I am a video game programmer in a game development focused graduate program. I was in a project called Card Link that ultimately got cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR792iXlzEY
Early on we were thinking of designs for a wind elemental summon, and despite being a programmer I submitted a bunch of concept art to my team. I used a lot of rabbits because the idea was that the wind summon was new and inexperienced like the player but very eager and energetic about trying new things.

This was my 4th design and I think it actually played a role in inspiring the final design in the video! This was after one of the artists submitted a feathered knight type character in case we wanted human summons. He looked heavily armored for a newby wind character though and it felt weird having fully human so I drew a concept for something that combined my rabbit ideas with his knight ideas in case we wanted an animal with much more humanoid qualities. This was also when we were discussing how to make it clear that your summon was supposed to be your friend and not purely a pet, and while I didn't feel it was necessary we felt adding more human qualities could be a good way to do that. I do like how he came out. I was actually going for somewhat of the effect that summer wars went for: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.co.....d224443132.png because that rabbit is awesome! Of course that wasn't the only inspiration. I also like a lot of long stretched out features to begin with, especially for rabbit feat and animal tails/ears.