fleshing out a world with this theme and even gave the project a name - Robot Quest.